Lawyer Salary

Originally Posted by Unregistered

And I might add - white shoe firms are increasingly starting to take in Singaporeans lateraling in from the MCs.

To anyone who says 500k a year by early 30s is not possible in law, pls go take a look at the cravath scale with lockstep bonus. You CAN hit 500k by 35. I’m not gonna make it because I lateralled in late and I’m a guy, but the girl next door who lateralled in early is about to hit S$500k per annum, at 33.

Law pays well at the upper tiers of practice, and it’s not as unachievable as some make it out to be.

Exactly. To the poster who said it’s not possible for people to be GM of a business unit by 35, you’re terribly wrong. Top law grads are supremely brilliant.
Those who leave industry go on to be top investment bankers, top politicians, etc.
It’s the brain. Not the degree.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Not the OP but from one of the big 4 and it's merit based where I'm at. Annual performance review will determine your increment (or lack thereof). Apart from 1 pqe, which is lock-step, your salary may be frozen for the following year, bumped up by 3-500, bumped up by 1k, or bumped up by more than 1k. There's a 4th year on my floor earning more than 12k (not really sure of the exact figure but she joined at a good time and achieved consistently good results)

Disgusting. Working in big 4 is looking like a less and less attractive proposition every year.

In the past, the unspoken bargain was that you sold your soul away to the firm for the first few years in return for a steady $1k lockstep increase annually.

Hope the international firms squeeze the Big 4 out of business together with their greedy local partners. B*stards.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Does anyone know anything about Quahe Woo & Palmer? Culture, salary, prospects...

It's basically run like the partners' personal old boys club. Good luck if you're entering as a female trainee.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Disgusting. Working in big 4 is looking like a less and less attractive proposition every year.

In the past, the unspoken bargain was that you sold your soul away to the firm for the first few years in return for a steady $1k lockstep increase annually.

Hope the international firms squeeze the Big 4 out of business together with their greedy local partners. B*stards.

Well... you don’t always have to do legal practice. There are alternative routes. Like investment banking where you start on 9.5k-12k (depending on which banks you join), you can always go fintech/ico/bitcoin firms who are all super funded and can pay, you can choose management consulting. So many alternative careers. If you’re smart, nothing to fear

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Top law grads are supremely brilliant.
Those who leave industry go on to be top investment bankers, top politicians, etc.

Haha. If any group can legitimately lay claim to being overpaid compared to their international compeers, its them.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Disgusting. Working in big 4 is looking like a less and less attractive proposition every year.

In the past, the unspoken bargain was that you sold your soul away to the firm for the first few years in return for a steady $1k lockstep increase annually.

Hope the international firms squeeze the Big 4 out of business together with their greedy local partners. B*stards.

Yup. It used to be a bad value proposition. Now it's just trash. With lockstep $1k/annum increase and lockstep salaried partnership out the window, there's really 0 value in staying in a local Big 4 firm for the long term.

Also, someone earlier posted that they give higher increments at the 3-5 PQE range. I can confirm this. It's just a trick to get you to stay even longer (because that's where the industry hollows out), don't fall for it. If you do, then you get trapped with almost no prospects of partnership AND your value to other firms will soon drop quickly, because they know you're moving out only because you can't make partner.

My advice? Get out at the 2-4 PQE range. If you're from a Big 4 law firm, you'll definitely have options (whether to in-house, a smaller law firm, or an int'l law firm is really about luck and timing and your own credentials)

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Well... you don’t always have to do legal practice. There are alternative routes. Like investment banking where you start on 9.5k-12k (depending on which banks you join), you can always go fintech/ico/bitcoin firms who are all super funded and can pay, you can choose management consulting. So many alternative careers. If you’re smart, nothing to fear

Can lawyers seriously go into investment banking without any finance background? I think these "alternative careers" only work for those with finance backgrounds. Otherwise, just stick to being miserable in the law firms.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Can lawyers seriously go into investment banking without any finance background? I think these "alternative careers" only work for those with finance backgrounds. Otherwise, just stick to being miserable in the law firms.

Who say cannot? It is incumbent on that individual to do a double degree for that matter

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Who say cannot? It is incumbent on that individual to do a double degree for that matter

I think the prob is not so much whether u have a finance-related degree or not but u having to show a demonstrable interest in finance.

IB accepts candidates from all kinds of degrees, even arts or PPE. But the competition is very fierce. Just go look at the IB forums or countless the eFinancial Careers articles.

If you've been sucked into the whole law firm career trajectory and have been padding your CV towards law related stuff, as is natural for most law students, its very difficult to suddenly to a 360 deg switch to finance suddenly and justify to the hirers why u did so.

Goldman Sachs will simply take on another (of 5000) outstanding grads who have shown fanatical interest in finance since day 1 of their uni lives.

To a lesser extent the same applies with management consulting.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I think the prob is not so much whether u have a finance-related degree or not but u having to show a demonstrable interest in finance.

IB accepts candidates from all kinds of degrees, even arts or PPE. But the competition is very fierce. Just go look at the IB forums or countless the eFinancial Careers articles.

If you've been sucked into the whole law firm career trajectory and have been padding your CV towards law related stuff, as is natural for most law students, its very difficult to suddenly to a 360 deg switch to finance suddenly and justify to the hirers why u did so.

Goldman Sachs will simply take on another (of 5000) outstanding grads who have shown fanatical interest in finance since day 1 of their uni lives.

To a lesser extent the same applies with management consulting.

Exactly. So if making money is your priority, then this is the path you should take.
Granted you can do a law degree, that doesn’t mean you have to be a lawyer.
You can always angle your CV towards IB/MC.
What’s stopping a person from doing that? Nothing.