Singapore Survey: Poor Mental Health Is Driving Young Lawyers Out

A new survey reported by the South China Morning Post has found that poor mental health is the primary reason young lawyers in Singapore are leaving the profession, with the publication flagging that lawyers "don't last beyond the courtship phase." The Singapore findings echo a global pattern: early-career attrition driven not by compensation dissatisfaction alone but by the psychological cost of high-stakes work in cultures that do not visibly support distress. For law firm leaders in common-law markets — where Singapore's Bar remains influential in Asia-Pacific — the data reinforces that retention strategy built purely on pay scales and prestige misses the actual exit driver. The survey adds to a growing body of evidence that wellbeing gaps manifest fastest and most severely in junior cohorts, suggesting that onboarding structures and early supervision quality are the highest-leverage intervention points.