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A Singapore Academy of Law survey conducted earlier this year found that 29 percent respondents who were already employed selected leaving the profession entirely as one option for the next three years.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n On the surface, this looks like an exodus, but the reality may be more nuanced. Rather than abandoning law altogether, a growing number of young lawyers are simply finding different paths within the industry, according to <\/span>Olivia Seet<\/strong><\/span><\/span>, partner at legal search firm Major, Lindsey & Africa.<\/span><\/p>\n She notes the shift is particularly pronounced in Singapore, whose rise as a regional headquarters hub has opened up more in-house roles across industries, giving junior lawyers earlier options.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI first noticed this shift accelerating post-COVID, when a broader re-evaluation of career priorities took hold across the profession,\u201d says Seet. \u201cValues and purpose are increasingly important. Younger lawyers want some connection with what the organisation does and stands for, rather than viewing their career purely through the lens of title or compensation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Central to this movement is a redefinition of what a meaningful legal career looks like. For many young lawyers, the driving force isn’t disillusionment with law itself but a search for greater alignment with purpose.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI wouldn’t call it lower ambition \u2013 ambition is being defined differently,\u201d says Seet. \u201cFor previous generations, partnership was the obvious marker of success, and business development was part of that bargain. Many younger lawyers are equally ambitious, but their goal may be to become a GC, business leader or strategic adviser rather than build a book of clients. Burnout can accelerate the decision, but it’s not the whole story.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Just as important is the desire to be closer to the business. \u201cProximity to the business is another major driver \u2014 they want to understand why decisions are being made, follow matters from start to finish, build commercial judgement and own outcomes. Growth, regional exposure and alignment with an industry they find interesting also matter,\u201d adds Seet.<\/span><\/p>\n This shift in priorities is also changing timing. Historically, lawyers moved in-house only after cementing their technical credentials in private practice, but now, Seet observes, many are deliberately starting that chapter much earlier.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMoving early can be an excellent decision, but the quality of the role matters enormously,\u201d Seet cautions, pointing out that the biggest risk could be leaving a good training environment too early to learn enough of the technical basics, and then ending up on a small legal team that doesn’t have the time or people to mentor them properly.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThose gaps can become harder to correct later and may also make returning to top-tier private practice more difficult,\u201d warns Seet. \u201cThere’s no magic PQE threshold; the platform and manager matter more.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n This evolution is also visible further up the seniority chain. Companies are increasingly open to hiring lawyers with 10 to 15 years of experience for GC-track roles, but Seet is careful not to overstate the pattern.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI’d caution against reading this as a blanket shift, as much depends on the company and what the GC role entails,\u201d she says. “In the searches I run, clients increasingly want candidates who can work closely with the business and speak its language, not just legal. With leaner teams, every lawyer needs to contribute beyond technical advice. That’s often better evidenced by meaningful in-house tenure than seniority alone.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Seet also points out that the GC role itself has grown broader, now covering areas like regulation, governance, risk, technology and strategy, meaning what a candidate can actually do matters just as much as how long they’ve been practising.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Add to that the fact that business leadership teams are skewing younger, and years of experience alone carry less weight than they used to.<\/span><\/p>\n All things considered, and with AI disrupting the legal industry and the young talent pipeline, Seet believes the tried-and-tested career path for lawyers is becoming less linear.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt will no longer be assumed that a lawyer spends five to seven years in private practice before moving in-house, particularly if AI reduces the number of junior roles firms require. That could make earlier or even direct entry into sophisticated in-house teams more accepted,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n This, she suggests, raises deeper questions about how young lawyers will develop commercial judgement in the future, which may eventually reach back into legal education itself.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cUniversities may need to embed greater business exposure into legal education, whether through multidisciplinary study, double degrees or experiential learning,\u201d adds Seet.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u00a0 A Singapore Academy of Law survey conducted earlier this year found that 29 percent respondents who were already employed selected leaving the profession entirely…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":94114,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=94113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/94114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=94113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=94113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=94113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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