Lawyer Salary

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Hello, Ong and Basil ex-CC man. Welcome to the forum.

Cavenagh law is a small firm and they have some serious toxic culture. Every few years theres a huge exodus as if their managing partner managed all of them out.

If cannot get scholarship then maybe your fch isn’t good enough..
Then maybe you don’t deserve the magic circle

Law is elitist and toxic, as the forumers here can attest. Boy am I glad I left for the inhouse life to become the client without getting sucked into the whole whirlpool of prestige w horing.

Making the jump was quite the surreal experience - when I was in private practice, I thought lawyers like myself knew everything. It's only after stepping out of the bubble then you realize how little lawyers actually know about how their clients work. Even those specialist law firms/teams that claim to be sectorial or industry 'experts'. a good amount of it is really marketing fluff; they're 'faking' their 'deep expertise' in a space.

may I check what is the market talk regarding the best big 4 liti team? I’m deciding between two offers from different firms.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Urgent advice needed. I am an associate specialising in restructuring, and have a couple of offers I am considering. Anyone got anonymous feedback on the ex CC guy at Oon Bazul, and the ex HSF counsel at Baker & McKenzie?

Any insight at all very appreciated.

I think Baker on balance. Hearsay the pay rise this year was very good, and they have been on high profile deals of late.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Cavenagh law is a small firm and they have some serious toxic culture. Every few years theres a huge exodus as if their managing partner managed all of them out.

can elaborate? thought its just because they lost their SC

Ascendant Legal good place for liti? How's the pay differential compared to NRF side?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Law is elitist and toxic, as the forumers here can attest. Boy am I glad I left for the inhouse life to become the client without getting sucked into the whole whirlpool of prestige w horing.

Making the jump was quite the surreal experience - when I was in private practice, I thought lawyers like myself knew everything. It's only after stepping out of the bubble then you realize how little lawyers actually know about how their clients work. Even those specialist law firms/teams that claim to be sectorial or industry 'experts'. a good amount of it is really marketing fluff; they're 'faking' their 'deep expertise' in a space.

At which stage of your practice did you move? and why did you not want to stay?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

If cannot get scholarship then maybe your fch isn’t good enough..
Then maybe you don’t deserve the magic circle

You're joking right? So many things wrong with this statement...

Firstly, a FCH doesn't guarantee a scholarship, or that getting a scholarship will be easy. The vast majority of Oxbridge LLM/BCL students (who essentially all have FCH) are self-funded.

Secondly, Oxbridge LLM/BCL offers only somewhat marginal benefits in terms of joining an MC firm if (i) you are going into corporate law (as opposed to perhaps litigation), and (ii) you already have an NUS FCH.

Thirdly, the majority of people who jump to MC/US firms don't have FCH or Oxbridge degrees - NUS/SMU/London/good UK 2.1 is 'enough' degree-wise. It's far more important to be in the right practice area and in the right firm/team, for the purposes of joining an intl firm.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

You're joking right? So many things wrong with this statement...

Firstly, a FCH doesn't guarantee a scholarship, or that getting a scholarship will be easy. The vast majority of Oxbridge LLM/BCL students (who essentially all have FCH) are self-funded.

Secondly, Oxbridge LLM/BCL offers only somewhat marginal benefits in terms of joining an MC firm if (i) you are going into corporate law (as opposed to perhaps litigation), and (ii) you already have an NUS FCH.

Thirdly, the majority of people who jump to MC/US firms don't have FCH or Oxbridge degrees - NUS/SMU/London/good UK 2.1 is 'enough' degree-wise. It's far more important to be in the right practice area and in the right firm/team, for the purposes of joining an intl firm.

Not OP. But in the old days it was a shoo in for nus fch bcos only the top 5% get fch.
Oxford BCL requires ppl to be in top 1-3% or prize winners for those in the top 4-5%.
With 10% nus getting fch now, the situation is a lot more competitive. And scholarship doesn’t need to be from Oxford direct. It can be from other places, such as scholarship for top alumni from smu, etc