there are so many better established/known crim teams than this... QWP, WW @ Drew, HH @ R&T, SN @ WKW, and many more. suggest that OP do some research outside this forum as there really are many options

You’re damn right...
connection to billionaire etc, if these are not direct, i.e. your own parents, forget about it.
In law we call this connections you have no control over...
If your “uncle” (loosely used), knows so and so Lawyer, but it’s so far away, how to help you.
International firms require a steady stream of business, not your “uncle” who can give one or two personal injury cases and that’s it.
Unless your connections is from your parents, otherwise it’s a hollow connection. Useless.
You’ll come to realise this.

Are you trolling?

"Is it worth it to do x"

You want us to tell you that in spite of the ink spilled on the last 600+ pages, lawyering still is and will remain a path to, at the minimum, the upper middle class (the alternative being, of course, fantastical wealth).

You want us to tell you that the title "lawyer" still carries, in a superficial white-worshipping society that still clings to the neo-colonial structures it inherited, an elite and exclusive cachet to it.

You want us to tell you that being a lawyer will satisfy your parents and impress your Tinder hookups.

When you come back on summer and winter vacation, don't do the 2-week Big 4 gladhanding "I'm a rising third at Cambridge" so you can artificially boost your LinkedIn profile and take selfies with pretty high SES girls in tight bandage skirts with more UCAS points than IQ points for Instagram.

Go for internships at these Chinatown firms you named. See first hand what it's like to practise family and criminal law. Try and understand people who speak what you would hesitate to describe as English as you know it. In fact, try and talk to them. Understand that with your privileged, wealthy background, it will be some time before you actually comprehend why people live such different lives compared to you. You may never know why people don't just simply pay their fines or sell their houses. Surely people own more than one HDB, after all.

And above all, try and answer the question "Where are you studying?" as often as you can. Carefully study the reactions to your reply.

Know this: outside of the law, no one cares where you went to school, and the few that do probably can't find Melbourne or Sydney with Google Maps. That you had to take a plane instead of bus 156 to university is impressive enough on its own. You don't even need to bring up the honours (or lack thereof).

This is an elitist profession, grounded in theatrics and focused on outward appearances. It is not enough to say, "I am a lawyer" - it does not suffice the same way it does to say "I am a doctor" or "I am an engineer".

Where did you work? Where did you study? Chinatown firm, Australian uni.

It will be a long time before you make the kind of money your father did to be able to send you to uni, and even longer still before you dare boast to anyone that you are a lawyer.

tl;dr didn't graduate from Oxbridge, not asking about CC/BM/B4, don't engage in community spread of your mediocrity

The best reply I've read thus far. Thanks for this sobering perspective. God bless you.

tl;dr

10chars

Hats off to your grandiloquent post... you’re really a lawyer. I really read till the end...

OP here.

I'm confused. Why look down on criminal/family lawyers? They provide a necessary service.

Also, I did an internship at a family law firm in Chinatown, and they already promised me a job if I do choose to study law. It's pretty much guaranteed. The partner is a friend of my father. He also knows plenty of other Chinatown lawyers who will take me, and apparently Singapore has a shortage of specialist criminal/family lawyers. Getting a job is not a problem.

I'm aware that the attrition rate is extremely high in this industry, so I'd rather not sacrifice so much of my time into law only to leave a few years down the road. The internship was fun, but that likely isn't an accurate reflection of what practicing is like. I left at 5pm everyday.

What are you implying?

I'm also interesting in publication opportunities - do you mind sharing what avenues there are for publication opportunities please? Thanks.