Big salaries vs long hours: Is the trade-off worth it for young lawyers?

My advice would be to train at a firm which has a good reputation but also a good work life balance (think Addleshaws, Pinsents etc.). This means for your TC you’ll work good hours and get paid reasonably well but only slightly less than silver/magic circle or US, where you get marginally better pay for significantly more hours.

Then, if you do want the cash, you can always move when you’re anywhere between 1-4PQE, and at least at that point you’re coming in fresh on a big salary, whereas the people who have always been at your chosen firm may well be reaching burn-out by then.

This is exactly what I did and it worked a treat.

The usual rule of thumb is to look into practice areas and the firm itself.

If it’s a place you like, the hours will fly by but if it’s somewhere you’re not keen on, it will be torture and the NQ salary will never arrive.

I am a 2PQE at a US firm, total comp ~200k. Overall, I went in thinking I would stick it out for the long haul. I have since changed my mind. Most people change their minds. I am planning to leave at some point in the next 2 years. These are the key reasons for me. They all link together to form a type of worldview which is incongruous with working in this profession.

1. Physical/mental impact – I am expected to bill at least 1900 hours annually. On paper this does not seem too bad, but it is how these hours come. On the one hand, I have done many 60-90 billable hour weeks / 230+ hour months – it is really, really exhausting. I would liken it to exam periods where you are cramming before an exam but extend that period to 1-2 months and sprinkle in more pressure. Even when you are not busy, the key issue is that work comes at all hours. I could have a 30 hour week where I do not ‘finish’ before 10pm. For example, a day where I have few billables. Great! I leave the office at 6.30 and I head to see friend/girlfriend/gym. Whilst I am there, I receive an email from a client at 8pm. The partner/senior emails me at 8.20pm to sort it out. I leave and work until 11.30pm – 1am pm. It gets tiring extremely quickly and has a real mental and physical impact on you.

2. Family – linked to the above, I can somewhat rationalise working these long hours in my early 20s. I miss out on social occasions midweek, but I accept this because of my salary. However, I will not, and never will be able to, accept working these unpredictable and extreme hours when (if) I have a family. There are seniors in my team who regularly work 200+ hour months whilst they have young kids. They hardly ever see them. I see partners who are still pulling all nighters in their late 40s. It is a lifestyle that will never change no matter how senior you are. If you are someone who is willing to sacrifice a huge amount time with your wife/kids for work, that is fine. As a student, you might think you are OK with this. You will be rich! Who cares if you miss out on some family time when you are living in a 3mil house? I can almost guarantee your opinion on this will change. Also see below on money.

3. Money – the money is good but the realities of it will surprise you. Frankly, as a trainee it is a terrible deal. Take home pay is about 3k/month, rent can easily be 900-1.5k, bills and regular expenses another 500+, so you have about 1k a month left over. At my firm trainees can be working 200+ hour months. Obviously, the equation changes as an associate. After rent, pension contributions (I contribute about 40k to pension a year) and expenses, I have about 3/4k left over. This is way above the UK average so objectively it is good. But are the sacrifices worth it? Put it this way, even with this amount of money, I am looking at a 500-600k flat in London. That won’t get you a house anywhere close to the office. Go on Rightmove and take a look at what it gets you. It is not life changing. You might think, ‘you can borrow more?’. I can, but then I will be leveraged to the hilt and I will be literally stuck in a job like this. Even if you stick it out for 10 years you might be able to reach the standard of living you are envisaging (e.g. a house in zone 3), but you must consider the sacrifice you are making – you will be accepting a lifestyle which requires you to be ‘on’ 24/7. For a decade. Is that worth a 3 bed terraced house in the suburbs of London. For me – hell no. And sure, if you stick it out even longer, you MIGHT become partner (the chances are infinitesimally small), and then you can get a 4 bed house with a sizeable garden! Woo.

What is great is that even after a few years I will have a very healthy pension pot that will compound for the rest of my career. I can max out my ISA, which will also compound for 30+ years. I will then get out and work a job which allows me to spend time on hobbies and with my family. Do I want to continue this lifestyle, miss out on seeing my kids grow up, miss out on friend’s birthdays, damage my health and mental well being, all so I can potentially buy a pretty nice house in London and go skiing regularly? Nah.

10 PQE, soon to be 11 PQE lawyer here… trained at a Silver Circle firm and have worked for several firms since, as well as in-house.

The harsh reality is that as a junior lawyer you’re not going to have much of a work life balance anywhere. You are an asset to be worked and the partners will try to get as many billable hours out of you as they can manage without you quitting.

Bonuses are paltry when you compare them to your salaried wage if you divide your salary by target hours, and with more billable hours comes more unbilliable admin.

If you are insistent upon becoming a lawyer I would recommend doing the following:

1) train at the best/most prestigious firm you can. Brand matters and whilst it’s easy to move down the tiers, it’s harder to move up.

2) be prepared to sacrifice the next 6 years of your life (2 as a trainee, 4 as a qualified lawyer)… expect a social life to be the exception rather than the rule.

3) (and this is probably the most important) put everything you earn gross over £100k into your pension to minimise your tax… you can roll over unspent pensions allowance for a few years.

With your remaining salary try to live as frugally as you can (at least for the first few years)… aim to max out your ISA allowance each year.

The aim is not to grow accustomed to a £100k a year salary lifestyle, because that’s how they get you. Once the golden handcuffs are on, they’re very hard to get off.

By 4-5 PQE you want to be in a position where if you’re still in private practice it’s because you WANT to be, not because you HAVE to be.

Be careful of recruiters, they rarely have your long term interests at heart. If you’re considering switching firm try to make friends with someone in the team your looking to join so you’re going in eyes wide open.