International firm moves (February 2019)

“Am I too junior to consider an international firm move?” That is a common question directed at us by young lawyers. Indeed, there are limited opportunities for newly-qualified lawyers and more vacancies open up when you have at least 1-2 years of PQE under your belt – as seen from the three 2017-called hires in the table below. The most probable reason is because a freshly-called Singapore lawyer having only done 6 months (for a local Singapore graduate) or 12 months (for an overseas graduate) would still be considered a trainee solicitor in a UK firm (where the training contract stretches across 24 months and involves several seat/department rotations). Similar logic applies to US firms, which typically apply a multi-year PQE discount to Singapore lawyers. Administratively, it is not easy to justify the hiring of a trainee when there is an ample supply of candidates back in the UK/US offices who will be very keen to do an overseas seat in the Singapore office.

That said, there are always exceptional cases and in the first half of 2019, we have secured a number of interviews for 2018-called lawyers. To be kept informed once such opportunities surface, do get in touch with us at hello@lexmatch.co. In the meantime, you can consider several ways to productively use your first year that will give you a higher chance of standing out from the crowd when the time comes.