Had to Stay Late: Getting Nervous Forum

[094320]

..

[fats provolone]

that's why you work at a firm with no face time requirement. you can move a few time zones away and not tell anyone.

[sinfiery]

Serious question: How on earth can your brain function for 13 hours straight every day? Or is there some fairly mindless work in between that you can bill too.

[Anonymous User]

Serious question: How on earth can your brain function for 13 hours straight every day? Or is there some fairly mindless work in between that you can bill too.

(Posting anon because I have several colleagues that I know are on this site) Seriously, adderall is a helluva drug. When I'm billing, I don't usually go more than 6-7 hours straight without a beak, which is a bit above average. A lot of the times, if you have a big inventory and no super pressing deadlines, you can pick things apart and do pieces of tasks each day. So, I'll usually do something until I hit a phase where I need someone else's input or need them to do anything. That buys a couple hours to move to the next project, which is hopefully doc review. I hate long blocks of doc review. When timed just right, however, it's a nice break from writing briefs.

[KD35]

Now I want to know the firm.

[GOATlawman]

Serious question: How on earth can your brain function for 13 hours straight every day? Or is there some fairly mindless work in between that you can bill too.

Seriously, adderall is a helluva drug.

TCR

[r6_philly]

Maybe having a work life balance to most include working until/past 8pm to all the associates? There is a lot to do after 9pm ...

Also, not all firms requires to be billing in the office and/or in the evenings. You were given some work to be done before the morning, so manage it yourself. He didn't tell you to stay and do the work, just do it. Sounds like 3 hours or work... You could have went home and parties and got in at 7am to finish.

[Anonymous User]

OP again.

I guess I should have realized this earlier. I don't know how much longer I can last with these hours. Had to stay till 9:30 pm last night. How early can you leave your biglaw firm before it raises any eyebrows. Obviously now is too soon, but how about 6 months in? A year? Also, what kind of jobs should I be looking at?

[KMart]

OP again.

I guess I should have realized this earlier. I don't know how much longer I can last with these hours. Had to stay till 9:30 pm last night. How early can you leave your biglaw firm before it raises any eyebrows. Obviously now is too soon, but how about 6 months in? A year? Also, what kind of jobs should I be looking at?

Does working variables of 40-80 hours a week bother you? Law might not be for you, but you can check out what other jobs outside of big law are like here.

[valen]

OP here.

What is the joke? During my SA this firm was all about "having a life outside of work" and "humane hours". In fact that's why I picked them.

I assume this is a flame. All the same, That was recruiting. Now you're an associate.

I enjoyed this

[A. Nony Mouse]

I realize this sounds snarky and it's really not intended as snark: how can we tell you what kinds of jobs you should look at? What do you want to do, besides have control over your schedule? What kind of work are you doing now/what kind of experience do you have?

There was a thread just recently (maybe called something like "why work for the government?" But I forget exactly) where federal attorneys were talking about how they have to get permission to work more than 40 hours a week. However, if you're in litigation and a case goes to trial (or big hearings), you have to put in the hours regardless, if the work has to get done. Although it's often clearer in lit when the crunch times will be (the court sets deadlines so you know what's needed when, roughly, although opposing counsel can sandbag you somewhat), if you're in biglaw your schedule will still probably be at the mercy of midlevels and partners who won't give you much notice. (Probably in most firms, unless maybe very small.)

The problem is that law is a service profession, so in many cases you're subject to the whims of your clients. The best way to control your own hours (apart from the 40-hour-max federal jobs, I guess) is probably to go solo (but there are a lot of other risks associated with that).

[baal hadad]

OP again.

I guess I should have realized this earlier. I don't know how much longer I can last with these hours. Had to stay till 9:30 pm last night. How early can you leave your biglaw firm before it raises any eyebrows. Obviously now is too soon, but how about 6 months in? A year? Also, what kind of jobs should I be looking at?

Lol

[FSK]

Lets think about this issue logically

1) Law firms make money by billing your time
2) Partners want to make as much money as possible.
3) You make an exorbitant amount of money and have no skills beyond legal research and moving commas around
4) You're entirely fungible, and can be replaced in two weeks by another bright eyed young doe looking to grind it out
5) As a result you're going to work long hours.

[GOATlawman]

OP again.

I guess I should have realized this earlier. I don't know how much longer I can last with these hours. Had to stay till 9:30 pm last night. How early can you leave your biglaw firm before it raises any eyebrows. Obviously now is too soon, but how about 6 months in? A year? Also, what kind of jobs should I be looking at?

I understand that people in France have pretty solid hours. 35 max or something. Maybe try opening a coffee shop or something?

[Anonymous User]

.

[AnaMariana42]

OP again.

I guess I should have realized this earlier. I don't know how much longer I can last with these hours. Had to stay till 9:30 pm last night. How early can you leave your biglaw firm before it raises any eyebrows. Obviously now is too soon, but how about 6 months in? A year? Also, what kind of jobs should I be looking at?

You have to realize how naive and whiny you sound with this. There's no way you went through law school talking to people and thought biglaw would be a strictly 9-5.

[FlightoftheEarls]

Serious question: How on earth can your brain function for 13 hours straight every day? Or is there some fairly mindless work in between that you can bill too.

If my brain only had to function for 13 hours straight every day, this job would be a piece of cake. When you're working until 5 a.m. multiple days in a row and sleeping under your desk since going home to sleep in your bed for 2 hours and come back to the office wastes an extra hour of sleep you can't afford to give up now that you're on the 4th day of that type of run, it's actually a pretty dark experience. Obviously those are the exceptions when deals just get crazy busy, but they certainly happen.

[Anonymous User]

Serious question: How on earth can your brain function for 13 hours straight every day? Or is there some fairly mindless work in between that you can bill too.

If my brain only had to function for 13 hours straight every day, this job would be a piece of cake. When you're working until 5 a.m. multiple days in a row and sleeping under your desk since going home to sleep in your bed for 2 hours and come back to the office wastes an extra hour of sleep you can't afford to give up now that you're on the 4th day of that type of run, it's actually a pretty dark experience. Obviously those are the exceptions when deals just get crazy busy, but they certainly happen.

This, completely. I'm one week into a stretch where I've not gotten more than four hours of sleep a night - some nights only 2-3 hours - with three days to go. Thinking is an effort right now that requires pushing through a haze. If I was finishing work at 10 PM right now (i.e. 13 hours), I would - without irony - considering myself to be getting off "really early" for the night. That's still enough time to eat dinner outside the office AND meet friends for a drink or hit the gym late.

[84651846190]

What you've described is what happens at a firm with good work life balance.

At a firm with bad work life balance, they give you the assignment at 8 and you work until midnight.