Lawyer Salary

my other half secured a job in the uk. what are the possibilities of me finding an associate role from outside of uk assuming we marry and i'm able to secure right to work? currently not in big4 or international firm.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

It’s good that you’re taking steps to find out more about what you’re getting into.

1. A&G B&F is a tier 1 team and they do some of the best deals in the region. The team produces top notch work, and you will get great training. The SAs put in a lot of effort to train PTs. The assocs in the team are really lovely. Most international firms like to recruit from A&G B&F so it’s a great career launchpad.

2. Hours are excruciatingly long and it’s the worst amongst other B&F teams in SG. It’s not for the faint hearted. Deal flow is extremely high. Be prepared to juggle a lot of files.

3. The learning curve is very steep. You have to be independent to run deals and you fall behind if you don’t pick things up quickly. The partners are nicer than some batshit ones at other B4 B&F teams but can be demanding and harsh. B&F is generally a cut-throat practice area with high client interaction, tight timelines and necessitates an acute attention to detail but it also has one of the best exit options and most sought after practice areas for lateral recruitment.

Pretty accurate. To add on, the only real competitor A&G BF has in terms of rankings / prestige / standards is WP BF, that takes a very different style to training (which I am not comfortable with sharing here). If BF is your intended practice area, can consider applying to both and then asking some of the current practitioners in those groups how things are like there. From personal exp, they will respond well if you reach out sincerely. Just go on linkedin.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Pretty accurate. To add on, the only real competitor A&G BF has in terms of rankings / prestige / standards is WP BF, that takes a very different style to training (which I am not comfortable with sharing here). If BF is your intended practice area, can consider applying to both and then asking some of the current practitioners in those groups how things are like there. From personal exp, they will respond well if you reach out sincerely. Just go on linkedin.

yes b&f is my intended practice, i applied to all big 4s for b&f, got offers from all 4 firms and ultimately picked a&g over wongp because a&g has a bigger team and not as specialised as wongp. at least that was the impression i got during my internship at wongp b&f (even the partners said their b&f practice is quite specialised).

not sure if i made the right choice in all honesty, haha, since i did not intern at a&g.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Heard something abt him n some ex associate?

heard they tried to cover it up by putting her on sabbatical and asking her to leave eventually

Originally Posted by Unregistered

not sure if i made the right choice in all honesty, haha, since i did not intern at a&g.

If you’re worried over whether A&G over WP was the right choice for you and your concern was about culture, it’s most probable that A&G was the right choice. It’s widely known that partners at WP are extremely tough on associates, and it takes a lot of grit to stay in the team. Comparatively, A&G has nicer partners but brutal hours. If you chose B&F and you want to work in the top teams, you should expect nothing less but excruciating hours, your time becomes very unpredictable and at the mercy of your clients/partners. I speak from experience. This will also be the case in the B&F teams of MC and US firms. That being said, I like B&F because deal flow can be cyclical, most deals don’t drag on, work is fast paced and there’s familiarity in documentation (eg precedents, LMA, APLMA) but room to innovate (eg deal structuring).

Since you’ve chosen A&G, don’t fret over this. Just go in, try your best and learn as much as you can. It’s most important you build a strong foundation as a trainee and A&G provides you that - law school is nothing like practice and being academically excellent often does not equate to having legal capabilities required for practice. Once you qualify as an assoc, your options increase exponentially. Recruiters will be knocking on your door because B&F lawyers are often in high demand, especially from WP and A&G. If you want to move to WP as a NQ B&F assoc then, they would be jumping out of their seat to hire you.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

yes b&f is my intended practice, i applied to all big 4s for b&f, got offers from all 4 firms and ultimately picked a&g over wongp because a&g has a bigger team and not as specialised as wongp. at least that was the impression i got during my internship at wongp b&f (even the partners said their b&f practice is quite specialised).

not sure if i made the right choice in all honesty, haha, since i did not intern at a&g.

b&f is indeed quite specialised in general but the skills you pick up are quite transferable, imo. a&g banking is one of the best places to train, although you really need to be prepared for the hours. happy to speak to you personally - I've a throwaway account on Instagram @2000highlighters - can reach out to me there if you'd like!

If you are young, make the switch to A&G or WP M&A while you still can. The hours are similar but the bonuses and exit options are better. B&F is a sinking ship in SG.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

If you are young, make the switch to A&G or WP M&A while you still can. The hours are similar but the bonuses and exit options are better. B&F is a sinking ship in SG.

You wanna substantiate that? As a BF practitioner, be it cap call financing, trade fin, cap call financings, listco financings, all these areas have been and are booming in SG given the more facilitative statutory regimes and shifts in working patterns for MNCs.

The top BF teams are literally having to turn away work, even last year during Covid.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

yes b&f is my intended practice, i applied to all big 4s for b&f, got offers from all 4 firms and ultimately picked a&g over wongp because a&g has a bigger team and not as specialised as wongp. at least that was the impression i got during my internship at wongp b&f (even the partners said their b&f practice is quite specialised).

not sure if i made the right choice in all honesty, haha, since i did not intern at a&g.

It's actually the opposite. A&G, being the larger team, is actually the one with more specialised teams (like a dedicated ship finance team). The WP team takes on all the bread and butter banking matters and also handle the main financing areas like project finance and leveraged acqui fin, but they dont have the bandwith to handle the more niche areas.

Hi! Does anyone know how to take the SQE in Singapore? I thought Kaplan was administering it but I emailed them and they said they don't have such a course. I'm sq qualified but want to get UK qualified too. Many thanks to anyone who replies!!