Is there a recent trend that London based law firms (both US and UK based) are picking up India qualified lawyers with PQE of 5+ years and above, as lateral hires. What are the advantages and disadvantages and compensation one can expect? One major disadvantage is that the London law firms dock atleast 2-3 years from your PQE to bring you at par with the UK qualified lawyers, who have spent time completing the training contract. Other issue is the 40% tax rate, as well as the high rent / overall cost of living in central London. So, as an SA 2 earning close to 50 lacs in India and saving more than half of that post tax, how does it compare with salaries in the UK. Is a salary of about 130,000 GBP annually common? What is expected to be your saving / disposable income from that? Please throw some light fellas.

I am not a huge fan of lateral jumping of ships given that Indian joinees are more like kids who change schools after class 10 to go to a new one. They haven't trained with their English law peers so they still have work-related challenges to meet plus it's difficult mixing with the cohort when you are that senior. With the TC it's different since everyone starts the same, people know each other, have got each other's backs etc.

One more advantage of doing a TC is the 'T' in TC. It's not just legal training that I'm referring to here, go and look up the kind of training that their trainees get during the TC. Essentially, as a lateral hire you miss most of that and are expected to be at par with the rest of the cohort when you join as a lateral.

TC is the way to go despite the long winded qualification process. When you study the PGDL and the SQE courses with the rest of your trainee cohort, it is, IMO, far better than doing an LLM that has 0 real life value other than the signalling effect which only stupid fellas fall for. Just look at how the PGDL and the SQE prep forces you to think like a lawyer even while you are at university.

All in all, make up your mind. CAM SAM karna hai to vo bhi sahi hai but ANGREZO ki dukaan karni hai to shuru se karlo, beech me mat ghuso.

London is the BEST city in the world. There is a reason Sonam Kapoor lives there despite having a house on Amrita Shergill Marg which probably costs 300 crores. Sab bhool jao guys bas aajao. Existing in London >> Living in metro cities in India. The vibe is crazy.

Obviously this answer will be downvoted by rich privileged guys who can go to London tomorrow without worrying about anything but as a middle class person hailing from Nagpur and now working in London, I can assure you that this is something else of a city.

Pros and cons of moving to the UK:

Cons:

- No maids to cook and do housework

Pros:

- Better work culture (versus working like a slave in India)
- Fair bosses (versus baniyas in India)
- Free NHS healthcare and no fleecing by hospitals (versus expensive hospitals giving shoddy treatment in India)
- Clean environment (versus breathing poison in India)
- Safer for women (versus people on the road staring and groping at women wearing anything other than a burkha)
- Civil liberties (versus moral policing and police harassment in India)
- Excellent public transport (versus glorified bullock carts in India)
- Zero reservation in jobs and education, so better life for children (versus children being forced to go to Ashoka and Jindal in India, then effectively forced out of govt jobs)
- Good cultural, entertainment and sports scene (versus trashy Bollywood and crap IPL in India)
- High educated politicians who are actually held accountable (versus corrupt and murderer politicians in India)
- For people who are single, an excellent dating pool (versus judgemental people in India obsessed with status and money, also culturally and racially limited dating pool)

On balance, pros>>>>>>cons

You will quite likely receive around 130k pounds if you laterally transfer to an English firm now at this stage of being a senior associate. That would mean around 83k after taxes. If you compare 83k in London, it would roughly mean 27 lakhs in Mumbai or 24 Lakhs in Delhi. You will at least spend 50k on your living expenses. Might be able to save 30k. However, in terms of living standard you will be much better off in India compared to UK.

for salary upto 3pqe have a look at https://www.rollonfriday.com/inside-info

cost of living in london will be as following:
flatshare with 1/2 colleagues or friends in zone 1/2 - £1k-2.5k pm (bills included at higher end if not then add another 0.3k pm) https://www.rollonfriday.com/accommodation-offered
food - £1k pm (if you rely on takeouts for 50% of time, on average costs a min of £12 per meal on a deliveroo takeout)
drinks - £0.5k pm if you go to mid level pub 2/3 times a week
public transport - £90pm
entertainment - £0.5k pm (varies a lot from person to person)

in general £3k pm can be reduced to £2k pm (if you go out rarely and can cook)

if you are planning to stay for at least 3 years buy a house
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/map.html?locationIdentifier=REGION%5E87490&minBedrooms=2&maxPrice=650000&minPrice=175000&numberOfPropertiesPerPage=499&propertyTypes=detached%2Csemi-detached%2Cterraced&primaryDisplayPropertyType=houses&includeSSTC=false&viewType=MAP&mustHave=&dontShow=&furnishTypes=&viewport=-0.267162%2C-0.00348982%2C51.4739%2C51.5476&keywords=
mortgage is calculated at 4.5x the yearly salary, so with a salary of £150k pa you will get a mortgage of £675k, you would need to stump up 10% so 60k, so your budget can be around £650k, its possible to get a good house in zone 2, sell the house at a profit after 3 years if you want to return to India

finally my advice would be to talk to someone who is working in the UK and who is from a similar background to yours, before deciding

I am actually shocked at how badly ppl want to leave India. It’s not that bad folks- yes there are issues here but London won’t be a bed of roses either. You can make much more over here in the long term if you are entrepreneurial.

And somehow the biggest con has not even popped up here - no family around. Plus if you join as a lateral - no friends either. These guys are hiring you because of a labour shortage in the UK market. As soon as things ease up - they will let you go. The same cycle happened around 2009.

This thread feels like it’s from 20 years ago. Look at the engineering folks - yes some go abroad but a bunch stay on and make a name for themselves here. So maybe if you don’t like the Lala firms - strike it out on your own.

Ultimately to each his own but please do cool it with india is a dump London is the best.

Just wondering how will someone who returns from UK is able to justify themselves in the Indian market - I mean how do they establish client relationships in India (considering they’ll be already 5-8 years into the profession). Don’t law firms take this into account if they have to promote them here in India? Obviously the goras are gonna stick to gora firms. Plus how do they cope with Indian legal developments?