Lawyer Salary

Originally Posted by Unregistered

That's true. I haven't heard of any fresh grads hired as in house counsels. In house have plenty of candidates to pick from. Happy to hear if anyone knows of fresh grads hired in house, esp local fresh grads.

The general consensus is that companies do favour candidates who have already qualified. But there are a (very) few positions which do seem to be open to fresh grads from time to time.

Société Générale was looking for a "new or recent graduate" as a legal trainee earlier this year and the ad specified that the candidate should have "less than 1 year of working experience". They didn't list qualification as a requirement. It was a one year contract though, not a perm position. The ad has since been taken down, presumably because the position has been filled (but the thumbnail can be viewed at ://singaporejobsjobsjobs.com/jobs/legal_trainee_-_12_months_contract_singapore_job-4/). They sent the info out to the local law schools too.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Erm can we just ignore Pippa he's departing further and further away from this topic. We get it Pippa you're amazing, smart, handsome, get the girls, and all that. Thanks for your wonderful contributions to this thread.

Btw earlier on some guy asked about the retention rates this year. Any associates/trainees at firms care to weigh in? Of course I'm not asking you to reveal what firm you come from or heard the news from. Just wondering what the rough numbers are like.

Let's put it this way. Majority of SG guys based in UK unis are always in their storerooms aka dorm rooms jerking off to porn thanks to fibre optic broadband.

The local market is doomed. They have already told first year UK based SG law students to go to cambodia, vietnam, china etc to look for work. They also told them to think about opening restaurants, being a journalist or a playwright etc.

What I find quite odd is SG students have to be from the scheduled list in order to be called to the SG bar? Whatever for? Why do you go through all the trouble to find yourself staring into space as far as job prospects in SG are bleak?

A Manchester Metropolitan law grad who is a UK citizen can work in the SG office of an international law firm, earn $6000 monthly, rent is paid for, work/life balance, enjoying life in SG, get a local gf so that she can assist him by settling into sunny SG etc and the dump her once he gets in touch with the expat night life circle.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Eh Pippa.. Start working then talk ok. Any fresh grads considering in house?

I've already started working. Yes yes. Take the easy way out. Sit behind a desk all day, look at contracts, keep adjusting the aircon and try not to fall asleep ok?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Haha oh dear what a nutcase

you laugh because you know its true. you nutty nut!

Originally Posted by Unregistered

hmm i think many of us are still fixated on trying to get a tc and, at the very least, pass the bar. are there many companies out there willing to employ fresh grads who haven't passed the bar?

when you are in NUS during the Part A and Part B and classes have ended and you're on your way back to the bus stop and you see many of your mates leaving in mercedes and bmws and volkswagen and audis, did it make you feel small?

Don't be. Nothing beats taking a bus ride back home. Ok?

On the point about the bar, I mean look, come on. Everyone knows that most students will just look for seniors to get notes and suggested answers and then memorize them and then regurgitate them in the exams. So just follow suit?

I love this forum!

Not just salary advice, but also dating tips too from an experienced SPG.

Thanks a million!

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Erm can we just ignore Pippa he's departing further and further away from this topic. We get it Pippa you're amazing, smart, handsome, get the girls, and all that. Thanks for your wonderful contributions to this thread.

Btw earlier on some guy asked about the retention rates this year. Any associates/trainees at firms care to weigh in? Of course I'm not asking you to reveal what firm you come from or heard the news from. Just wondering what the rough numbers are like.

Second year associate in a reputable mid-sized firm here. Retention rates were pretty normal (~80%) - but trainees were offered a starting pay much lower that what I got after getting called in 2015.

Generally I feel (and this is just my observation of the trainees / hearsay from my friends at other places) that the standards for getting retained are higher this year. Retained trainees are expected to perform well straightaway after call as a first year associate, no more leeway anymore after the first 6 months (3, if you count the time you REALLY start getting assessed by the partners). A trainee's aptitude for practice is usually pretty evident 2-3 months into the TC; IMO, getting retained in this shitty market where firms have their pick of trainees is as much about natural talent as it is hard work.

just to rub salt into the wound, major law firms in america are raising first year associate salaries from $160000 to $180000

:// nytimes.com/2016/06/07/business/dealbook/law-firm-salaries-jump-for-the-first-time-in-nearly-a-decade.html

over here in singapore, they are slashing starting salaries by $500

://.todayonline.com/singapore/fresh-law-grads-feeling-squeeze-weak-economy-and-competition

read and weep

Is the starting pay fall back to the 5k a month level on average? I believe this is reverse frontloading of bonuses, so that bonuses becoming discretionary (read: reduced) for new associates.

So the oversupply, instead of bringing down legal costs has seen junior lawyers squeezed even harder. And then they get burned out and determined to quit before 5PQE. then our Ministry of Law once again lament we have not enough senior lawyers, not enough community law practitioners. ...

Originally Posted by Pippa

Let me guess. in all of your time in uk, you stayed in your little dorm room the size of a HDB storeroom, you never ventured out cos you dislike the cold weather, you stayed indoors and blasted the heater to give you the 'SG' feel, you felt small around the british and other European nationalities, you went berserk when you saw China guys with white girls, you went bonkers when you saw nigerian guys with white girls, you went through the roof when you saw Pakistani guys with the PRC girls and just when you thought all hope was gone, you caught sight of the Malaysian student society and so you infiltrated that organisation in the hope that at least you could exercise your weight over them given the strong SG currency and other Number 1s that SG is never short off but the Malaysian Society told you exactly where to go and you ended up right where you started 'in that little dorm room the size of a HDB storeroom.'

I don't fit the typical SG mould. I broke out of it a long time ago. thats why dating wise I'm doing good, social life is also good and chances of getting a training contract is strong cos i have additional strong points.

come to think of it, you should have just stayed put in SG. why waste your time and parents money travelling to another part of the world only to retain the SG mentality and mix around with the same old group of people that you could very well have mixed with if you had stayed put in the first place?

you graduated as a lawyer but you chose to hide in your office. What a waste. All that UK knowledge down the drain

U sound like fkn amos yee. im no motherfkn lawyer but i mix with traders and bankers and the only ones that talk like that have the same small dick syndrome as u.

u can talk all u want but the only action u'll ever be getting talking like that is from your right hand. or left hand if that's your preference.