Lawyer Salary

Originally Posted by Unregistered

anyone knows what the payscale is like for silver circle / magic circle / us firms in singapore? considering running away from a big4 sweatshop...

Not sure MC/top US partnerships take in people from local Big fours. Silver circle you might have a shot at. Typically 30-40% higher for each PQE payscale.

Are the big 4 firms any different from each other? Anything that distinguishes them (e.g. in terms of culture/type of work they do)... I only know that A&G the most Band 1 categories in the Chambers rankings than the others

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Are the big 4 firms any different from each other? Anything that distinguishes them (e.g. in terms of culture/type of work they do)... I only know that A&G the most Band 1 categories in the Chambers rankings than the others

depends on the dept ...

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Added to the list - CC/Bakers

Oxbridge/Ivies are historically undergraduate institutions. Many people go there for post grad because they did not go through the undergrad programmes but aspired to have the brand name on their CVs. Unfortunately, the experience is totally different. What’s odd are some who did undergrad at a lesser U, then go there for a short postgrad and thereafter play down their undergrad alma mater.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Oxbridge/Ivies are historically undergraduate institutions. Many people go there for post grad because they did not go through the undergrad programmes but aspired to have the brand name on their CVs. Unfortunately, the experience is totally different. What’s odd are some who did undergrad at a lesser U, then go there for a short postgrad and thereafter play down their undergrad alma mater.

yeah i agree. i was having lunch with my PhD friend in NUS yesterday discussing the same issue too. both of us are not in the law industry but by and large, what we agreed on was that it is much more difficult to get into the Ivies as an undergrad cos you are competing with so many people... we referred to one of my relative who did RI RJC -> SAFOS -> MIT

as opposed to having an NUS / NTU degree and doing your postgrad in Ivies / Stanford, UPenn, NYU, etc... the recognition and learning experience is totally different.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Oxbridge/Ivies are historically undergraduate institutions. Many people go there for post grad because they did not go through the undergrad programmes but aspired to have the brand name on their CVs. Unfortunately, the experience is totally different. What’s odd are some who did undergrad at a lesser U, then go there for a short postgrad and thereafter play down their undergrad alma mater.

That’s why such comments are made by people not within the legal industry. Everyone (in law) knows the difficulty of getting into Oxbridge for the BCL/LLM. By virtue of the BCL/LLM from Harvard and Oxbridge, you can already qualify to be an Assistant/Associate Professor in the local unis lecturing in law. The same strict admissions / and the competitiveness of entry can’t be said for other Masters degrees (for eg a MPhil in history etc) within Oxbridge.

If indeed those from lesser unis go on to do a BCL/LLM from Oxbridge and are indeed “lesser”, then explain why so many of the top lawyers, judges, have such qualifications in their CVs.

To be honest, I really admire law professors / lecturers. They don’t have to go through the ups and downs of legal practice, such as getting scolded by bosses, clients, etc, to a breaking point. Eg, getting thrown files.

I wish I was smarter and could have graduated in the top 5%, that would give me a better chance at being an academic, away from the difficulty of legal practice

Originally Posted by Unregistered

To be honest, I really admire law professors / lecturers. They don’t have to go through the ups and downs of legal practice, such as getting scolded by bosses, clients, etc, to a breaking point. Eg, getting thrown files.

I wish I was smarter and could have graduated in the top 5%, that would give me a better chance at being an academic, away from the difficulty of legal practice

They are equivalent to monks. More enlightened than the majority of us but chose the way with the least material compensation.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

They are equivalent to monks. More enlightened than the majority of us but chose the way with the least material compensation.

I don’t think they are paid little as compared with an associate.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I don’t think they are paid little as compared with an associate.

False equivalence. At every stage of the way they make much less

practice trainees > phd student
junior associate > phd student (remember, this takes a long time)
senior associate > dr/lecturer
senior associate > assistant prof
partner > associate prof / full prof