On 29 September 2021, TSMP Law Corporation joint managing partner Stefanie Yuen Thio was quoted in a Business Times article on the higher pay for junior lawyers.

TSMP Law is offering S$7,000 a month to newly qualified lawyers who have just been called to the Bar, a rate that Stefanie has described as “market-leading”. She said it is restructuring its pay scale to attract the best young legal talent.

She also said that Singapore’s early success in managing the health crisis brought more offshore money into the country, but the closing of its borders, including to employment pass holders who had no assurance that they would be given the right of re-entry, also created an exodus of foreign talent. Both these factors have contributed to a supply crunch.

She added, TSMP’s S$7,000 pay is in line with the pay range offered by the Big Four, while the mid-sized firms are paying S$5,000 to S$6,000 for newly qualified lawyers and these and the smaller ones are the ones suffering in the war for talent.