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About the hours

I'd love to work in a city firm or even in magic circle if I get a chance after graduating :smile:

Anyway, I'm a bit worried about the long hours and mostly how it affects my personal life...

2500h a year is considered a lot but it's only around 55h/week. I have no prob working around 50h/week but then again I've been reading a lot lately about working up to 14h in a regular basis. 8am-6pm seems a bit too idealictic?

How many hours you're supposed to face and how long are the workdays? Are they always evening based (e.g. 10am-8pm)?

Reply 1

kidney thief

11

s.elena

I'd love to work in a city firm or even in magic circle if I get a chance after graduating :smile:

Anyway, I'm a bit worried about the long hours and mostly how it affects my personal life...

2500h a year is considered a lot but it's only around 55h/week. I have no prob working around 50h/week but then again I've been reading a lot lately about working up to 14h in a regular basis. 8am-6pm seems a bit too idealictic?

How many hours you're supposed to face and how long are the workdays? Are they always evening based (e.g. 10am-8pm)?

if you're not prepared to work long hours, don't be a City Lawyer!

Reply 2

s.elena

OP

kidney thief

if you're not prepared to work long hours, don't be a City Lawyer!

Yeah you might be right... I can work long hours like for the first 5 years but then eventually I need something else too. Don't want to end up that city lawyer that lives with her cats when I'm 30, 40 or 50!

Reply 3

blah_blah

It depends. Yes, everyone's got this awful image of people slaving away till 2am every morning...but not always. I've spoken to loads of trainees at the MC and it's the same. In corporate-YES! Often you'll have a big closing and you'll have to work extra hard and fit in with the rest of the world's working hours to get things done...but they say when you move to a place like real estate...it's ok! You will not have a 9-5...that's not what city law is like..it's more like 9:30-7:30/8:30. But you won't be in till midnight everyday...unless you're working on a particular deal that's got to be done. It's not THAT bad...people hype it up too much.

Reply 4

Lewisy-boy

11

2500 hrs per year may not seem like a lot... but that might be billable hours, not just number of hours spent in the office! Biiiiigigggggg difference.

Reply 5

kalokagathia

Lewisy-boy

2500 hrs per year may not seem like a lot... but that might be billable hours, not just number of hours spent in the office! Biiiiigigggggg difference.

Not even Skadden asks their lawyers for 2,500 billable hours / year..

Reply 6

Ishtar

9

kalokagathia

Not even Skadden asks their lawyers for 2,500 billable hours / year..

From what I know, 1900 is more usual. And even that is fairly hard work.

Reply 7

chalks

14

Around 1700 to 1900 is standard. That equates to around 7 to 7.5 billable hours per day. Add on admin time, non-billable work and usual "down time" between matters and its pretty standard to work a 10 hour day (i.e. 8.30 till 6.30) when things are bobbing along gently.

As I've said in other threads, the reality is that the work comes in peaks and troughs. The extent of those peaks, and the time for which they last, depends on the department you work in. Corporate will often have periods of extreme activity when long days (by which I mean around 10 or 11pm) are common. However, those periods may only last a couple of weeks as a deal is about to be completed. Other departments (eg litigation) often have longer periods of being busy (i.e. a few months) but the days aren't quite so manic.

Some departments (tax, employment/pensions, real estate) can be affected by both. They become involved in the corporate deals and so have their periods of activity influenced by their timetables, but also have their own standalone work which may be a little less frantic.

Reply 8

Lewisy-boy

11

Yeah I know no firms set their limits that high, but I was just using the example he used.

Reply 9

Kerrigan

kidney thief

if you're not prepared to work long hours, don't be a City Lawyer!

Seconded. I *am* a City lawyer and this is the advice I would also give. I work in Corporate, which is probably more hours than most of the other departments but then again, we go through quiet spells when we slope off for 3-hour lunches in a way that the Tax and IP people can't do all that often...

Reply 10

ellewoods

10

s.elena

Yeah you might be right... I can work long hours like for the first 5 years but then eventually I need something else too. Don't want to end up that city lawyer that lives with her cats when I'm 30, 40 or 50!

Me too

I'm happy to to work my ass of until I'm 30-something, but then I'd settle happily for a nice quiet little spot in the family or private client dept :wink:

Reply 11

AJ-1

some teacher in my school he was a lawyer for the last four years, in some top firm in the city, dont know the name but he basically told me money was good, but you work dog hours, and he used to sleep there, they had beds and everything for employees. And sometimes even when he wasnt at work , he'd get calls and like 3am to go back to the office to sort out a contract for a company or something stupid like that. but yeah, he is 26 i think, worked for four years, got a lot of money, got grey hair too lol (so yeah its as stressful as he said), and now his become a business teacher in my school. But with the money he made, he opened up his own gym which his brother runs for him, and is doing well so in them four years, he must have made a lot of money!!

Reply 12

Kerrigan

blah_blah

It depends. Yes, everyone's got this awful image of people slaving away till 2am every morning...but not always. I've spoken to loads of trainees at the MC and it's the same. In corporate-YES! Often you'll have a big closing and you'll have to work extra hard and fit in with the rest of the world's working hours to get things done...but they say when you move to a place like real estate...it's ok! You will not have a 9-5...that's not what city law is like..it's more like 9:30-7:30/8:30. But you won't be in till midnight everyday...unless you're working on a particular deal that's got to be done. It's not THAT bad...people hype it up too much.

Trainees do not have to work anywhere near as hard, nor under as much pressure, as junior qualified lawyers, take it from me. Trainees are the ones who get sent home at a certain hour because something needs sorting out and all the company searches and photocopying have been done, and someone needs to draft something or get something turned around.

About the hours

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