Since the 2014 glut – what now? what’s next?

The legal profession in Singapore is sizeable and the number of legal practitioners in Singapore (which in this case, refers to lawyers with Singapore practising certificates) has been steadily growing. These numbers are expected to continue to rise in Singapore, as the legal industry remains a popular choice among students despite remarks from the Law Minister of Singapore back in 2014 that Singapore was already facing a glut of lawyers and could soon have more lawyers than jobs for them all.

This general trend has had a significant impact on the Singapore market as a whole and several steps have been taken in recent times to address the glut. First, there was the announcement in 2015 that eight law schools in the UK (namely, the universities of Exeter, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, London (SOAS), Manchester, Sheffield and Southampton) were to be removed from the list of ‘approved universities’ for intakes from academic year 2016/2017 onwards, largely in response to the surge of lawyers from UK law schools. Next, it was reported in 2017 that more law firms (an example being RHTLaw Taylor Wessing) have begun offering training contracts without pay, often to trainees who have not been successful in securing training contracts elsewhere and would otherwise not be able to complete this mandatory precondition to obtaining the Singapore Bar. Finally and just recently in August 2018, the Committee for the Professional Training of Lawyers published its report of recommendations to revamp the professional training regime for lawyers, with one step being to raise the difficulty of the Part B Singapore Bar Examinations, while the duration of a practice training contract from 2023 will also be increased from six months to a full year.

There are mixed views whether the 2018 measures will help stem the glut of new lawyers entering the profession. The prospect of being a practice trainee for an additional six months is unlikely to be welcomed by aspiring lawyers, as the trainee salary is significantly lower than that of a first-year associate. There is however a silver lining to the 2018 measures, which comes in the removal of the practice training contract as a pre-condition to being called to the Singapore Bar – meaning that while the Part B examination will become more rigorous, you can now be called to the Singapore Bar once this final hurdle is crossed. This move liberalises the graduate job market as it means that law graduates can freely weigh their preferences – whether to work in a law firm, an in-house role or step out of the legal industry – without having to sacrifice the ‘safety net’ of obtaining a Singapore Bar for the latter two choices. This will be a significant boost as employers still naturally take into account one’s holding of a Bar (whether Singapore or otherwise) as an assessment of a lawyer’s general capability and qualifications. We also see this move creating an interesting opportunity for law graduates keen to work in an international law firm. While lawyers with only a year of experience are already making such a move, it will be possible in 2023 for law graduates to join international firms right after finishing their Part B examination, again without losing the opportunity to obtain their Singapore Bar.

For employers (whether you are an inhouse legal department or a local or international firm), we anticipate a fiercer competition for young talent at the university-level as students will gradually become more open to not following the traditional route of starting their careers with a practice training contract at a local law firm. Should you wish to better understand and prepare yourself for these upcoming changes, feel free to arrange a discussion with us to explore how you can make use of our alumni and student body connections to reach out more effectively to the law student population.