How predictable are the hours in your practice group? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Law student here and very curious to learn more about the "culture" of different practice groups in Biglaw, and so I have a couple of non-substantive questions:

(1) What group are you in and how predictable are your hours, generally?
(2) If they are not predictable, how unpredictable are they? How often do you have fire drills, and how intense are those fire drills?
(3) How often do you work late (until 12pm)? How often have you stayed up all night? Weekend work?
(4) Does what firm you are in effect the answer to these questions more than the practice group?

TIA!

[Davidbentley]

Law student here and very curious to learn more about the "culture" of different practice groups in Biglaw, and so I have a couple of non-substantive questions:

(1) What group are you in and how predictable are your hours, generally?
(2) If they are not predictable, how unpredictable are they? How often do you have fire drills, and how intense are those fire drills?
(3) How often do you work late (until 12pm)? How often have you stayed up all night? Weekend work?
(4) Does what firm you are in effect the answer to these questions more than the practice group?

TIA!

(1) M&A. Depends on your time horizon. Over the next couple of weeks, usually quite predictable. Over the next couple of months, somewhat predictable. Gets more predictable as you get more senior, generally.

(2) If you define a fire drill as a moment where you, in theory, have to drop everything and do X, then they arise fairly frequently, but they also don't last very long. Usually, you can see the busiest periods coming (e.g., we are submitting a bid on Monday, on Wednesday they will tell us if we won, and if we win, we want to sign in 2 days). Intensity is an odd question, if you mean how busy can you get, my busiest week was a little over 100, I've had a couple in the high 80s or low 90s. But that was not all time where i would say i was in a fire drill. I just had a lot of shit to do and had a deal or two signing or closing.

(3) I assume you mean 12am. I work late often, but that's because I usually stop billing around 6-7 pm and pick back up around 10PM. I've adopted this because I've found a lot of partners and more senior people with kids tend to do that, so i'll often get comments back on stuff around 9PM. I don't like to leave work for the next day if possible. The number of times where I've sat down at 9AM and stood up at midnight is relatively low. Usually if I'm sending emails at midnight, it's stuff that I could have, in theory, done earlier. In 5 years, I can probably count on one hand the number of times that I've accomplished a real all-nighter where i continued working without sleep through well more than 24 hours (people will often say they pulled an all-nighter when they mean they went to bed at 4 am and woke up at 8AM. They usually arise when you're sitting around waiting for docs to be turned while you're trying to sign a deal or if you happen to have 2 or more deals going hot at the same time. Emails on weekends (reading them) is almost every weekend. Actually doing something that requires effort is probably 2 out 3 weekends. Wasting the whole weekend is relatively rare. My worst period was about 90 days in a row of legitimate (i.e., not just a few minutes) of work.

(4) I would say your specific group (i.e., the actual people you work with) is the most important predictor. You can have a sweaty firm but be in a dead group, or you could be in a hot group at a firm with a lifestyle reputation. I think firm matters to the extent it dictates how work flows--free market vs. non. Also, the more junior you are, the more relevant the way partners/senior associates work also are to your schedule. Some people are notoriously soulless bastards who have no lives and find sitting online at 2 am and going over redlines to be fun. Some are chaos agents who turn every deal into a cluster and can't think ahead. Others make everything completely terrible because of their neurosis or sclerotic tendencies. To the extent you can shape your practice so that you work with people that you mesh with (temperamentally and in terms of their preferred work times), the better for your state of contentment, I have found.

[Anonymous User]

1 - M&A. 0 predictability. Gets better as you get more senior, but that's all relative. You still don't really know and you never really know.

2- Fire drills happen basically on a weekly basis. They're somewhat intense in that you have to drop everything, and usually that's to the detriment of something else you were trying to get done (this frankly gets worse as you get more senior and start hitting midlevel years where more is expected of you). I've had only a few weeks above 100 billable, but probably 10 times a year, if not more, I bill 75+ in a week. That's a rough week (it's a 300 hour pace for reference if you did 4 of those in a row). I bill 250+ multiple times in any given year which is also rough, and 300+ is hit or miss, but that's still probably 1.5 times per year, sometimes more, like with COVID. 300+ is when you're really in the thick of it and start contemplating all of your life choices in my experience and it's miserable. At that range for me, it's when you start to hate even the somewhat reasonable people you work with.

3- I work past 12pm probably 2-5 nights every week. No exceptions. I also have kids so that affects my working hours, but overall, this job sucks. I will be working past midnight every night this week and it's Thanksgiving and I only have 2 active deals (when I typically have 3-5).

4- I wouldn't say more, but yes it's a major factor. I'm *barely* in a v30 (read into that what you will), and it seems like it's been a little extra sweatshopey this year. Maybe that's COVID, maybe it's my practice area, but I think it's a combination of practice area and firm. M&A will always be worse than most other areas, but certain firms just work you harder. Hopefully if you end up at one of those places (billing 2300-2400+), you don't have to worry about comp and will have generous bonuses and you're probably getting a slight prestige bump on your resume. If you don't think you're getting either of those things, it's time to lateral.

