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Lawyer Salaries - Help me (1 Viewer)

Aerath

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like what?
Everything.

Pretty much, from what I've seen, of the recent members that know anything about "top-tier" firms are:

izzy88 - she actually works in one.
Omnidragon - he used to work in one; I don't know his background or anything, but I'm guessing he didn't have the best experience and is "disillusioned" with them (for lack of a better word) - but he brings unique perspective of an ex-top tierer.
Azure - He's done his research.
seremify - He's not a lawyer, but he's a corporate type.
Me - to a lesser extent.

From your brief description there, I actually think you'd fit in really well at top tier firms.
Why go through all that trouble when you can just sit at home, collect rent, and sip latte and look for the next buildings to buy?
Spiritual Being and SuchSmallHands, Omnidragon was being sarcastic.

SuchSmallHands - your post is so wrong on so many levels.

1. None of the secretaries/PAs are law students, and secretaries are not offered legal positions upon graduation. Paralegals may, though. And not even then - izzy can confirm that there's a paralegal out of one of the Top 3 firms that didn't get a clerkship there.
2. PR Managers? PR Managers have 0 say on hiring. They're job is media. You're mistaking it for HR.
3. Great people in a law firm? You must be mistaken/naive.
4. Coffee machines on every floor? That's pretty much every single professional services environment in the city. You're forgetting fridges stacked with beer, wine, coke, juice, lemon lime bitters etc
5. Summer clerks are not guaranteed jobs upon graduation, particularly in this market. Clayton Utz and Ashurst (forcibly) deferred over half of their grad offers, and didn't offer them to everyone.
6. Given that you're trying to show off too much, you pretty much just gave away the law firm you worked at as Freehills.
7. Getting your foot in the door helps. Getting a job as an office junior or a secretary helps you sweet fuck all.
 
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Drifting95

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Everything.

Pretty much, from what I've seen, of the recent members that know anything about "top-tier" firms are:

izzy88 - she actually works in one.
Omnidragon - he used to work in one; I don't know his background or anything, but I'm guessing he didn't have the best experience and is "disillusioned" with them (for lack of a better word) - but he brings unique perspective of an ex-top tierer.
Azure - He's done his research.
seremify - He's not a lawyer, but he's a corporate type.
Me - to a lesser extent.





Spiritual Being and SuchSmallHands, Omnidragon was being sarcastic.


SuchSmallHands - your post is so wrong on so many levels.

1. None of the secretaries/PAs are law students, and secretaries are not offered legal positions upon graduation. Paralegals may, though. And not even then - izzy can confirm that there's a paralegal out of one of the Top 3 firms that didn't get a clerkship there.
2. PR Managers? PR Managers have 0 say on hiring. They're job is media. You're mistaking it for HR.
3. Great people in a law firm? You must be mistaken/naive.
4. Coffee machines on every floor? That's pretty much every single professional services environment in the city. You're forgetting fridges stacked with beer, wine, coke, juice, lemon lime bitters etc
5. Summer clerks are not guaranteed jobs upon graduation, particularly in this market. Clayton Utz and Ashurst (forcibly) deferred over half of their grad offers, and didn't offer them to everyone.
6. Given that you're trying to show off too much, you pretty much just gave away the law firm you worked at as Freehills.
7. Getting your foot in the door helps. Getting a job as an office junior or a secretary helps you sweet fuck all.
Spiritual Being was being sarcastic as well lol, he was just making remarks to some of omnidragon's previous posts to other people wanting to get into IB and law.
 

SuchSmallHands

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Everything.

Pretty much, from what I've seen, of the recent members that know anything about "top-tier" firms are:

izzy88 - she actually works in one.
Omnidragon - he used to work in one; I don't know his background or anything, but I'm guessing he didn't have the best experience and is "disillusioned" with them (for lack of a better word) - but he brings unique perspective of an ex-top tierer.
Azure - He's done his research.
seremify - He's not a lawyer, but he's a corporate type.
Me - to a lesser extent.





