Lawyer Salary

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I rather email MoFo / Milbank / Latham for my upfront Cravath rates

lol latham doesn’t even pay cravath upfront. pls check your sources. you missed out on another firm that pays cravath upfront too.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

lol latham doesn’t even pay cravath upfront. pls check your sources. you missed out on another firm that pays cravath upfront too.

I hear MOFO pays more than Lathams. Can anyone confirm?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I hear MOFO pays more than Lathams. Can anyone confirm?

SMH did you read OP’s post... OP said Latham doesn’t pay Cravath upfront. MoFo does. If you’re at Latham and manage to “unlock” Cravath, you’ll be earning the same - Cravath is a market-wide pay scale.

What is considered White Shoe firm? Wikipedia lists some examples, but a few don't seem that prestigious to me (like Reed Smith) while many other profitable and high-paying firms are missing.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

What is considered White Shoe firm? Wikipedia lists some examples, but a few don't seem that prestigious to me (like Reed Smith) while many other profitable and high-paying firms are missing.

The White Shoes in Singapore are (non-exhaustive): Mofo Milbank Latham GibsonDunn McDermott Shearman King&Spalding White&Case Sidley Dechert

Reedsmith isnt…

Originally Posted by Unregistered

The only international firms that are training SG graduates are CC, Links and A&O, and they are definitely full up at this stage.

You can wait till post call and just try to lateral in as a trainee. Links has a trainee program where they actively hire newly called SG lawyers.

I heard that for A&O they will ask you to sit an additional year of Graduate Diploma in Law (GDP) before being admitted as Trainee in the firm, is it true? Does it mean then that I have to study for one more year?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

What is considered White Shoe firm? Wikipedia lists some examples, but a few don't seem that prestigious to me (like Reed Smith) while many other profitable and high-paying firms are missing.

Those traditional labels are irrelevant. From an associate's perspective, the most important metric is revenue per lawyer. That measures how much each lawyer in the firm is bringing in (a function of their hourly rate and billable hours) and determines how much resources the firm has to pay each lawyer and invest in firm initiatives. I prefer this metric to the following:

- Gross revenue - Could just mean you have a ton of lawyers (eg vereins like Baker/Dentons/DLA/NRF) but each lawyer might not be making much
- Profits per equity partner - Can be gamed by making up very few partners or having a large class of salaried partners
- Profits per lawyer - You can increase your profits per lawyer by cutting costs, which means paying associates less, hiring less support staff, spending less on training, travel and benefits, renting lousier offices, etc, all of which reduce associate welfare for the benefit of partners

According to the 2022 Am Law rankings, the top 50 US firms ranked by RPL are as follows (I have added the actual figures for those firms that I know have offices in Singapore):

1 Wachtell
2 Sullivan & Cromwell
3 Cravath - $2,035,000
4 Kirkland
5 Ropes & Gray
6 Davis Polk
7 Simpson Thacher
8 Quinn Emanuel
9 Skadden - $1,838,000
10 Paul Weiss
11 Cahill
12 Latham - $1,784,000
13 Fenwick
14 Debevoise
15 Milbank - $1,660,000
16 Proskauer
17 Fried Frank
18 Gibson Dunn - $1,613,000
19 Paul Hastings
20 Weil
21 Cooley - $1,568,000
22 Wilmer
23 Goodwin Procter
24 Sidley - $1,477,000
25 Cadwalader
26 King & Spalding - $1,450,000
27 Dechert - $1,446,000
28 Fish
29 McDermott - $1,415,000
30 Akin Gump
31 Willkie
32 Shearman & Sterling - $1,391,000
33 Wilson Sonsini
34 Kramer Levin
35 Schulte Roth
36 Orrick - $1,371,000
37 Winston & Strawn
38 O’Melveny - $1,360,000
39 Cleary Gottlieb
40 Vinson & Elkins
41 Morgan Lewis - $1,294,000
42 Morrison & Foerster - $1,239,000
43 Alston & Bird
44 Covington
45 Steptoe
46 Mintz Levin
47 Pillsbury
48 Sheppard Mullin
49 Fragomen
50 White & Case - $1,165,000

By comparison, the RPL for Magic Circle firms in 2021 are as follows:

CC - $927,000
A&O - $908,000
Linklaters - $888,000
Freshfields - $729,000

So the top 50 US firms are a cut above the Magic Circle financially, and that tends to be reflected in how well they can afford to remunerate their associates and pay for other benefits (firm trips, overseas training, hefty meal allowances, etc).

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Lol no one in SG is going to start w Cravath scale straight out of law school. Horribly misinformed of realistic salaries on legal and finance sides. Lmao.

Cravath scale = not supreme. You need to take time to get there. Remember - you guys are hired by bankers and PE professionals. Both sides make good money.

Personal background - worked in both MC law and BB/EB IB.

IB fresh grad yrs 1-3 = 12-16k base, 6-12m bonus in yrs 1-3. (220 - 380k all in)

Yr 4-6 = 20-25k base, 9-12m bonus (420 - 600k all in). Even more bonus for some elite boutiques.

PE = 20-30% discount on base against IB, but 15-24 month bonus. (E.g. Assoc = 15-18k base, 450 - 650k all in)

Originally Posted by Unregistered

**** leadership

You mean the head of bmwl mna Andrew martin? How is he as a boss

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Cravath scale = not supreme. You need to take time to get there. Remember - you guys are hired by bankers and PE professionals. Both sides make good money.

Personal background - worked in both MC law and BB/EB IB.

IB fresh grad yrs 1-3 = 12-16k base, 6-12m bonus in yrs 1-3. (220 - 380k all in)

Yr 4-6 = 20-25k base, 9-12m bonus (420 - 600k all in). Even more bonus for some elite boutiques.

PE = 20-30% discount on base against IB, but 15-24 month bonus. (E.g. Assoc = 15-18k base, 450 - 650k all in)

How did you get into IB from law?