This endless foreign vs local debate is tiresome and never ends. In my experience:

Local grads tend to overstate how tough and 'rigorous' their education is and understate how many of them are still slogging away in small or mid sized sweatshop firms. Obviously the subtext is that they're much more academically accomplished than foreign grads for getting in and thriving in a pressure-cooker environment. But they're simply resting on the laurels of their A Level results which may not correlate with eventual career achievements in practice.

Foreign grads tend to understate how little they study for law school and overstate how many are working in international law firms. Obviously the subtext is that even without putting in the same academic effort, they can breeze through the tough selection processes for international firm roles and are equally if not competent in practice. But this seems to be borne out of a 'chip' on their shoulder of being seen as inferior.

This bickering has been going on for 20 or so years and neither foreign nor local law grads are going anywhere. So can you people just stay in your own lanes and focus on yourselves.

Correct, although most of the time I tend to observe that local grads are the ones who start the bickering, with the overseas grads defending their stance. I’m from a local uni by the way.

Actually law is very easy. You can just spend 6 months to train up a competent lawyer. The local v foreign uni is a class war between the privileged and the less privileged.

Dat's true. The Brits have it correct. Practice doesn't require a full law degree

Application to Big5, Offshore, In House
 

2PQE corp, small firm grossly underpaid assoc getting really tired of my current place.

I am thinking of moving firms from May 2023 onward. Notice is 2 months.

When should I start applying to the Bigger firms?

Aside, what salary should I expect if I wish to go in-house before I reach 3PQE

Just apply now? You can always discuss your starting afterwards. All the best!

Why so many people want to leave litigation to go corp and inhouse? So unattractive to go Court and argue? I thought that is what being a lawyer is

Do not ever mention the words 'passion' or 'desire' during the SUSS interview. Ask SUSS what is the drop out rate for both JD and LLB since the school first started offering these courses. Go online and find people who are studying or have studied in SUSS and ask them if they're getting the right amount of support from the lecturers. Find out the composite of the collective exams. What is the allocated weightage for project work, presentation, essays and the exams?

and to the others it doesn't matter where u graduated from. it's what you do with the degree and the knowledge. i graduated from KCL in 2014. Worked in UK and only returned last year for a short sabbatical. Will be returning to UK in Jan 2023.

It's only in SG where we bicker and compete with each other without every devoting any time or energy into discussing about the substantive matters of the law practice. Look at Malaysia and the British law students. They are co-operative, have respect for each other and try to make each day more fulfilling than the day before. Malaysian law graduates earn RM2300 a month. They can graduate from a 3 + 0, 2 + 1 or 1 + 2 option. So either study 3 fulls years in a Malaysian centre for a British degree or 2 years in Malaysia and the final year in UK or 1 year in Malaysia and 2 years in UK. I have never seen or heard any Malaysian student or law graduate look down or talk down to fellow Malaysians from the lower ranked unis.

The same applies to British students. You have paralegals becoming solicitors and even barriester via the longer route by taking the Cilex and other newer targetted courses aimed for these mature students. I have never seen or heard any British person speak ill about another person due to them having graduated from a lower ranked uni based on the conventional wisdom or the usual rankings that are released every year.

Honestly, I would like to look at your faces and see you chaps in person especially the usual suspects who always throw vitriol at others. Hope that day comes soon.

Brits are not so boliao to argue over unis. Because sinkies are academics obsessed. But they will absolutely talk smack online about the firms you're in. Just take a gander at the Roll On Friday or Legal Cheek comment sections.

And no one cares about Malaysia. It's a second rate corrupt and racist country facing a brain drain and middle income trap. You Malaysian ah?

Should I (3PQE) stay in a B4 M&A team or move over to one of the smaller foreign law alliance tie ups. What are the prospects of landing a full international firm spot?