Spiritual Being and SuchSmallHands, Omnidragon was being sarcastic.

SuchSmallHands - your post is so wrong on so many levels.

1. None of the secretaries/PAs are law students, and secretaries are not offered legal positions upon graduation. Paralegals may, though. And not even then - izzy can confirm that there's a paralegal out of one of the Top 3 firms that didn't get a clerkship there.
2. PR Managers? PR Managers have 0 say on hiring. They're job is media. You're mistaking it for HR.
3. Great people in a law firm? You must be mistaken/naive.
4. Coffee machines on every floor? That's pretty much every single professional services environment in the city. You're forgetting fridges stacked with beer, wine, coke, juice, lemon lime bitters etc
5. Summer clerks are not guaranteed jobs upon graduation, particularly in this market. Clayton Utz and Ashurst (forcibly) deferred over half of their grad offers, and didn't offer them to everyone.
6. Given that you're trying to show off too much, you pretty much just gave away the law firm you worked at as Freehills.
7. Getting your foot in the door helps. Getting a job as an office junior or a secretary helps you sweet fuck all.
1. I spent an entire day shadowing a fifth year law student who was the PA to a senior partner in the firm. When she graduates, she's been promised a position as a junior lawyer and recommended that I do the same when I got to fourth/fifth year as it was what several of the AAs had done and many of them had similarly been promised positions.
2. No say in hiring I know, I was simply talking to one who was interested in where I came from, what I wanted to do, etc. who added that as a comment. If I remember correctly he said PR manager, it may have been HR, his position wasn't really what I was getting at so much as his advice.
3. They were lovely to me, that's all I really care about. Though I'm assuming they didn't send a 16-year-old to follow the biggest bastards in the firm. I can only judge people based on how I saw them behave and they were all really helpful; willing to show me the city in their lunch break, talking to me about university options, discussing how to get into law, etc.
4. Yep, and I like it. I never stated it was exclusive to a single business, just a comment.
5. Quoted directly from the website of the firm I went to 'All going well, our (summer) clerks are offered graduate positions. In the interim many summer clerks come back to work with us part-time as law clerks until they complete their studies.' Which also affirms what I said about law clerks gaining grad. positions. When I was there one summer clerk was approaching the end of his internship. They were negotiating where he would be working (as a lawyer, not a paralegal) when he graduated and where he would be placed in the interim.
6. No I didn't, I actually stated it was at the bottom of the list. I have no problem with stating that Freehills wouldn't have me because I was too young, the same can be said of Minter Ellison. I didn't mean to sound like I was showing off, sorry. There's really nothing to show off about since anyone who asked would have gotten the same opportunity.
7. Well, refer to above I guess.

I don't know if this occurs in all law firms, it may not. But it certainly did where I went. Though you may be correct, I must be naive since I really didn't pick up on the fact that I was being made fun of for sharing a very limited personal experience that I thought may have been of help to the OP. I know that I'm not an expert on top-tier law firms, I don't purport myself to be one. I started my comment with the words 'I think' and clearly stated that I was only in year ten when I went and live eight hours away from the city. I just thought that maybe it could be of slight benefit to someone without any experience at all.
 
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Omnidragon

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When you say you matched his rental income, are you talking gross or net? I too sometimes don't understand some of his purchases, check on PropertyInvesting.com and you'll see some of his previous purchases, one which was a Cairns apartment for under 50k, in a dying tourism market, high vacancies and historic high strata fees in the regions.

I think the reason why he is so hyped up is because his investment strategy has relatively cheap entry points. If i was him however with the current equity he has (around $3-5 mill i think), i would seek better locations like you stated, no point sticking with these risky rural type properties with second class tenants in all honesty.
Our nets matched.

His equity is not that big for all the hype. As I said I know people younger who've done better in property, self-made.

A while ago there was a building in Sydney CBD for sale at around 6.5% yield, had AMEX as a tenant (I don't know Sydney well enough so can't remember the streets but think it was the likes of Pitt St or something like that). I would've thought a primer corner site like that, with a bit of leverage, would make as good a yield as him if restructured correctly.
 

