Singapore law firms offering up to S$10,000 in pay to snare new, junior lawyers

They face fierce competition from startups, unicorns for legal talent amid border curbs

Sep 29, 2021

COMPETITION from international rivals, multinational corporations and startups paying top dollar for junior lawyers has driven some local law firms to raise the game - and pay - for this group of legal practitioners, while other law firms are keenly monitoring the development.

Boutique firm TSMP Law is offering S$7,000 a month to newly qualified lawyers who have just been called to the Bar, a rate that its joint managing partner Stefanie Yuen Thio has described as "market-leading". It is restructuring its pay scale to attract the best young legal talent, she added.

Allen & Gledhill (A&G), a Big Four in Singapore, posted two listings last week, with one looking for an associate with one to two years of post-qualification experience at a monthly pay of S$8,000 to S$9,600; the other is for an associate with three to four years of experience at a pay of S$8,500 to S$11,500, according to the government career portal mycareersfuture.gov.sg

A&G declined to comment on or confirm any pay hikes when approached by The Business Times, but there have been talks in the market recently that it has offered a 10 per cent to 17 per cent increment to its lawyers.

Checks on mycareersfuture.gov.sg showed that international law firm Allen & Overy has four listings for lawyers at a monthly salary ranging from S$10,000 to S$20,000. The openings call for applicants with one to four years of experience and are qualified to practise in certain foreign jurisdictions.

Hogan Lovells, another international law firm, has a listing for associate with two to four years of experience working in litigation or investigations. Lawyers can expect a monthly salary of S$14,000 to S$18,500 for the role at its investigations, white collar and fraud team.

Stephenson Harwood's associate listing that offers a monthly pay of S$12,600 to S$15,800 to those with one to three years of experience of institutional and international arbitration proceedings has attracted 20 applications through the job platform since Sept 22.

Sidley Austin is hiring an associate with one to six years of experience to advise both domestic and international clients on capital markets transactions in India and globally. The position comes with a monthly pay of S$13,500 to S$23,500.

TSMP's Ms Yuen Thio said Singapore's early success in managing the health crisis brought more offshore money into the country, but the closing of its borders, including to employment pass holders who had no assurance that they would be given the right of re-entry, also created an exodus of foreign talent. Both these factors have contributed to a supply crunch.

Veteran headhunter Zhou Qianlin said startups and unicorn technology companies in Singapore are also giving law firms a run for their money in the war for talent, as some of them even offer higher salaries than law firms.

UK technology company Dyson, for example, has listed on mycareers

future.gov.sg for a legal counsel position with at least three years of experience. It pays S$9,200 to S$13,800 a month.

Ms Zhou said the market has picked up in the last two to three months for newly qualified lawyers, as there is an uptick in demand and activity load in mergers and acquisitions as well as technology practice areas at law firms.

She is a director at the Singapore office of Jameson Legal, where she leverages 15 years of experience for the management of its in-house legal, compliance and contract solutions practice in Asia.

Coupled with that, border closures have made the movement of lawyers at international law firms challenging, Ms Zhou noted, and this has led to them paying more for the cream of the crop in Singapore qualified lawyers.

TSMP's S$7,000 pay is in line with the pay range offered by the Big Four, while the mid-sized firms are paying S$5,000 to S$6,000 for newly qualified lawyers and these and the smaller ones are the ones suffering in the war for talent, she added.

Although other law firms have yet to join in the fray, they are closely watching how this will impact their talent retention.

WongPartnership managing partner Ng Wai King said: "We have always led the market amongst the major law firms in terms of starting pay. We are monitoring what the other law firms are doing, and will certainly respond as we deem appropriate."

Dentons Rodyk & Davidson's chief operating officer and senior partner Loh Kia Meng said: "We have observed pay hikes in the legal industry lately, and we are monitoring the trend. For now, we have commenced our salary levels for lawyers and intend to make adjustments where necessary at the turn of the year.

"There is a trend of younger lawyers either leaving private practice to go in-house at an earlier stage of their careers. Also, young lawyers now have more options outside of private legal practice, such as fintech start-ups or legal tech firms. The recent statistics from the Singapore Law Society show the five-15 year category of lawyers continue to 'hollow-out'."

With more multinational corporations shifting their focus to Singapore in their operations (from Hong Kong and elsewhere), many in-house legal teams have been on a growth spurt, noted Mr Loh. "These businesses have seen the value of our young lawyers and are also more willing to match, if not better, salaries offered by law firms."

Rajah & Tann Singapore's deputy managing partner Rebecca Chew said the firm is also reviewing the salaries of its lawyers to ensure that it remains competitive for good talent.

She added: "In addition, we are going to roll out enhanced learning and development programmes for our lawyers to facilitate career progression and ensure that our lawyers can achieve excellence to the best of their abilities in our workplace."