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

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By Legal Cheek on

13

One TC seeker needs advice

Man and pound signs
In the latest instalment of our Career Conundrums series, an aspiring lawyers wants to know whether the juice is worth the squeeze when it comes to the hefty NQ salaries up from grabs across the City’s elite law firms.

“Hello Team. I am in the process of applying for training contracts and saw your articles on average working hours and NQ lawyer salaries. My question to your readers is whether they believe the money is worth it? And is a career at one of these top paying firms sustainable? I have my heart set on working in the City and I believe I’ve got a good chance of securing a training contract at a top paying firm. But now I am questioning if it’s worth it, and whether I should target firms paying less for some sort of work-life balance. It will be great to hear what people think!”

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13 Comments

US lawyer

This question is a bit like “how long is a piece of string?” Whether it is worth it depends on your priorities, interest in the work, wider commitments (family, hobbies, friends) and so on.

For what it’s worth, just remember those are average hours. It is undoubtedly a long-hour job – I usually do around 60 hours a week total on a normal week (which means longish hours during week, a couple on weekends, but is manageable).

The real kicker in my view is the unpredictability – some weeks it’s completely dead and I work 35 hours on BD, and bill total 15. Others it’s crazy and I work 80-90+ hours. This obviously skews the average hours surveyed – but remember that they are an average of really crazy and really quiet periods, so take them with a pinch of salt.

I think the job is great, though – it’s interesting, I like my colleagues, and it works for me (no kids, supportive partner, pay is good and supports the things I enjoy doing outside of work etc). It obviously doesn’t suit all people, but if this sounds fine to you go for it. Remember you can always leave, and that this job opens lots of doors to do so.

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(36)(0)

6PQE US

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.

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(19)(0)

US 2PQE

At the moment, it’s worth it for me. The hours can be long, but my weekends and holidays are mostly respected. The salary has given me a lot of freedom, including being able to buy a flat, renovate it, book some nice holidays, and plan a wedding, all without stressing about money. I don’t know that I will want to do this forever though, so I’m focusing on putting money into my pension and investing.

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(9)(0)

Non-Russell Final Year

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.

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(5)(5)

12 PQE-er

If you’re young and reasonably free of responsibilities outside work it’s a great place to start a career – you will earn very well in a respected field with intelligent colleagues (mostly), and the flipside of the hours being long is that you will learn a lot in a shorter time than if working steadier hours.

I would advise you go into it with eyes open though – trainees and NQs tend to get the more donkey work / time-consuming stuff that can drop v last minute and lead to cancelled plans / lost weekends etc occasionally. Also some of the work will inevitably feel a bit dull and administrative (as a trainee you won’t be flying around the world negotiating massive deals with big companies, you don’t have the experience or gravitas at that point).

as others have said there are exit options in a few years if you find the hours too much of a grind / your circs change (eg family), in-house hours are generally a lot better (albeit not 9-5) in exchange for a salary cut.

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(7)(0)

US firm assoc

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.

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(27)(0)

Yes Man

Literally this ^

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(3)(0)

The Truth

The truth is as a lawyer you will work long hours at any level of firm, even unknown high street outfits. Sure, you’ll work longer hours at magic circle and US, but you are compensated for it both in terms of package and quality of work.

The work/life balance at the lower tiered / silver circle firms isn’t as ‘balanced’ as you might think, but your weekends and holidays may be safer. If you’re interested in a career in law and think you can hack it, the best advice is to look for a firm strong in your areas of interest rather than looking for a work/life balance that doesn’t really exist outside of in-house.

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(6)(1)

ElderMillenial

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.

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(11)(2)

Anonymous

For me it wasn’t worth it. A few people have pointed out that you can do it for a few years and leave if you don’t like it etc but in practice I found it harder to leave than expected. Most TCs will have a ‘clawback’ clause so you can’t leave without having to pay back significant law school fees (some firms extend these clauses for a few years post qualification too). Many in-house roles will expect you to have a few years’ post-qualification experience so it’s not always easy to just jump in-house on qualification, especially if the market is bad. I ended up moving to a different career entirely but even this was difficult – you will have invested a minimum of 4 years or more in law before you are finally in a position to consider leaving, and for me I had to start again more or less from scratch in my late twenties, at a time when my peers were starting to progress in their careers. There’s also the financial implications to consider – many people get used to the lifestyle then find they can’t leave and take a pay cut because they have a high mortgage to pay etc. Consider carefully – this isn’t like most jobs where you can start and then easily dip out if you don’t like it.

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(4)(0)

in-house veteran

This is the exact dilemma I had at TC application stage. I ended up getting wooed by the money and went to a City firm (outside MC). I hated it- the long hours and endless cancellations made me lonely and miserable, and the politics of which associate or partner was in favour and which wasn’t, and the way people cared more about who the client was and the size of the deal, rather than the quality of work being done, left me cold. And this was a firm with a stellar reputation for good work/life balance and collegiality.

I left at 2PQE and for me, it was the best decision ever. I now work inhouse, and although I still work 50h per week, I’m totally in control of when I work so can guarantee my weekends, evenings and nativities.

I still earn less (inflation adjusted) than I did in the City and promotion is dead man’s shoes, but critically for me is the fact that the work is 1000x more interesting (we outsource the boring) and culturally, there is no partner politics.

If you’re having your doubts, you probably already know the answer, but go in at the highest level you can (and can stomach) but be ready to come out as soon as you dare.

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(3)(1)

Associate at Floatsum and Jetsam

Your non-law peers, friends, lovers, side-chicks, family etc do not understand and do not care about the difference between firms – but they will notice if you are stressed from overwork, cancel dinners at short notice and become a less attentive friend.

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(6)(0)

MC Associate

Corporate law is the easiest way to make life-changing amounts of money. The money is slightly less good than investment banking, but the hours are MUCH better (40 hours a week on average, as compared to 70+ hours). There’s no interminable training process followed by a ten year progression to consultant, like with medicine. You don’t need to spend half your life travelling, like with management consultancy. I turn up to work, do relatively interesting stuff with tolerable colleagues, usually get my weekends to myself, and get paid enough to pay down a mortgage in Zone 2, go on a few holidays a year, eat at nice restaurants a few times a month, and not worry about putting the heating on in winter. I am – and City lawyers in general are – incredibly lucky.

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(3)(3)

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