I am a 5th Year law student, Have read some threads here.
And what I understood is that a beginner lawyers (associates) life is stressful in a Tier 1 Law Firm. 13 hours of work and almost no off days. And many junior lawyers drop out of these firms in first 2 to 4 years.
But stress reduces over the years-once you become a senior associate and principle associates and even lesser stress as you become a partner and almost all work is done by junior lawyers.
No matter whether they work or not - once a lawyer is made as a partner, then it is a life time job...... But it takes 10 to 15 years.
Throughout your life you will get a share of the law firms profit and work stress is very less. But the hard part is becoming a partner at a law firm.
Is this true? - that law firms stress you out till you are a partner and then it reduces.
Mostly not true. Your working hours will definitely reduce if you want to work less, but the stress will remain the same because as a partner you are accountable to the client.
Getting a share of the firm's profit is not true either. Not all partners get a share of the firm's profit. The differentiation between salaried partner and equity partner exists at most firms.
Partners retire just like other professionals. Because unless older partners retire how will new incoming partners get their share of equity (unless the firm keeps diluting everyone's share)? So an equity partner receives part of the firm's net profits until they retire, usually at 60-65.
I'd say partners are more likely to be fired. The buck stops at them. Plus they are also responsible for revenue. Many of the exits you'd see (including those in the annals of LI) are fueled by failures to meet targets.
The stress you have as an associate is somewhat like that of a demanding school/ college life. That of a Partner is of a parent trying to get money and feed the family. Partners have to do a lot more than just the work, including managing the client - a lot of it is bs and bd work - but please don't think it is not stressful otherwise you'd be in for a rude shock.
Firstly, stress DOES NOT reduce when you become a senior associate or a principal associate. In fact, teams function on the backs of SA and PA. While you may get to delegate a little bit of DD to junior associates, majority of the final work product has to be made by you while you keep giving updates to the partner every hour. So, it's way more stressful.
After 10 years, when you become partner, it is salaried partner. A salaried partner is basically like being a principal associate to another senior partner/practice head. At this stage, apart from the PA type work, you also have to start getting clients/doing business development which is very difficult in the Indian market.
[Also, given the fact that for your initial 10 years nobody taught you how and now suddenly you are expected to just get it! Management consultancies at least train senior associates in business development. None of that in a law firm. You are pretty much at the mercy of the senior partner you work with and have to constantly impress him/her.]
Around 15-20 years PQE, when you do manage to become an equity partner, you become so bound to the clients that you got that you just cannot tell them no. So, you keep working equally hard. Only change being that your work is now more client management than actual drafting. But nonetheless, you are responsible for every single document that goes out in your name. And there are so many documents at this point, even if you spend 30 mins reviewing each one of them and doing daily client calls, you'll still be working at least 10 hours a day.
So the slightly relaxed work hours of 10 hours a day (versus 14 hours a day in your initial years) comes around the age of 40. By that time, your health will be destroyed after living the law firm stress life for 15 years. You will have the energy of 60 year old. Even 10 hours will be too stressful for your body then.
Then you'll hope that you'll retire. But you'll realise that your kids and wife have become so used to a decently rich lifestyle that you cannot really sustain them if you quit your job, no matter how much you've managed to save.
So you'll decide to shift to some alternative career which is less demanding, earns decent and is more fun. But after 15 years in a cubicle and a tiny glass room you'd have lost all your other skills. You would have changed as a person. What you dreamt of doing in your 20s will no longer excite you. And you'll realise your prime years have already gone by.
At that point, you'll kind of regret it:"ki letter haath me tha, taxi gate par thi, zara si himmat kar leta toh saali zindagi kuch aur ho sakti thi"
This is a very simplified / generalized view on how law firm life plays out.
To be clear - after all the general gyaan about competence, legal skill, hard word etc etc. the corporate law firm career is a career where you are paid primarily for stress management.
Stress comes in various shapes and forms.
When you are an intern, it comes from the possibility of unemployment.
When you are an associate - it comes from your SA, PA / Partner.
When you are an SA, it comes from your associate not doing their job properly but also from your PA / Partner.
When you are a PA / Salaried Partner, it comes from your associates / SAs not doing their job properly, but also the client possibly complaining about the matter to your partner, and then your partner yelling at you.
When you are an partner, it comes from your client dropping you / not paying your fees etc. Your associates not doing their job properly etc. etc.
The more stress you can manage - the better you will be at being a corporate lawyer. That doesn't mean that just because you are good at stress management you will be a good corporate lawyer, but being a good corporate lawyer (or one who makes it up the chain of command) will inevitably mean you are good at managing stress.
From a "making it" point of view, what you need to know is that - everyone finds their balance / their place where they are happy to stabilize. Some folks move on from law firms to in-house jobs - this works out in some cases, and in some cases it does not.
For me - I moved on from a Tier 1 practice to a relatively new firm and it worked out great for me. I make roughly as much as my peers now (actually more in some cases) - and my life is entirely within my control. I sometimes get to take afternoon naps and most evenings I have time to read some parts of a book, go exercise etc. It works for me, and I know a few others who also have a decent life, but that's not the case for anyone working in a Tier 1 practice. You are there to make money for the main families / core partners - and till you are servicing their income, there will be no break.
