Lawyer Salary

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Oh please. He just was bragging about himself. His class of honours is irrelevant to the discussion. That’s like saying a non FCH won’t know a brilliant person when they see one. And if his point is “well, I’m such a brilliant person”, I’m not sure his humblebrag comes close to the praise he is endowing upon himself.

I’m a medicine student and this is hilarious.
People do well = bragging??

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I’m a medicine student and this is hilarious.
People do well = bragging??

Yes of course medical students lurk here and comment. Entirely believable.

Hi, this is prolly an uncommon question but hoping for insights from any corp/transactional lawyers who've successfully transited from in-house back to private practice.

Some background : corp associate in a non-B4/mid-tier firm and went in-house at around the 4th year mark. My current (and only) in-house role is in a local listco where I've been for slightly > 2 years.

Rn, I'm seriously contemplating a return to pvt practice, preferably in a B4 or a strong mid tier corp team. For personal reasons, a return to my old firm isn't in the cards for me.

My questions are:

1. How willing are B4 or strong corp law firms take in someone of my profile (as compared to lateral hires who have been in private prac all the while)? Does my 2+ years in-house exp confer any advantage at all compared to other candidates?

2. Since B4 and most large firms have a rigid track to JP, where would I fit along the rung towards JP? How much of an 'internal' pqe discount should I expect? Most of my peers still in private practice are at the cusp of JP within the next 1 to 2 years.

3. Is my salary likely to fall back to the 'internal' pqe band(s) within the firm itself, or do I have room to nego salary based on my current in-house role (which comprises base + rather wide variable bonus component)?

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Hi, this is prolly an uncommon question but hoping for insights from any corp/transactional lawyers who've successfully transited from in-house back to private practice.

Some background : corp associate in a non-B4/mid-tier firm and went in-house at around the 4th year mark. My current (and only) in-house role is in a local listco where I've been for slightly > 2 years.

Rn, I'm seriously contemplating a return to pvt practice, preferably in a B4 or a strong mid tier corp team. For personal reasons, a return to my old firm isn't in the cards for me.

My questions are:

1. How willing are B4 or strong corp law firms take in someone of my profile (as compared to lateral hires who have been in private prac all the while)? Does my 2+ years in-house exp confer any advantage at all compared to other candidates?

2. Since B4 and most large firms have a rigid track to JP, where would I fit along the rung towards JP? How much of an 'internal' pqe discount should I expect? Most of my peers still in private practice are at the cusp of JP within the next 1 to 2 years.

3. Is my salary likely to fall back to the 'internal' pqe band(s) within the firm itself, or do I have room to nego salary based on my current in-house role (which comprises base + rather wide variable bonus component)?

Thanks!

1. No advantage. Sounds like your peers are PQE 4/5, so you’ve only had 2PQE in private practice. Be grateful you don’t get marked down and hope that there’s no disadvantage.

2. You lateraled so if you want to be JP you better hope that your peers quit practice and you’re the last one standing. If you’re lucky you shouldn’t get any PQE discount but wouldn’t be surprised if you get 1 PQE discount.

3. Lol you are begging private practice to take you back after 2 years of in-house and you want to nego salary? Firms are desperate but not that desperate. Unless you can bring your ex list co to your new firm as a client or have some exceptional experience, think you should moderate your expectations

A common view in this thread is that making it as JP in B4 isn't a big accomplishment and even mediocre people get promoted if they stay long enough. Just wondering if this is true for all the B4? Is there a ranking of the B4 in terms of how easy/hard it is to make JP?

Since this can’t go on nus confessions, no choice:

I am Y from a delisted Uni. Even before the vitriol against overseas grad, I do not like my local uni counterparts. Especially in bar exams and law firm as a trainee, associate and senior associate. The class divide between local and overseas is acutely felt and the discrimination couldn’t be more real. I didn’t use to harbour so much bitterness until I had to coexist with local uni grads. The final straw was when a local uni grad stole my then gf after pretending to add me as a friend on FB and prying through my private life.

From then on, I swore never to be nice to any local uni grad. At every juncture, as associate, senior associate then junior partner, I always made it a point to be very exacting and demanding on local grads. Whenever they cried in my presence, I felt that there was finally justice in this world. Justice for the pain they had caused me and for the consistent nightmare and hurt.

