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Law firm job in Tier 1/2 is definitely not a normal job where you work 9-5 and you leave office by 6:30pm - 7pm. So what is the norm?
WEEKDAYS:
Average working hours are 10-12 hours a day where you leave at 9pm - 11pm. Please note this is the “average”. You may end up working till 3am/ over night also on certain days/ certain weeks.
Depending on team and workflow you may also get some respite where you only have 4-5 hours of work when work is slow for the team - but usually in down cycle/ or it rarely happens.
Weekends - average every other weekend is working - it may range from 4 hours of work to completely working as if it is a 12 hour workday (depends on workload)
PEOPLE
If you look at the above numbers, you’ll realise that unless you are extremely driven to achieve partner status/ some financial goal in mind, this is not sustainable over a long time. People who work such hours usually have their personal life in shambles. If they don’t care about themselves, less chance they will care about you.
Due to insane hours, lot of SAs/ PAs move in-house, but when you join the law firm, you won’t meet them as you only meet the ones you have stayed on despite their personal life being affected. So the probability of having balanced caring seniors becomes lesser as you move up the ladder.
CULTURE
This is where the culture of the city/ firm/ team becomes important.
Lawyers are not monolithic bunch and there do exist helpful seniors and decent teams, but usually the teams have very low attrition. Also, within teams, certain seniors may be helpful, while certain seniors may not considerate.
Best idea - reach out to your alumni network to get an honest feedback about teams
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Suggested details to include :
Firm name:
Practice area:
Partner name if possible :
Location:
Hours per day/actual start and end times on average:
Weekend hours: whether it is entire weekends or partial weekend and how often
Culture: Even if the hours are terrible is the work good and are the more senior associates and partners
1 - trying to help you grow as a lawyer or don’t really care
2 - indifferent either way
3 - somewhat nasty
Overall your happiness on 100
Let’s help each other