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What is life like as a corporate lawyer in Singapore?
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I was born in Singapore but and live in New Zealand. I am currently working and practising as a corporate lawyer, but am thinking of moving back to Singapore (at least for a few years) to get more overseas experience. Are you a lawyer or do you know someone who is? What is the hours like? I am expecting lots of overtime especially when there is a big project on. What is the pay like?
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In house counsel for a Singapore mnc. Hours are one of the best in the industry - I usually go home at 630 every day, but I did let them know that that was a requirement for me when I applied for the position. My colleagues rarely leave later than 7 though. In turn, me and my colleagues are probably not as well paid as our peers. You can probably find reports on the industry standard pay.
What do Corporate lawyers actually do?
Main Post: What do Corporate lawyers actually do?
Top Comment: I too am curious what these lawyers do at the business Factory
28M working as a Corporate Lawyer and a bit miserable
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I (28M) graduated from law school a few years ago and am currently working in a large law firm in NYC as a Corporate Lawyer. I went to a top ranked law school and did all the things that one in my position was expected to do and ended up in this path.
But, I'm not particularly happy where I am. I don't particularly enjoy this work. I don't hate it. I just find it extremely boring. I'm not interested in it and find the work very tedious and the copious amounts can make it stressful. I'm not making the world a better place and I'm just making rich people and companies richer. I remember in high school and undergrad, I was actively involved in progressive/socialist communities and was attending protests and doing activist work. 17-year-old me would be aghast at how I turned out. When I got into Law School, my friends in undergrad joked that I would become a corporate sellout, and I swore I never would.
At law school, I initially felt that I would just do public interest work and thought I would end up working at a nonprofit or the ACLU, not at a large corporate law firm. But, I needed the money to pay off loans. So, I took a job at a large corporate law firm, and I hate it here. I have to hide my far left socialist views and pretend I'm one of them, like my co-workers, who I can barely stand.
I want to leave but I still have loan payments to take care of. And, I don't know what I want to do in general or in life afterwards. Work takes up all my time. I don't have any close friends anymore. I don't have time for my hobbies or to do fun things outside of work. When I'm not working, I'm just too tired and I end up watching Netflix or playing video games. I don't even know what I'm passionate about. I'm disgusted at what I'm turning into. I'm still single and I haven't been on a date or had sex in over a year. I remember when I was younger, I thought I would be married by now.
I would like to do something that's involved with working with children or animals, or marginalized communities. But, now my resume screams Corporate Lawyer. And, I have loans to pay off.
I sometimes regret being a lawyer. I fear that if I stay in this path, I'm going to one day look back and have a life full of regret.
How do I get out of this? I would love to do something else, like maybe nonprofit work or government work or something that's meaningful and not soul sucking. I've also thought about going back to school and doing something else entirely but that would mean more loans. Can someone suggest me advice?
Top Comment: Stick this out a few more years and pay down your student loans. Cut back on your screen time and look for more active hobbies where you can meet like-minded people. Maybe join some political groups, or do volunteer work. Even something like volunteering twice a month at an animal shelter would probably give you a lot of satisfaction, vs sitting at home on your couch.
To corporate lawyers, what's your day like?
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i've always been fascinated with the legal profession, esp in the corpo. i'm an aspiring law student (premed grad), and i always imagine myself working for law firms (despite the overworked culture). so to those corporate lawyers, i would like to know ur day-to-day life just to have a glimpse of my dream legal practice.
Top Comment: (I have to clarify that this is corporate law practice in a firm, not inhouse counsel) Wake up. Coffee. Drag myself to the office. Open my inbox, and boom—first email: “Hey, can you help me with this file?” Sure, no problem. Add it to the to-do list. Set up a call to get briefed. Ding—another email: “Can you research what our client needs from this government agency? Need it by EOD.” No pressure, right? Start calling government agencies that seem to have a permanent WFH vibe. Finally, someone picks up. Get the answer, draft a response. But before I can hit send, another email drops: “Can I get you in for this due diligence? It’s urgent.” Awesome. Set up the call. After that, I’m suddenly tasked to audit ~1,000 documents for this transaction and input them into an Excel file. All by end of week. Great. Now I’m multitasking—juggling research for one matter while another email pings me, asking: “Hey, any updates on the first thing?” Seriously? I’m not even done yet. Then comes another: “Can you handle this urgent tax filing? It’s a rush job.” Because clearly, I wasn’t already swamped. By this point, I’m knee-deep in documents for that big project, eyes crossing from staring at spreadsheets. Meanwhile, follow-ups are raining in like: “Where are we on that deliverable?” and “Are the files ready for the annual stockholders' meeting? It's in two days.” Start realizing that they didn't teach us real world stuff in law school. What the hell is the Consumer Act? Suddenly, it’s 7 PM. I’m still glued to my desk, with three things due by tomorrow morning and emails still coming in like I’m on call 24/7. “Is it time to go home yet?” Nope. Not even close.
Is work life balance that fucked up in corporate law? How abt in-house counsel? I need law career option advice! As abve.
Main Post: Is work life balance that fucked up in corporate law? How abt in-house counsel? I need law career option advice! As abve.
