How many hours do you really work at a large law firm? Forum

[Anonymous User]

My two cents is in line with Smaug--it's not the hours but the incumbent stress that is the real killer. My March to March billables were over 3k i believe. A lot of that was travel to all over the fucking place, which is shitty in its own way, and kind of soul sucking when you're traveling to shitty places where you don't know people and you do something all day and then go to your hotel to catch up on other work. High hour months when you are home all the time are much worse though. A couple months ago I was at the office until 11 on 3 Fridays and went to sleep at 1:30 or 2 most nights.

It's very taxing to be mentally engaged on stuff for that long and it is hard to turn your brain off when you work late and need to go to bed. It's also very frustrating when people you know are slammed but keep piling stuff on because everyone else is slammed and someone has to do it. Or when people wait for things to become fire drills and it ruins your night/weekend.

As for efficiency, i think it is much easier to work efficiently when slammed. I don't get shit done when I have a few non-time sensitive projects or short one-off projects. But if I have 10k docs to review or a brief to research and write then it's easier to work for big blocks of time.

This is all very true. When slammed, you also tend to "focus" more on what really needs to be done on the assignment and cut out all the fat that would normally take up time.

[Anonymous User]

Here's a list of what makes biglaw bad:
- Multiple people asking for stuff at the same time (and if you turn any of them down, they will be mad and think you are not committed to the firm)

To me, this is the absolute worst part of it. You don't have a "boss." You might have five bosses on a given day. And they all want it now.

- Every assignment is a learning project - I don't know about you guys, but sometimes I just want to relax and stop thinking all the time.

I agree whole-heartedly. And it gets to a point where you don't want to ask how to do something, because that is also likely to reflect poorly on you and show up on a review six months from now. So you guess and pray.

Your whole post was spot-on.

I can't wait to get out. I'll be happy I did it and lived in this kind of pressure-cooker for a few years. Every job after this will seem easy.

I will add this: You are almost always attempting to carry out someone else's vision. Which means, inevitably, you almost always get it wrong. I'm four years in and know I'm a pretty good writer. I'm devastated every time I get a draft back from a partner or senior associate, though.

[Anonymous User]

Here's a list of what makes biglaw bad:
- Multiple people asking for stuff at the same time (and if you turn any of them down, they will be mad and think you are not committed to the firm)

To me, this is the absolute worst part of it. You don't have a "boss." You might have five bosses on a given day. And they all want it now.

- Every assignment is a learning project - I don't know about you guys, but sometimes I just want to relax and stop thinking all the time.

I agree whole-heartedly. And it gets to a point where you don't want to ask how to do something, because that is also likely to reflect poorly on you and show up on a review six months from now. So you guess and pray.

Your whole post was spot-on.

I can't wait to get out. I'll be happy I did it and lived in this kind of pressure-cooker for a few years. Every job after this will seem easy.

I will add this: You are almost always attempting to carry out someone else's vision. Which means, inevitably, you almost always get it wrong. I'm four years in and know I'm a pretty good writer. I'm devastated every time I get a draft back from a partner or senior associate, though.

Yes. Dear God, yes.