Lawyer Salary

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Agreed with you on the ROI of law vs medicine. But that only applies for local unis. It’s kind of pointless to study law in a second tier UK/Australia Uni if you can’t get into the local unis. You will struggle when applying for a TC in SG compared to the local grads.

Whereas for medicine, any overseas degree on the second schedule is still recognised for practice in Singapore. Whether you are an NUS YLL grad or Monash Med, it doesn’t matter because both still start as a HO.

Would like to fundamentally correct this way of thinking.

Not too recent Aus grad here at an international firm doing corp and private equity work. There are more of us here and at other places than you realise. You may not realise it, but firms are actually hiring us.

The good thing about the legal career, especially now that many recruitment partner committees are made up of younger generations, including people like me in a few years.

We care only if you're good. That does not equal only NUS/SMU or Oxbridge.

Indeed many of the SUSS, Australian and former delisted UK uni students are doing very well now. If not before, then because they've stuck through and lateralled after a few years when fewer lawyers stay in the middle.

So, take comfort that a good lawyer can come from anywhere.

In fact, I see more NUS/SMU students struggle than overseas grads - because there're so many of you, and the student culture is so toxic amongst each other (though there have been quite a lot of nice batches lately who co-exist with the overseas students now).

Hopefully that changes. We could do with more support, comradeship and encouragement in the community

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Would like to fundamentally correct this way of thinking.

Not too recent Aus grad here at an international firm doing corp and private equity work. There are more of us here and at other places than you realise. You may not realise it, but firms are actually hiring us.

The good thing about the legal career, especially now that many recruitment partner committees are made up of younger generations, including people like me in a few years.

We care only if you're good. That does not equal only NUS/SMU or Oxbridge.

Indeed many of the SUSS, Australian and former delisted UK uni students are doing very well now. If not before, then because they've stuck through and lateralled after a few years when fewer lawyers stay in the middle.

So, take comfort that a good lawyer can come from anywhere.

In fact, I see more NUS/SMU students struggle than overseas grads - because there're so many of you, and the student culture is so toxic amongst each other (though there have been quite a lot of nice batches lately who co-exist with the overseas students now).

Hopefully that changes. We could do with more support, comradeship and encouragement in the community

Damn are you serious bro? I am a fresh 2:1 graduate from a UK law school that’s still recognised (Durham) and I didn’t secure any TC offers from UK/SG

I thought AUS/delisted grads are having it worse…

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Damn are you serious bro? I am a fresh 2:1 graduate from a UK law school that’s still recognised (Durham) and I didn’t secure any TC offers from UK/SG

I thought AUS/delisted grads are having it worse…

OP here - to help give you some perspective, now that 8 unis in the UK are delisted, there are at least 150-180 students fewer each year in the recruitment pool

note also that many sg UK students go on to become barristers/UK lawyers

therefore, naturally firms have to look wider and more openly to the available pool of candidates in SG, UK and Aus

for your last point, don't be discouraged! durham is a great uni. just get qualified first in an area you're interested in, and soon you'll develop the skills/expertise needed to move if you wish to lateral

many of the best and most interesting lawyers/people I know didn't have a straight path out of law school right from the start. these days it's very common to have unique trajectories

Originally Posted by Unregistered

OP here - to help give you some perspective, now that 8 unis in the UK are delisted, there are at least 150-180 students fewer each year in the recruitment pool

note also that many sg UK students go on to become barristers/UK lawyers

therefore, naturally firms have to look wider and more openly to the available pool of candidates in SG, UK and Aus

for your last point, don't be discouraged! durham is a great uni. just get qualified first in an area you're interested in, and soon you'll develop the skills/expertise needed to move if you wish to lateral

many of the best and most interesting lawyers/people I know didn't have a straight path out of law school right from the start. these days it's very common to have unique trajectories

Also, one more point -

Law students focus on the familiar firms that recruit straight out of uni

but what they don't realise is that after you get qualified in the area you're interested in, or indeed move to the one you like after 1-3 years, your options become far more opened up

most of the international firms in sg (e.g. KWM, King & Spalding, Walkers, etc etc) take on NQs after they've done their training at Sg/FLA/JLV/boutique/and int'l firms that offer sg ptcs/UK TCs in sg

Originally Posted by Unregistered

One of the smaller firms I interned at had this white horse. Man wasn’t give much work and spoke as though he was an equity partner of the firm, constantly joking how he wants to give the support staff a hard time whenever they made mistakes. He was extremely obnoxious, self-centred (sharing his personal life when nobody asked) and always declaring how he turned down TC offers from larger firms (both big four and international) to TC at said firm. Deep down, most of us know he was likely rejected from those firms and is only doing his TC here because he has no other options.

This is truly one of the best posts I have read here, and I wish he could read this

It’s a great pity

Originally Posted by Unregistered

This is truly one of the best posts I have read here, and I wish he could read this

It’s a great pity

Does he return to intern at the same place every year?

So are you a recent aus grad or a partner in the recruitment committee?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Does he return to intern at the same place every year?

Not sure about now, but heard from fellow interns from his batch that he likes to spend whatever free time he has "working" to justify why he performs poorly in his coursework and how unprepared he is for lectures.

Hi all. 2020 called, getting 6.5/month in a small practice. Is this very very low or something which the small firms are paying around this pqe level.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Hi all. 2020 called, getting 6.5/month in a small practice. Is this very very low or something which the small firms are paying around this pqe level.

What’s your working hours like? If it’s equivalent to the Big 4, then yes you are grossly underpaid