Spiritual Being

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lol omni, you have a minion.
Haha.

What ATAR are you aiming for? 94/95? Well I got 99.95.

If your idea of a good life is paying off the Chatswood / Glen Waverly apartment by the age of 38, you are definitely in the right career and this quoted "high salary" will set you on this path.

If your idea of a good life is getting a 100k engagement ring by the age of 26, then your 94/95 ATAR and 5 years in law school is the biggest waste I could possibly fathom.
 
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Drifting95

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Haha.

What ATAR are you aiming for? 94/95? Well I got 99.95.

If your idea of a good life is paying off the Chatswood / Glen Waverly apartment by the age of 38, you are definitely in the right career and this quoted "high salary" will set you on this path.

If your idea of a good life is getting a 100k engagement ring by the age of 26, then your 94/95 ATAR and 5 years in law school is the biggest waste I could possibly fathom.
:lol:
 

Vagabond

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Anyone who's read the AFR this week will know the 'top firms' are all in the midst of pay freezes and job cuts. The 'good money' was questionable 5 years ago let alone now when conditions are tough.

Point is, do it if it interests you. The saving grace of Law is that there's a pretty good range of jobs that will value the degree even if you don't actually go into law.
 
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Spiritual Being

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Anyone who's read the AFR this week will know the 'top firms' are all in the midst of pay freezes and job cuts. The 'good money' was questionable 5 years ago let alone now when conditions are tough.

Point is, do it if it interests you. The saving grace of Law is that there's a pretty good range of jobs that will value the degree even if you don't actually go into law.

Who cares.

I'm graduating from UWS. If don't get a job in a top tier law firm (my friend got an interview and was hired within 10 minutes by the head - his name is omnidragon on here), I'll be a legal studies teacher.

Substitute for a relatively good alternative - being a teacher with similar hours and similar pay; while bias marking everyone's work (jokes, I'm not that slack).
 

Drifting95

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Who cares.

I'm graduating from UWS. If don't get a job in a top tier law firm (my friend got an interview and was hired within 10 minutes by the head - his name is omnidragon on here), I'll be a legal studies teacher.

Substitute for a relatively good alternative - being a teacher with similar hours and similar pay; while bias marking everyone's work (jokes, I'm not that slack).
Enjoy 50k for the rest of your life :lol:
 

ilikecats

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Enjoy 50k for the rest of your life :lol:
I've done a good 30 or so teachers tax returns, and I've yet to see any on less than 70k.

For a graduate with 3 years study, 50k isn't a horrible starting salary.


Considering you've get a two week break every 10 weeks or so, and you've got pretty fixed hours, teaching isn't a bad/less stress option. Yeah, in the long run you won't make as much money as a partner in a top tier law firm, but plenty of people do know that money doesn't equal happiness ;)
 

Spiritual Being

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I've done a good 30 or so teachers tax returns, and I've yet to see any on less than 70k.

For a graduate with 3 years study, 50k isn't a horrible starting salary.


Considering you've get a two week break every 10 weeks or so, and you've got pretty fixed hours, teaching isn't a bad/less stress option. Yeah, in the long run you won't make as much money as a partner in a top tier law firm, but plenty of people do know that money doesn't equal happiness ;)
DO it if it interests you!

nek minnut lawyer for your church
 

Spiritual Being

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Passion > money
I was actually joking about the teacher notion. He's an IRL friend (school) so he knows what I'm talking about.

I can't see myself being in any other career. Yes, I'm only 16 (17 tomorrow), but the dynamic of the legal system fascinates me. :detective:
 

Drifting95

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I was actually joking about the teacher notion. He's an IRL friend (school) so he knows what I'm talking about.

I can't see myself being in any other career. Yes, I'm only 16 (17 tomorrow), but the dynamic of the legal system fascinates me. :detective:
#inb4MrCostin sipping his favourite drink NOT in HK
 

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