What you say is true for litigation though. First 15 years are hell on earth. After that, if you persevere and strive, you would have built up sufficient goodwill and contacts to make money off of that for a lifetime. Once you cross 45, so many avenues open up in litigation; if you get designated, the chance of which is more likely than becoming a name partner in one of the Tier 1s, life is a breeze.
I don't think UPSC and senior designation can be compared. But in my opinion, senior designation is extremely tough even after 15-20 years of practice unless you come from a legal family with contacts! For every non-nepo senior designations, there are a hundred others who are deserving but don't have contacts and a thousand others who are a law graduate with 15-20years of practice!
Yes tried it for 2 years, then worked with a new senior who told me their story. It's literally a very dreadful path along corruption, abuse of power, literal institutional discrimination and violence at all levels and the most unethical things I've heard in my life.
And what I understood is that a beginner lawyers (associates) life is stressful in a Tier 1 Law Firm. 13 hours of work and almost no off days. And many junior lawyers drop out of these firms in first 2 to 4 years.
But stress reduces over the years-once you become a senior associate and principle associates and even lesser stress as you become a partner and almost all work is done by junior lawyers.
No matter whether they work or not - once a lawyer is made as a partner, then it is a life time job...... But it takes 10 to 15 years.
Throughout your life you will get a share of the law firms profit and work stress is very less. But the hard part is becoming a partner at a law firm.
Is this true? - that law firms stress you out till you are a partner and then it reduces.
Getting a share of the firm's profit is not true either. Not all partners get a share of the firm's profit. The differentiation between salaried partner and equity partner exists at most firms.
After 10 years, when you become partner, it is salaried partner. A salaried partner is basically like being a principal associate to another senior partner/practice head. At this stage, apart from the PA type work, you also have to start getting clients/doing business development which is very difficult in the Indian market.
[Also, given the fact that for your initial 10 years nobody taught you how and now suddenly you are expected to just get it! Management consultancies at least train senior associates in business development. None of that in a law firm. You are pretty much at the mercy of the senior partner you work with and have to constantly impress him/her.]
Around 15-20 years PQE, when you do manage to become an equity partner, you become so bound to the clients that you got that you just cannot tell them no. So, you keep working equally hard. Only change being that your work is now more client management than actual drafting. But nonetheless, you are responsible for every single document that goes out in your name. And there are so many documents at this point, even if you spend 30 mins reviewing each one of them and doing daily client calls, you'll still be working at least 10 hours a day.
So the slightly relaxed work hours of 10 hours a day (versus 14 hours a day in your initial years) comes around the age of 40. By that time, your health will be destroyed after living the law firm stress life for 15 years. You will have the energy of 60 year old. Even 10 hours will be too stressful for your body then.
Then you'll hope that you'll retire. But you'll realise that your kids and wife have become so used to a decently rich lifestyle that you cannot really sustain them if you quit your job, no matter how much you've managed to save.
So you'll decide to shift to some alternative career which is less demanding, earns decent and is more fun. But after 15 years in a cubicle and a tiny glass room you'd have lost all your other skills. You would have changed as a person. What you dreamt of doing in your 20s will no longer excite you. And you'll realise your prime years have already gone by.
At that point, you'll kind of regret it:"ki letter haath me tha, taxi gate par thi, zara si himmat kar leta toh saali zindagi kuch aur ho sakti thi"
If that lie gets you through the day, so be it.
Partners get fired.
Partners are more stressed out than Associates.
Partners actively think about dropping out of firms & many do.
"Partner" in Indian firms has become a dignified term for Associates of a particular PQE.
Firms are becoming top-heavy. I see more Partner colleagues doing lower-level Senior Associate work.
Keep your expectations in check.
What I understood is Associate life is tough. But the associates who stay in law firms - do so for 11 to 15 years. So that they can become a partner.
Because after becoming a partner the 14 hour per day work hour doesn't exist. It's a relaxed life.
So all this you can read here is BS. Now I get it.
To be clear - after all the general gyaan about competence, legal skill, hard word etc etc. the corporate law firm career is a career where you are paid primarily for stress management.
Stress comes in various shapes and forms.
When you are an intern, it comes from the possibility of unemployment.
When you are an associate - it comes from your SA, PA / Partner.
When you are an SA, it comes from your associate not doing their job properly but also from your PA / Partner.
When you are a PA / Salaried Partner, it comes from your associates / SAs not doing their job properly, but also the client possibly complaining about the matter to your partner, and then your partner yelling at you.
When you are an partner, it comes from your client dropping you / not paying your fees etc. Your associates not doing their job properly etc. etc.
The more stress you can manage - the better you will be at being a corporate lawyer. That doesn't mean that just because you are good at stress management you will be a good corporate lawyer, but being a good corporate lawyer (or one who makes it up the chain of command) will inevitably mean you are good at managing stress.
From a "making it" point of view, what you need to know is that - everyone finds their balance / their place where they are happy to stabilize. Some folks move on from law firms to in-house jobs - this works out in some cases, and in some cases it does not.
For me - I moved on from a Tier 1 practice to a relatively new firm and it worked out great for me. I make roughly as much as my peers now (actually more in some cases) - and my life is entirely within my control. I sometimes get to take afternoon naps and most evenings I have time to read some parts of a book, go exercise etc. It works for me, and I know a few others who also have a decent life, but that's not the case for anyone working in a Tier 1 practice. You are there to make money for the main families / core partners - and till you are servicing their income, there will be no break.