civil and commercial litigation. i think these skills are transferable to a boutique firm. if i am doing ipo, then probably no. so i think if u intend to set up shop in future, u need to pick a good area of law. as for those mnc clients, they will stay with the mc firms and you need to look for new clients. you will probably get smaller clients who pay less, but this does not necessarily mean that you will earn less. being in an mc firm means that u can ride on their brand name and get bigger clients, but there is a trade off, and the mc firm takes a big cut of your profit. if u are on your own, u will get smaller clients, but u can eat the whole pie. because of this simple reason, you will be surprised to know how many owners of small firms making more than a partner at a big firm.

Can those who moved out to set up own law firm, care to share more?

Challenges
When did you move out
How did you get clients ?

chirp chirp

I can second and confirm this, including the figures - in fact the SG NQ with a SGD165k gross will take home closer to 150k cos SG tax rates are awesome. In the UK marginal effective rate at GBP100-125k is 60% cos of loss of personal allowance...

I'm at an international firm and decided to move to London HQ for a few years for career development but it's a terrible decision from a financial perspective cos of taxes. GBP is also getting fked every day - can't wait to move back to SG.

Some US firms in SG pay discriminate based on jurisdiction of qualification so data is more bumpy.

You really don’t know a thing about the Singapore market, or the international legal market for that matter. You’re still mired in the lame “NY > London > HK > SG” kind of thinking. Those were the kind of misconceptions people had when they were still in Law School. I urge readers to take everything you say with a fistful of salt. There are so many flaws and stereotypes in your various posts that I don’t know where to begin correcting you. Ivy Lawyer indeed.

(1) “Must partner with local firms” - ever heard of QFLP? International firms with QFLP licenses are able to practice most areas of Singapore in its own right. Take CC Singapore for example. They practice all areas of SG law except litigation, which is handled by Cavenagh.

(2) “it is far lesser” - Singapore MC associates are paid on a global scale which is at or close to parity with their global peers in London and HK (ex US), with mild adjustments for tax rate differentials. Post-tax, SG and HK associates actually fare better than London associates, with little more than a $1,000 discrepancy between the SG and HK. CC NY is forced to pay Cravath rates because if they didn’t, they wouldn’t be able to recruit any decent talent in the US market. Also, “lesser” is not grammatically correct. In Singapore, true “white shoe” outfits such as Milbank and LW pay full Cravath to their SG associates. Given local tax rates, SG White Shoe associates are far far better off than their NY counterparts. And of course nobody does better than the White Shoe associates working out of the UAE, who take zero tax and are often offered COLA on top of salary.

(3) “NQ” - where do I even begin... An “NQ” for the purposes of an SG Big4 is someone who has just passed the Singapore Bar. An “NQ” for the purposes of an SC/MC firm is someone who has just completed two years of rotational practice (ie: four half-year seats), or lateraled in from an SG Big4 as a Year 3 associate. An “NQ” for the purposes of a white shoe firm is someone who’s either just come in fresh off a JD or a mid-tier associate who’s lateraled in from a lower tier outfit (such as MC/SC) and taken a huge PQE haircut. I’ve seen even SG 6PQEs joining white shoe firms on the “NQ” scale.

LW isn't a "white shoe" firm, they have west coast origins.

Actually the international legal press doesn't even use the term "white shoe" very much because it's not a well defined group, and don't share much in common other than historical origin. Cravath is often thought of as the most prestigious firm in US rankings but is not traditionally a "white shoe" firm. Milbank is usually like a middling 20-30 ranked. Kirkland is absolutely tearing up the market.

It's all about the "global elite" now.

if you look through the whole thread, there are many people who say the same things as me.

what law school are you from?

100% agree. Word of caution - don't feed the troll. He obviously doesn't know what he's talking about.

Because obviously if you repeat something enough, it becomes true.

This poor fail troll living in his/her make-belief world. If the Chinatown level use of language isn't enough of a giveaway:

Go figure.