Lawyer Salary

An SMU degree is only worth as much as the toilet paper i use every morning

Originally Posted by Unregistered

An SMU degree is only worth as much as the toilet paper i use every morning

i'm worried for your fingers since the amount of toilet paper you use is that pathetic, as pathetic as your bank balances

Advice to law grads / law students:
As someone who has been following the career paths of successful lawyers quite closely - below are the key indicators to predict how far a law graduate will go in his/her careers. Note: these are just indicators to predict success. There are many other successful graduates without such indicators but go on to be very successful nonetheless. But these are key signposts that will be good to have (correlation).

1. First class Honours
2. Dean’s List (the more semesters the better)
3. Valedictorian
4. Stint as a JLC
5. Oxbridge degree
6. BCL/LLM from a top university (Ivy League + Oxbridge)
7. Being placed on the Order of Merit / SILE Commendation List for PLC / Part B of the Bar Exams
8. Starting out career in an international firm/magic circle

The more you have the greater chance of success.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Advice to law grads / law students:
As someone who has been following the career paths of successful lawyers quite closely - below are the key indicators to predict how far a law graduate will go in his/her careers. Note: these are just indicators to predict success. There are many other successful graduates without such indicators but go on to be very successful nonetheless. But these are key signposts that will be good to have (correlation).

1. First class Honours
2. Dean’s List (the more semesters the better)
3. Valedictorian
4. Stint as a JLC
5. Oxbridge degree
6. BCL/LLM from a top university (Ivy League + Oxbridge)
7. Being placed on the Order of Merit / SILE Commendation List for PLC / Part B of the Bar Exams
8. Starting out career in an international firm/magic circle

The more you have the greater chance of success.

This isn't helpful in this forum. Of course these guys will succeed.
What we want to know is how a 2:1 from a 2nd tier UK uni , or 2:2 from local uni, with average part b results , and no connections can get a coveted job.

This is the average and mediocre demographics of the ppl that is actually active in the forum.

So please help us.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

This isn't helpful in this forum. Of course these guys will succeed.
What we want to know is how a 2:1 from a 2nd tier UK uni , or 2:2 from local uni, with average part b results , and no connections can get a coveted job.

This is the average and mediocre demographics of the ppl that is actually active in the forum.

So please help us.

Had a few friends like that. Usually it turned out one of two ways. One, you apply to hundreds of jobs, get no response, then literally give up and change degrees or try to work in another field.

Two, you get all and any vaguely law-related job possible to boost your resume. Usually courtroom staff ,like typists, or as a legal secretary, or even multi-year intern. Once your resume is sufficiently bolstered, the place you've been working at to prove your steel might make you a full lawyer, or you'll find a job elsewhere in a small to average-sized firm.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Had a few friends like that. Usually it turned out one of two ways. One, you apply to hundreds of jobs, get no response, then literally give up and change degrees or try to work in another field.

Two, you get all and any vaguely law-related job possible to boost your resume. Usually courtroom staff ,like typists, or as a legal secretary, or even multi-year intern. Once your resume is sufficiently bolstered, the place you've been working at to prove your steel might make you a full lawyer, or you'll find a job elsewhere in a small to average-sized firm.

That’s the nature of a law degree. With the exception of litigation, a law degree has little, if not no value, to corporate work in a law firm. Unlike medicine where a medical doctor is held in very high regard regardless of the class of Honours (simply because medicine doesn’t make that distinction), law is very image / reputation driven. Top clients only want to pay top dollar to a law firm that has a string of top Ivy League/Oxbridge lawyers.

In short, if you come from a third rated university, you should either quit or go do a LLM from an Ivy League / Oxbridge but bear in mind that recent admission pattern shows you need to be top 5% of cohort for LLB and multiple prizes for postgrad law in Oxbridge. Even so this is no guarantee. I’ve seen top first class getting rejected by Oxbridge. Harvard admission is slightly less academic based and has more flexibility.

Other than that, if you have a lot of money and are thinking of going overseas, do medicine. It’s a more secure career. Alternatively try applying for postgrad medicine if your law career doesn’t work out.

Law is so reputation based and so much emphasis is placed on brand name/ glamour and prestige that it’s very hard to do well in the industry without outstanding academics.

My pupil master Davinder Singh was only a second lower from NUS.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

My pupil master Davinder Singh was only a second lower from NUS.

from what i observe, i believe the demographics back then and today is very much different... as there are more supply of lawyers, people has the luxury to choose so long they have the money to afford...

hence the even greater disparity between uni and class of honors

Originally Posted by Unregistered

My pupil master Davinder Singh was only a second lower from NUS.

He won the Jessup... That's a higher honour than any FCH

Originally Posted by Unregistered

He won the Jessup... That's a higher honour than any FCH

be that as it may, any reason why a Jessup winner is not getting at least a 2nd upper? bell curve?? or structure of academic curriculum isn't in line with real life?