(1) Live in London in a rented 2 bed flat in Zone 4. Work for a mid market firm. Earn 100-120k and be taxed 40% on that. Bill 1850 a year.
OR
(2) Live in Dubai in a beautiful sexy huge apartment of views and double height ceilings. Work for a mid market firm. Earn 150-180k tax free. Bill 1700 a year.
OR
(3) THERE IS NO OPTION 3..
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I'd rather bill 1500 max, thanks very much.
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Yes there is as I can earn that whilst billing under 1,200 a year and live in a beautiful barn in the country. I see your double height ceiling and raise you my triple height living room ceiling and double height bedroom ceilings.
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(4) live in Kettering like Biggie
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Living in a rat infested barn in Kent working for a part time high street firm trying to keep the lights on wasn't an option.
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(2). You have to bill how much? Shouldn't it be 3 times your salary or something?
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I'll take Option 4
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*sexy* apartment? my god you crusty w**ksock of an adolescent.
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My first firm had paper time sheets. Just thinking about them gives me anxiety.
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I would rather do your mum
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I honestly wouldn’t do either but, if a gun were put to my head, I’d probably do (2), all things considered.
To clarify: would I be having lots of sex in my beautiful sexy huge sex pad in Dubai? I guess it comes with the territory being such a baller.
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I have experience of filling out legal aid "time sheets" (don't remember what it was called exactly - it was an application for funds where you had to specify the work you did - so like time sheet, but more detailed and more tedious, and where, if you use the wrong wording, you get declined). What a joy that was.
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3 votes for (2)
0 votes for (1)
FYI, this is the typical London / Dubai proposition.
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Have you made your mind up yet? You seem unsure.
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Attractive as (2) is, and important though money is, can you go for a leisurely bike ride or a stroll in Dubai after a hard day's work to clear one's head? No, because it's 50 degrees and it's a concrete jungle filled with cars.
Can you play tennis on a soft grass court (or at least clay) on a mild Saturday afternoon? No, because see above.
Can you head down a casino to gamble with some of your hard earned cash? No, because religion.
These things shouldn't cost 40% of your salary, but apparently they do.
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(1)
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barry - to be fair 4 months a year its tricky. but yes
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g295424-d5994038-Review…
and yes (not on grass but on loads of other surfaces) - grass courts are pretty unusual and inaccessible in most cities.
but you're right its a no to gambling - unless you're having a poker night in your home / have online accounts and VPN if you need to service that addiction. or unless you go to dubai races and play for prizes rather than money
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live in an authoritarian northerly enclave where you get pelted with stones for not wearing your faith-based face covering
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is that scotland? i didnt see that as an option
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Why would you rent if you earned 120k?
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Clearly you've never been to Hendon.
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Eh?
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What's with all the posters on here getting hard from telling everyone they work in Dubai?
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It seems a bit communistic to force me out of the property I own, to one smaller and further out but I suppose you need to make it undesirable to make Dubai seem less unpalatable?
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Pete there is only one such poster, he has a lot of usernames.
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Georg Simmel is quite recherché.
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Hendon - Zone 4 - generally dull and suburban (although does have a few nice streets dotted around). I was suggesting to 'Georg' that he may very well be impressed with the towering skyscrapers and sexy, sexy buildings he encounters Dubai-way, but clearly he had never considered a dun-coloured inter-war block of flats.
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Biggie, if you’re back, can we have your more entertaining stuff rather than the same old Dubai tediousness?
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Oh I have seen the delights of sentinel square
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Preach Linda.
Biggie if you haven't even seen Sentinel Square there is no way you can make an informed choice.
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The board having ratified that Dubai has 1000 x the prospects, enjoyment and wealth of London, why have you not moved:
(a) You tried, but failed.
(b) You would try, but you are e.g. a conveyancer and there are accordingly no openings.
(c) You lack ambition.
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Dubai is like a giant Sentinal Square
but less charming
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Have you ever been to Dubai?
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I'm (b) sadly.
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(1)
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There are openings for conveyancers in Dubai and I know a few who’ve made the move.
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(c) I have zero ambition to move to Dubai or work there. I dislike shopping, scorchingly hot weather and the opportunity to work hard and get little play at the end of it.
HOWEVER,
If I was in my early 20s, single and with no London prospects then I could see how someone might be attracted to it.
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Wot Linda said. Why would you rent a 2 bed in zone 4 London if you earned 100-120k?
I wouldn't live in Dubai, it's full of people who have prioritised money over life.
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I missed the zone 4 bit, but I'd still rent in zone 4 than live in Dubai.
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There is no amount of money that would make me leave my friends, family,contacts, and acquaintances , living in a beautiful part of zone 3 to live in a box inside a complex , being exposed to 40 degree heat .
and then there is the human rights issue and how women are treated
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Option 3 is clearly:
If you are a talented lawyer, become a partner, earn a few dub tuns whilst billing whatever you want.
Granted that's not an option for Biggie and those who have to move to Dubai as they can't hack the city.
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From the perspective of a junior associate, I'm increasingly tempted by Dubai, offshore, or Asia (where the pre-Covid 9-9-6 culture renders WFH less tolerated). Our City office is back open, and yet <10% of our senior associates evince any inclination to return regularly. The pre-Covid norm of:
"Junior associate - senior associate - partner all working together, within 20 metres of each other, with calls to counsel done on speaking phone in someone's office"
Has been replaced by:
"Senior associate speaks directly to partner or counsel, on 1-to-1 phone calls, does much of the work him/herself, and occasionally passes on discrete/dull tasks to junior associate"
For those junior associates who have returned to the office, we might as well still be isolated WFH, as we're rattling around in a near-deserted office. Aside from the social impact, it's a dreadful learning experience, and a million miles away from my training contract in a magic circle firm with a managing associate sitting 3 metres behind me, from whom I could (a) get tasks; (b) get answers to questions; and (c) absorb by osmosis much of what he was dealing with even on matters in which I wasn't directly involved.
I'm not criticising senior associates: the only person who cares about your life is you. I completely understand why experienced, highly-independent 6+ PQE individuals who have been working hard for almost a decade (since they began their training contracts) are embracing WFH and eschewing the commute. I think that it is inevitable however that it will retard junior associates' development, and for those of us for whom our career is our priority (again, without criticism, I respect that other people have other priorities), I'm not sure that the 'new normal' in London is that appealing.
What am I missing?
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Dubai sounds fine but why would I rent a flat when I can live in a much larger house that I own?
Riddle me that one, capn.
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Remind me again how many theatres there are in Dubai? Is it still fewer than there are on Shaftesbury Avenue?
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