So yes, while you all local grads hate overseas grads, secretly in our hearts, a number of us really dislike local grads and it shows. My peers are in international firms to influence the hiring decisions.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Since this can’t go on nus confessions, no choice:

I am Y from a delisted Uni. Even before the vitriol against overseas grad, I do not like my local uni counterparts. Especially in bar exams and law firm as a trainee, associate and senior associate. The class divide between local and overseas is acutely felt and the discrimination couldn’t be more real. I didn’t use to harbour so much bitterness until I had to coexist with local uni grads. The final straw was when a local uni grad stole my then gf after pretending to add me as a friend on FB and prying through my private life.

From then on, I swore never to be nice to any local uni grad. At every juncture, as associate, senior associate then junior partner, I always made it a point to be very exacting and demanding on local grads. Whenever they cried in my presence, I felt that there was finally justice in this world. Justice for the pain they had caused me and for the consistent nightmare and hurt.

So yes, while you all local grads hate overseas grads, secretly in our hearts, a number of us really dislike local grads and it shows. My peers are in international firms to influence the hiring decisions.

So to summarise your completely long winded tale, you’ve peaked at ‘junior partner’ and your peers are influencing hiring decisions in international firms so they are at the top of the food chain in these firms? Tells us all we need to know isn’t it?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

So to summarise your completely long winded tale, you’ve peaked at ‘junior partner’ and your peers are influencing hiring decisions in international firms so they are at the top of the food chain in these firms? Tells us all we need to know isn’t it?

Obviously a troll. But an amusing plot. Can be the script for the next nus law year 4 play. Do they still do those nowadays?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Hi, this is prolly an uncommon question but hoping for insights from any corp/transactional lawyers who've successfully transited from in-house back to private practice.

Some background : corp associate in a non-B4/mid-tier firm and went in-house at around the 4th year mark. My current (and only) in-house role is in a local listco where I've been for slightly > 2 years.

Rn, I'm seriously contemplating a return to pvt practice, preferably in a B4 or a strong mid tier corp team. For personal reasons, a return to my old firm isn't in the cards for me.

My questions are:

1. How willing are B4 or strong corp law firms take in someone of my profile (as compared to lateral hires who have been in private prac all the while)? Does my 2+ years in-house exp confer any advantage at all compared to other candidates?

2. Since B4 and most large firms have a rigid track to JP, where would I fit along the rung towards JP? How much of an 'internal' pqe discount should I expect? Most of my peers still in private practice are at the cusp of JP within the next 1 to 2 years.

3. Is my salary likely to fall back to the 'internal' pqe band(s) within the firm itself, or do I have room to nego salary based on my current in-house role (which comprises base + rather wide variable bonus component)?

Thanks!

1. Corp is quite hot right now, a lot of firms are hiring. Your experience is unlikely to confer much benefits unless you either (1) worked in a bank/private equity firm or (2) can bring the current firm in as a client. However, it confers no disadvantage as well, as long as you are able to make a case that your work is substantially similar to corp work in b4 (which is not actually that hard to do - since you only left for 2 years, and you were already a 4PQE SA at the time you left).

2. Where you fit along the rung depends largely on the type of in-house you went to, and your skill level.

Generally, you can expect to be delayed by 1 year (or so) compared to your peers. This may not represent a PQE discount, but the bosses need to know you can work well (since you are new). It's like lateral-ing in from any firm, you'll need more time to convince them to make you JP as opposed to an internal candidate. However, since SA salaries top out around 5PQE-6PQE (until they make partner), you need to assume that, effectively, you will be at top SA-scale for maybe 1 year more.

Unless of course, you can bring in business, or you prove to be as good as your peers at 6PQE. It's easier to do that in Corp, since 4PQE and 6PQE work is quite similar.

3. Salaries after a certain PQE are generally a black box, that is based on how much the partners like you, and what you can bring to the firm.

However, if you have not been keeping up with the news, the payscale has actually increased for lawyers in the larger firms, so your pay, even if it follows the internal salary scale, may not be lower than your current in-house. TBH, I don't know why you would not want to follow the internal payscale, since you'll likely be drawing less unless you're in banking in-house or FAANG.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

1. Corp is quite hot right now, a lot of firms are hiring.

How hard is it to move to corp from lit