Top Comment: Corporate law is rough. I don’t recommend unless you are comfortable working a lot. The thing about corporate practice is that you work for corporate clients who expect you to move at the speed of their business and to care about their business the way they do. Not to disparage other areas of practice, but to paint a contrast - you rarely encounter estate planning emergencies. When that little old lady wanders into your office asking for a will, usually there is no real urgency. You can put her will in the queue, get to it when you get to it, and if you send it to her two weeks or a month later, no big deal. On the other end of the spectrum, when your Fortune 500 corporate client comes to you at 4:45pm on a Friday and says “We just had a piece of heavy equipment break at our factory and the entire production line is down, and we are losing a million dollars a day that it is down, but we found a piece of replacement equipment that we can lease to get things running until our equipment is repaired, and they will ship it tomorrow morning if we can sign the lease agreement TONIGHT - can you review?”...there is nothing to do but stay up until midnight on a Friday negotiating a heavy equipment lease. Plus a million and one other variations on this theme: “we found a great deal on X but have to close in 3 days” or “the bank will put us in default of our loan if we can’t remedy this breach this week”, etc. I usually work 12 hour days. After 6-7 years, I am finally senior enough that I can usually avoid weekends. The pay is awesome though, as are future exit opportunities if I don’t make partner (such as Fortune 500 in-house gigs). And the work is usually pretty interesting. It’s all paper pushing though - so you had better like to write.
Is becoming a corporate lawyer worth it?
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I'm currently a high school student but still undecided on what career path I want. My parents told me to do some research on careers that might interest me and the one that stood out to me the most was corporate law. It seems like a job I would be interested in and aligns with my goal of being financially comfortable at a young age. But some people told me most students aspiring to be one rarely end up in the field and just go on to do other legal fields or other careers. Is it really this hard? Any advice?
Top Comment: Compensation is very good, but most lawyers have extremely long hours and difficult jobs. The benifit to that career path is that the pay cap is almost endless. Pre-law and passing the Bar is not easy
How to answer "Why Corporate Law?"
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I have interviewed for some large firms, specifically for the corporate practice. I always have a tough time with this question. I genuinely want to enter corporate practice; I don't know how to phrase it.
I usually say something like:
"I love analytical thinking and puzzle solving, and cooperative team environments. Corporate work lends itself well to those skills while providing a collaborative atmosphere."
Do you have ideas on better ways to answer the question?
Top Comment: What worked for me when interviewing for transactional jobs: "I would rather bash my head into a wall than use bluebook citations on a day to day basis."
is corporate law career that bad
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i know this is not the sub to ask this but i dont have option it is only sub about indian law , so please approve my post .
i always see so many posts about people complaining of law firms that it is very toxic 7days work , no weekends , no holidays only 14-15 hrs of work on daily basis i want to ask is it that toxic , is it true or they are just crybabies , ik it is hard to get a good paying job in tier 1 firm but that toxicity is what i am concerned . whenever i see sich post it make me anxious about the desicion of law .
also please tell me what the roles of corporate lawyer and general house counsel
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I am a practising lawyer and I'll try to differentiate between corporate law and litigation.
Just like with any other job, working in the corporate sector has its own pros and cons. The biggest advantage of working in a firm is financial stability. You will have a sense of security knowing that you'll get paid regularly. In litigation, you'll get paid as you work. If you have no work, you'll not get paid.
In the corporate field, it is likely that you will have a toxic work environment, and you won't have much freedom as compared to litigation. In litigation, you're your own boss.
Corporate lawyers are rarely allowed to visit the courts for presenting arguments. You're basically chained to a desk, drafting documents constantly. I don't consider a person who does that to be a lawyer. On the flipside, a practising lawyer visits the courts daily, argues daily, has his own clients and has complete control over their work life.
As far as work hours are concerned, you'll have to work for 12-16 hours in both fields. As a lawyer who's building his practice, it is common for me to work 12-16 hours everyday. However, the most substantial difference is that if I have to take a day off, I don't have to file applications to do the same. My work-hours are decided by my self discipline. In the corporate field, your work-hours are imposed on you.
In the corporate field, you'll hit a glass ceiling eventually. After a certain point, there is no more room for growth. However, in litigation, there is no limit to how far you can climb. Not only is the pay infinitely better, litigation opens various fields for you and provides you opportunities for entering into politics and the judiciary.
Furthermore, you'll learn infinitely more in your practice than in a corporate environment. Corporate firms tend to treat employees as a cog in their assembly lines. The work becomes repetitive. A practising lawyer can potentially handle all sorts of cases.
I had always planned to have my own practice, which is one of the main reasons why I chose to forego two different offers from corporate firms and build my own practice as a lawyer in the Supreme Court. And now I out-earn every single one of my peers who chose corporate.
Hope this provides some clarity.
What does a corporate lawyer really do?
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I’ve recently just been admitted into law school at the University of Calgary and will be starting in the fall. I am open minded on the type of law I want to do, but I’m quite intrigued by corporate law. What does a corporate attorney actually do in Canada? What does the day to day look like? It would be nice to know this information going into law school lol
Top Comment: Read emails, draft contracts, talk to somebody trying to buy or sell my client’s company, think about business structures, think about compliance issues, issue-spot and refer people to specialists in things like tax. If you are a really big firm, you’re going to be very expensive and people will only come to you for really big things where they are betting the farm. That is where you find (generally) the country’s leading lawyers in mergers and acquisitions, competition law, national security, mining, securities, etc. those people are, in a sense, also corporate lawyers.
life in mumbai as a corp lawyer
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i (24F) come from a small city and wish to move to mumbai to work at a tier 1 law firm and start my career there. today i had a conversation with one of the associates at the firm i wish to work for and she told me about how she hasn’t even slept or had time for herself in 1.5 months. this has got me overwhelmed. i’ve never been to mumbai, so moving and bearing the rent itself is too overwhelming for me. or atleast that’s the image i have of mumbai now. so with a corp job that will drain you and cost of living at an all time high, will i get to live my life? what should i expect as a newbie woman in this big city? please share experiences and advices below, thank you.
Top Comment: Do you want me to be honest? It's fucking exhausting. At a tier one law firm you can expect to have next to a zero work life balance, you will get burnt out eventually imo. The city gets overwhelming but it's also beautiful. It grows on you. That's all :)