Doubt it - they repeat these numbers to you through the interview process and before you sign the contract they make it crystal clear to you what PQE scale you will be paid at during probation

Good morning everyone, I am a young lawyer. Not in Big 4 but decent place doing litigation for a decent boss. Graduated with 2nd Upper. The hours are challenging so far but I accept this is par for the course and will only get worse. That is fine. I know this come with the territory.

I'm very passionate about litigation and I know this is idealistic but I am certain that litigation is it for me and what I want to do in the long term. While money is important, it is less a concern for me than experience and the purpose behind the work. Would it make sense to apply to go legal service to be a DPP? Does anyone know if it will give me a lot of litigation experience? I know there are quite a few SCs in the Legal Service and I wonder if we would get exposure to some of them if we joined the Legal Service. Goes without saying that I would love to eventually be SC but I also know that this may be a pipe dream. But one can hope.

Would it make sense joining legal service or would staying in private practice be the way to go to develop as a litigator? If so, should I try to move to a big firm to get exposure to SCs so that I can develop as a litigator further? Would be thankful for some frank thoughts.

I'm gonna be honest, seems like you just want to be a portfolio wh*re and whitewash a shitty job with AGC or Big4. That is completely fine (in fact that is recommended if you want to "eventually be SC"). However, AGC will not really help you in that regard (tbh, it's near impossible to be SC even with big4 or int firms).

Just wh*re out to the big4 (if you can), and try to last long enough to make partner or to jump to an int firm. Aim for the money, and the prestige (and bigger cases) will follow. It is almost a universal truth in liti that the 'better' teams charge more and can afford to pay more.

You won't get exposure to the "SCs in legal service" just by applying as a DPP, especially if you're not on the JLC track. You'll be several rungs removed from anything remotely close to an SC for the first 5-10 years of your AGC life. The AGC is elitist, the ones who get the good litigation experience are the ones with the higher grades (i.e. JLC track). Additionally, it's crim law, you'll end up doing alot of low "value" work prosecuting small-time criminals for voyeurism or theft or assault.

Try applying for AGC (Civ) if you really want to build your portfolio, but it's still not as good as private practice (again unless you're a scholars/FCH and you're doing a stint in civil service - as requested).

People say AGC is good because you get to run the file by yourself almost immediately (baptism by fire) but if you're already in litigation with a relatively good boss who gives you opportunities, just stay with them. If you suck at liti, you'll still suck (and not get enough big-time experiences) after AGC, and you'll have a problem coming out again as a crim lawyer (unless you're fine with crim or the possibility of a PQE cut). If you're already running files in your non-big4 firm, the main advantage of AGC evaporates.

God tier sh*tposting

my 2 cents FWIW. Start from the premise of doing what you like and do that. If it is construction law, or arbitration by way of examples, going public service is pointless. So must first ask if what you do whether in a law firm or in public sector or even in-house is what you want. And if you want to work with someone go for it, but not because they are Senior Counsel. Titles of bosses matter less than you might think in the long-term. If you want to go far, you must first enjoy your work. As another poster mentioned, if you enjoy the work and work hard, the rewards will come.

Any thoughts on wongp disputes?

Meat Grinder, most ppl don't last long and they don't expect you to last long. Their tactic is to throw a ton of assocs at the case and throw every argument (irrelevant or not) under the sun into their pleadings. You'll see alot of situations where each assoc is tasked to do a specific part of the pleadings, because they have too many arguments and assocs.

Do international firms here have dispute reso depts?

Yes of course. Like BCLP, Dechert, etc. They do arbitration

Lol, can’t believe those are your go to names

He’s clearly trying to plug for bclp. so which inf firms are good for dispute reso???

Check chambers.com

Wanjing ah wanjing

LMAO Don't so insecure la all of you. 99% of you Big 4 or local sinkie firm lawyers will drop your pants and agree to be s odomised for a place in BCLP or Dechert.

Baker best expanding hard!

how long do law firms take to get back to ppl after interviews? if it's been one week and no response, does that mean you've been ghosted or do they at least email to reject you?

Anyone read the study found here on senior counsel performance - s://melvinmok.com/writing/senior-counsel-appeals

I found it interesting. It was well-researched but incomplete and subjective so I would take the conclusions with a huge dose of salt. If only someone could do some form of sensible data set across the entire profession to allow for principled differentiation between lawyers and law firms and for us to know who in the market actually deserves their reputation and how much of it is pure marketing. So we can avoid all of the rubbish we see in the forums, including this one. It would also be nice to have an honest data-based assessment of our lawyers, law firms any day over self-glorifying arbitrary and meaningless legal awards that are a dime a dozen nowadays. It would also save me time from having to read the repeated humblebrags about how humbled some random lawyer is awarded yet another questionable legal award or ranking they pestered clients to nominate them for.

Freshfields, CC, A&O, HSF come to mind.

Probably would only use them for high-value multijurisdictional cross-border arbitrations though.

CC can litigate in Singapore due to Cavanagh law tie-up.

Freshfields Singapore don't waste time. Don't do very much. A&O is satellite for HK. CC is OK, HSF just for arbi work very niche. Baker these days seem be doing interesting work. Dechert is actually not bad, better than Jones day. Mayer Brown also zzz.

"Baker these days seem be doing interesting work"

What a joke

No vested interest as I am from a US practice, but I have heard they are doing good work including Honestbee, Universal tankers (part of Hin Leong saga) and also leading on the Pan Brothers restructuring. Still no SC of course but the younger partners seem to be doing well.

Yes all the younger partners are sc in making.

Giving senior partners there a run for their money.

Who are the younger partners that are good? And please la. SC in the making many can also claim to be.

u sinkie lawyers so bitchy siala
pwn each other, not SC yet say SC in making, then sb comment anyone can be SC in making
yalor fine lah wtv then ur boss is SC anot

Does Kennedys legal solutions pay international firm rates?

JLV
You think leh?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH A. Their actual partner "int" firm doesn't even pay the "international firm rates" you're thinking of.

My boss is Arvin Lee SC, king of business klass

Does anyone know what the NQ pay is for Dechert, Jones Day and Shearman & Sterling?

LOL
10 char

Does anyone know what the NQ pay is for Dechert, Jones Day and Shearman & Sterling?

You got offered? Then you should already know

£100k-150k

You got nothing better to do? Then you should keep quiet.

Dechert follows their UK scale which is mid Atlantic, unless you are US qualified

Jones Day, you and the world wants to know what’s in the blackbox, but they generally just offer a bump to your existing

None of them hire SG NQ

So does Kennedys legal solutions pay in line with big 4 scale? Thanks in advance. I don't know any friends there

What is black box scale? How much moolah

They pay around big4 but the progression pay is slower.

sinkie also can be UK NQ pls.　

Legal Advice
 

If you don't understand "black box", I would advise you not to bother applying for those firms.

Don't be mean. To the OP, Black Box means that nobody knows anything about it.. I.e. it's a mystery "black box".