Lawyer Salary

If it is indeed true that KCL awards 50% first class, then to prospective grads - u know where to go for your law degree. Since first class are held in so high regard in Sg, make a wise decision. No point crying over spilled milk. NUS awards only 10% first class.

I assume the US$180k salary for first years that OP is referring to is Cravath. Are you in Cravath? Could you share with us some of your tips or creds on how to land a job at Cravath?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

You must be a very lousy oxbridge lawyer. Having the “placing power” to generate starting salaries of 180000USD does not address king’s 65% acceptance rate of applicants and that 50% of law grads are awarded Firsts. When tom dick or harry from innova or rjc can’t get into a local law school because he or she scored AABB in the A levels, the backup option is to enroll in a degree mill where FCH is guaranteed upon enrollment.

Please check your facts before you go around making statements with these baseless numbers

% of first class grads in UK universities, NUS and SMU
://.straitstimes.com/singapore/nus-law-school-to-give-out-more-first-class-honours-to-reflect-rising-quality-of-students

Acceptance rate
s://.whatdotheyknow.com/request/law_number_of_offers_and_accepta#incoming-1097082

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I assume the US$180k salary for first years that OP is referring to is Cravath. Are you in Cravath? Could you share with us some of your tips or creds on how to land a job at Cravath?

Not at Cravath unfortunately.

Not that easy to get into but your best bet is to do the LSE/UCL/King's-Columbia JD because that opens up doors to OCI at Columbia or even Wachtell (heard pre-recession bonuses meant 2x 180k USD)
s://.linkedin.com/in/marco-wong-87128b47/
://.wlrk.com/Natalie-SY-Wong/

Alternative is Oxbridge-Harvard LLM, but that depends on market factors and you will need to hustle with connections.

Cravath scale is across most of NY's top firms and sometimes globally, so you don't necessarily need to be at Cravath.
s://abovethelaw.com/2016/06/salary-wars-scorecard-which-firms-have-announced-raises/

But be prepared to be a slave.

*Cravath, not columbia.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Not at Cravath unfortunately.

Not that easy to get into but your best bet is to do the LSE/UCL/King's-Columbia JD because that opens up doors to OCI at Columbia or even Wachtell (heard pre-recession bonuses meant 2x 180k USD)
s://.linkedin.com/in/marco-wong-87128b47/
://.wlrk.com/Natalie-SY-Wong/

Alternative is Oxbridge-Harvard LLM, but that depends on market factors and you will need to hustle with connections.

Cravath scale is across most of NY's top firms and sometimes globally, so you don't necessarily need to be at Cravath.
s://abovethelaw.com/2016/06/salary-wars-scorecard-which-firms-have-announced-raises/

But be prepared to be a slave.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

If it is indeed true that KCL awards 50% first class, then to prospective grads - u know where to go for your law degree. Since first class are held in so high regard in Sg, make a wise decision. No point crying over spilled milk. NUS awards only 10% first class.

Totally agree!

Ultimately legal education is a consumer product.
Kings rightly provided a better experience in the ease of obtaining a first.

As long as the number of applicants to Nus law continue to remain high, there is no incentive for them to provide the same product (ease of obtaining a first)

Unless people boycott Nus due to their too stringent honours criteria, if not Nus will continue to be strict with first class.

Then as consumers, what we can do is to find a correct institution who will give us what we want.

Thanks! Just out of curiosity, if I am from SMU magna and I go to Columbia to do a JD (self funded), do I have a shot at Wachtell? Or it is your first degree have to be Ivy League?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Not at Cravath unfortunately.

Not that easy to get into but your best bet is to do the LSE/UCL/King's-Columbia JD because that opens up doors to OCI at Columbia or even Wachtell (heard pre-recession bonuses meant 2x 180k USD)
s://.linkedin.com/in/marco-wong-87128b47/
://.wlrk.com/Natalie-SY-Wong/

Alternative is Oxbridge-Harvard LLM, but that depends on market factors and you will need to hustle with connections.

Cravath scale is across most of NY's top firms and sometimes globally, so you don't necessarily need to be at Cravath.
s://abovethelaw.com/2016/06/salary-wars-scorecard-which-firms-have-announced-raises/

But be prepared to be a slave.

My HK friends in Davis Polk, Gibson Dunn, Wachtell all compare their salaries with me. I feel poor whenever I have to disclose my salary in a big four. Is there any chance I can jump to an American firm from a big four doing capital markets? Just a 2:1 local single degree grad no connections, parents retired. 2 years pqe about to marry soon. Fiancé in law as well doing conveyancing.

Added to the list - CC/Bakers

Originally Posted by Unregistered

If you widen the threshold to include those who go overseas for their LLMs, the list gets longer.

Postgraduate degree in law
R&T: Lee Eng Beng (Oxford BCL)
Judiciary: Most High Court/CoA judges have LLM from Harvard/Cambridge
SMU: YH Goh (Harvard LLM)
NUS: Simon Chesterman (Oxford DPhil)
RHT: Walter Woon (Cambridge LLM), Roderick Martin (Cambridge LLM)
WongP: Tan Chee Meng (Cambridge LLM)
Essex Court: VK Rajah (Cambridge LLM)
Cabinet: Desmond Lee (Oxford BCL)
A&G: Stanley Lai (Cambridge LLM/PhD)
Clifford Chance: Harpreet Singh Nehal (Harvard LLM)
Bakers: Ai Ai Wong (Harvard LLM)

(Non exhaustive)

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Thanks! Just out of curiosity, if I am from SMU magna and I go to Columbia to do a JD (self funded), do I have a shot at Wachtell? Or it is your first degree have to be Ivy League?

LOL

You'd have as much of a shot at Wachtell as every other JD from HYSCCN (harvard yale stanford columbia chicago NYU), ie maybe 3% chance of success.

+/- maybe 2% of your chances for being Asian non-American (minus points for not being American and entirely ZERO reason to hire you, plus points for maybe a token diversity hire).

BTW your SMU manga won't be worth the paper it's printed on because 33% of the HYSCCN cohort are prolly some summa cum laudes from the ivy leagues.