The law exodus: Where is the Promised Land?

BURNOUT, bitchy bosses, the relentless battering of unreasonable client demands. These are some of the reasons cited for lawyers fleeing the profession in droves, many to become baristas or bakers or bitcoin traders.

Law firm partners are stumped. It is a strange time to be leaving a lucrative profession. Bloomberg reported in November 2021 that US firms saw large increases in revenue and profitability in the first nine months of the year, with the largest players seeing the biggest gains. In a US survey, firms reported a 14.3 per cent jump in revenue, more than double the 5.7 per cent uptick in 2020. UK firms saw the same trajectory, with many reporting double digit growth last year.

Singapore law firms, especially those that deal in lucrative mergers and acquisitions and private equity sectors, have seen a similar rise in revenue and profits. This is on the back of historically low interest rates, sending fund managers and investors on a corporate spending spree. Not to be outdone were restructuring practitioners and, thanks to the government's effective efforts to promote Singapore as an international arbitration hub, those who fight cases in arbitration chambers.

It seems like a really good time to be a lawyer. But young associates are quitting in unprecedented numbers. Is it simply a matter of too much work, or is there a deeper structural change at play?

The landscape

Legal practice is unquestionably tougher today than it was two decades ago. Technology has made instant communication via email and virtual conferencing possible, word processing capability means that documents are longer and more complex, and the world turning into a global village means that deals can be done in multiple time zones at the same time.

This combination of factors has resulted in some lawyers having to do more work, within more compressed time lines, and being on call effectively 24 hours a day. It is the nature of legal practice today, and while it does not just affect associates, junior lawyers will necessarily have less control over their work and be more heavily involved in time-intensive tasks such as proofreading for transactions and legal discovery for disputes.

Burnout is therefore very real. But the cause of the Singapore legal exodus is more complicated than just tired lawyers.

When the Great Resignation swept through the US, it took along many lawyers. US firms had to resort to hiring offshore, including from the UK, who in turn would have turned to Singapore lawyers, given the similarity of our laws. In addition, Covid restrictions meant that international law firms here find it hard to secure and took longer to obtain employment passes for overseas candidates. Hiring a Singapore law qualified associate became a quick fix.

Poaching also came from an influx of technology firms, family offices and fund managers. Hong Kong's zero-Covid policy and political unrest also forced businesses to plant a flag in the special administrative region's rival financial centre.

All these companies need lawyers, and that is where some of our associates went. A 30 per cent pay bump to join a titan like Amazon makes for an open-and-shut case.

Law practice today

Recent news reports have shone a negative spotlight on the office shenanigans of some senior practitioners. Certainly, bad behaviour should be called out and my advice to such associates is to find a law firm where they are valued and respected as contributing members of the team, not mere digits of production. But it would be overly simplistic to attribute every resignation to an abusive boss.

Many of the lawyers who commenced practice in 2020 would have scant idea what it is like to actually work in a law office, to receive hands-on training, or to make friends with colleagues over lunch. If another law firm or company offers more money to do similar work, also from home, there would be little to persuade them not to jump ship.

What have law firms done in response to the legal exodus? We have dug ourselves a deeper hole. To attract and retain talent, New York White Shoe firms raised associate pay. A newly qualified lawyer now commands an annual compensation package of US$200,000 (S$270,000), on top of a sign-on bonus. UK firms and law practices in Singapore have had no choice but to follow suit in upping salaries (TSMP is equally guilty of this).

But in order to make a newly-qualified lawyer profitable, the employer needs to work them very hard and an associate is expected to clock in 40 hours of billable work a week, with many working twice that. This impossible demand leads to burnout and resignations, which firms try to address by throwing even more money at the problem.

Thus the vicious circle.

Not all lawyers are motivated solely by money. In this, Singapore is a victim of its own success. Young people grow up in, by and large, more comfortable circumstances than their parents, which has taken the need for survival off their list of life imperatives. And new technologies have spawned hitherto non-existent career opportunities.

A young person can grow up today and aspire to the respectable role of Influencer. Graduates unsure of their life goals can take on different roles as a gig worker. If all that fails, you could always try your hand at becoming a crypto billionaire.

What this boils down to is that young people are no longer confined to a career path dictated by their area of academic study. They have myriad work choices, and some family support to fall back on in case their first startup does not become Singapore's next unicorn. This has also resulted in Gen-Zs wanting to try as many jobs and in as many sectors and geographies as possible.

What then?

Unfortunately there is no single strategy for law firms to address this problem. The issue is not simply about work-life-balance or about toxic bosses.

Law is a degree that is increasingly, and rightfully, recognised as a good training of the mind and not merely the equipping for a vocation. As a result, legal graduates are in demand across a wide swathe of industries. Our law schools need to increase their intake to cater to this demand.

As an industry, we need to start seeing our associates as valued colleagues, and treat them accordingly. We have to remake our offices to become places they enjoy working and where they can engage with colleagues. There are few things more professionally soul-destroying than a hot-desking arrangement or an impersonal cubicle. And no matter how tough the case, no experience can replace the sheer joy of being in the trenches with your team members, cross-checking your submissions over cold pizza.

We also need to give our young lawyers a sense of ownership over the enterprise that is their career, and make them see a long-term engagement as something to be desired. This requires active mentorship from their seniors.

More importantly, law firms need to re-set their thinking about attrition. We have to accept that among our lawyers, some will stay; others will leave; yet others will go and come back. And that's okay. Because a law firm should measure its success against the number of fulfilled individuals who pass through its doors and whose career success that law firm contributed to.

• The writer is joint managing partner, TSMP Law Corp