Enjoying life as a City Lawyer
Lots of you do we know. But surprisingly enough, not everyone returning to their City law career after the summer break shares your enthusiasm. Getting stuck back into work can be motivating in itself for a lot of people – feeling refreshed after a decent holiday can give you renewed vigour for the challenge of due diligence reports, document negotiations and late-night completion meetings. Hmmm. But even in this dire economy, some people get back and just want to …
Lots of you do we know. But surprisingly enough, not everyone returning to their City law career after the summer break shares your enthusiasm. Getting stuck back into work can be motivating in itself for a lot of people – feeling refreshed after a decent holiday can give you renewed vigour for the challenge of due diligence reports, document negotiations and late-night completion meetings. Hmmm. But even in this dire economy, some people get back and just want to walk right out again.
A bit of circumspection is normal after a break but for some it can shine a big bright light on this glaring personal dilemma; maybe its the law, maybe its the people or maybe its the fact they ended up scoring a career in the wrong environment. And as far as legal environments you’re unlikely to find them much hotter than the magic circle. Legal Week recently published an article written by an ex-magic circle trainee who claimed that the City can seriously damage your family life, here’s an extract from Work/life imbalance :
It seems that a lawyer in the big firms has virtually no escape. It’s not just that any given evening or weekend might be ruined, but that the important ones might be ruined. Even in the run up to holidays you face the possibility that your holiday might be cancelled (in truth this happens pretty rarely, but the fact that it happens at all is enough to make you aware of the threat). Everyone expects to work long hours when they join a big firm, but the 24/7 all-encompassing nature of City law firm life is difficult to properly appreciate – until you actually live through it.
To say that we’ve heard this all before would be an understatment. And you’d think that if something is said enough times people would learn if it’s for them or not. Right now there will be keen young lawyers working their way through just such a 24/7 style stretch and loving every minute of it. But others will have wished they heeded the warning signs and never filled out the application form. Some just have to learn the hard way!
Work/life imbalance [Legal Week]
September 3, 2009
Being told about it and thinking about it in the abstract cannot prepare you for the reality. A lot of young lawyers have to test themselves to find their own strengths. It is surprising the different tyoes that man up to the challenge.
September 3, 2009
There is something fairly satisfying about a row of all-nighters even if it feels masochistic at the time.
September 3, 2009
if you work in a good team and everyone gets on well it’s not so bad; if you work for a bunch of a**holes then it can be utterly soul destroying
understandable if family types don’t like it tho
September 3, 2009
I don’t work for a mc firm but have had to pull all-nighters and weekenders and can’t say I’v ever found it satisfying. It can be interesting to be on an intense deal but even then only for about 25% of it max.
September 8, 2009
Pulling the all nighters and working at your client’s beckon call made me feel important at the time but years later I realise how unbalanced the relationship was and that I was scarecely more a slave. It’s far more important to get one’s priorities straight and that family and personal relationships sometimes have to come first.