Does big 4, BM and CC pay a 13th month bonus (commonly known as the AWS in civil service)?

Maybe you should become law minister and limit the pool of lawyers. Theres just too many UK degree mill grads.

AWS is something civil servants pay themselves to pat themselves on the back for all the "hard work" done. You'll be hard pressed to find this practice in the private sector, let alone the legal sector.

In short - no.

Civil servants' salaries come from taxpayers' monies (ie your pockets and mine), which they will help themselves generously to. Law firm salaries come from the partners' pockets, and law firm partners would rather sell their grandparents than take a hit to their take-home earnings.

Thank you for the very helpful reply

last round limit already mah. you want to delist everything else meh? where then will all the buay kans with rich dads go to rubber stamp their legal education before pulling strings and getting into the firms?

Limit to oxbird, harvard, yale, stanford jd. Those that cant make it can go to nus and smu. We need high quality lawyers. Failing those bums at part a and part b isn’t deterring them enough.

They can continue to get their FCH LLB degrees and work as legal execs/paralegals/psl/app.

How much does the EY and PWC -linked law firms pay? More than BM and CC?

$2900 plus off in lieu for working on public holidays. Get back to work accounta...i mean lawyer! *crack whip*

I've been following this thread for a long time, and as a graduate from one of the UK 'degree mills' that are so maligned here, I'd like to speak up for us.

First, I think many of you misunderstand what it takes to get FCH from one of these schools. In most cases it's not a walk in the park. I didn't study at KCL (a school which for some reason everyone thinks churns out FCH) but having studied in London, I think a fair assessment of KCL is that though in truth its exams may not be as rigorous as the other London schools, the FCH graduates it produces are of as high a quality as those you'd find anywhere in the UK. Many of them go on to take the BCL/Cambridge LLM. Conversely you see PSC scholars at KCL who don't manage to get a first. All that is meant to say that it's not as easy as everyone seems to think.

Second, even if I'm wrong and in fact FCH from these schools don't mean anything, I don't know why people think Part A isn't a sufficient screen for overseas graduates. Correct me if I'm wrong, but around half of us failed the most recent Part A exams. So for each UK grad that's 'stealing your jobs', there's another UK grad that didn't even qualify to practice in SG. And that's not something that having connections can help with.

Third, it's not like all of us have connections. In fact I would say most people don't have connections strong enough to get them a TC with a big firm. In most cases, that "connection" means that you might get an internship that you otherwise might not. True, it's an advantage to get your foot in the door, but after that you still have to impress lawyers at the firm enough that they'd want to work with you. And we certainly lose out to Singaporean students, who by virtue of living in Singapore can attend open days, networking events, reach out to lawyers for coffee, etc.

But to be honest, I don't really think making all these comparisons between UK/SG is worthwhile. In some senses it's an apples and oranges comparison. UK grads might have an easier time in law school, and in some cases enjoy privileges and connections that make it easier to get a job, but Part A is difficult, and not being in SG makes it harder to connect with SG lawyers and firms. SG grads have a tougher time at NUS/SMU, may not have as many connections, but don't face the Part A obstacle and can network much more effectively in SG. Who's to say which group is better off, can find jobs more easily, or will become better lawyers? Take a quick look at the CVs of leading lawyers in SG, and you'll find that they vary greatly. Not everyone got FCH, or went to a top law school, or studied overseas. But each of them, by some combination of hard work and fortuitous opportunity, managed to succeed in their own way.

My advice to anyone, UK or SG grad alike, who thinks that the system is stacked against them, is this: take ownership of your life. Don't be resentful - that gets you nowhere. Everyone's story is different - there's no reason to think that someone's a better/worse lawyer simply because they're from a UK 'degree mill' or NUS/SMU.

Considering that EY PWC pay their accountant fresh grads 2.8k, they are obviously not generous with their salaries. I believe the starting pay for law firms linked to them would be about high 4ks / Low 5ks