[Whatislaw]

L&E - Generally very predictable if you manage your caseload well. Fire drills are once or twice a month and think late night (10/11pm). Rarely weekends (aside from spending some time organizing my cases and admin stuff that I didn't get to during the week).

[Stevenmilbe]

Any funds or tax lawyers out there care to share? Very interested in this info as well

[Anonymous User]

Law student here and very curious to learn more about the "culture" of different practice groups in Biglaw, and so I have a couple of non-substantive questions:

(1) What group are you in and how predictable are your hours, generally?
(2) If they are not predictable, how unpredictable are they? How often do you have fire drills, and how intense are those fire drills?
(3) How often do you work late (until 12pm)? How often have you stayed up all night? Weekend work?
(4) Does what firm you are in effect the answer to these questions more than the practice group?

TIA!

(1) Real estate. Generally quite predictable.

(2) Fire drills do happen, though they aren’t frequent. They are most often when acting as a specialist for a deal run out of another practice group, but it could also be a one off document/response needed immediately or a new acquisition/disposition that, for one reason or another, needs to move very quickly.

(3) Never pulled a true all-nighter and likely never will. Frequently work weekends, but usually between 2-6 hours across both days. People like to get documents out before the weekend, and when you’re on the receiving end, you don’t want to wait to get moving until Monday morning (though usually it’s not expected that you’d work on the weekend). Rarely work past midnight, though it happens occasionally and usually in spurts for a dense deal.

(4) Absolutely, but typically the partners you work for is most indicative. Some are better than others. It’s impossible to avoid unpredictability or long hours and do this job at the highest level, but that shouldn’t be the norm. If it is the norm, you have bad management.

[TigerIsBack]

Any funds or tax lawyers out there care to share? Very interested in this info as well

I'm not one, but I know some people in our funds group and they seem to be consistently busy, but with a much more normal/predictable schedule. The people I know consistently are billing 40-60, rarely above that, and almost always leave the office by 6 to go home for dinner and then sign back on after. I could be wrong, but I think the number of fire drills are way lower. But it's possible our group is an anomaly, or it could be that most of the people I talk to in that group are fairly senior so maybe they've earned that schedule.

[Anonymous User]

Any niche regulatory practitioners willing to chime in? More specifically, anyone in international trade/national security, but any word about a DC-based regulatory practice would be very insightful.



*Anon bc I don’t want to associate my username with practice area

[Anonymous User]

1) Securities Litigation: Hours are fairly predictable since they're tied to filing deadlines. You can usually see how busy your week is going to be based on the proximity to any filing(s) or internal deadlines for drafts which are set well in advance.

2) Fire Drills are pretty rare and usually mean: 1) someone on your team fucked up, whether its an associate dropping the ball on turning a draft or a partner being totally unengaged until the last minute; or 2) opposing counsel did something unexpected that requires active attention (like a last minute document dump before a deposition.)

3) Late work is highly partner dependent, when possible I will work 9am-7pm with maybe a 30 min. break for lunch and a few scattered emails in the evening. As a major filing approaches that often creeps up to 8/9/10/11pm, but if possible I avoid working much past 11pm and unless explicitly told otherwise will opt to start earlier (7/8am) to do work sent over at 10:30/11pm. It is a bit easier to do that when you know most of the schedule in advance, I can prioritize the work that needs to get done that night and punt items to the morning that can afford to be punted.

That being said, I've worked with at least partner who does a lot of work from 11pm-2am - since we work on pretty small teams I had to basically conform to their schedule for certain stretches of time. I've never pulled an all-nighter and I think the only juniors who regularly pull them are doing so semi by choice (i.e. some combination of procrastination/workaholic/or asking for too much work). This would 100% change if I was on a case going to trial, but that's rare.

I will also take slower weeks when my schedule permits (10am-5pm or something like that, or even just taking a random day off with some CLEs) - on track for 2200+ hours and the firm is pretty understanding about taking it slow when you don't have to be working.

All that being said, my sense is that the senior associates have much more intense schedules (which is honestly my biggest source of anxiety about staying where I am long term.)

4) As mentioned above, even at my firm my schedule is fairly partner dependent so it will vary between firms. That said, having at your base line a schedule either set by the court /agreement between parties provides a level of predictability that is helpful for time management and avoiding fire drills.

[Goceltics25]

Bumping, found this particularly helpful.

[Anonymous User]

1) White collar defense/investigations lit. My hours are significantly more predictable than M&A etc., but noticeably less predictable than traditional civil litigation because not as much of the work is tied to filing deadlines - you’re often at the mercy of the government’s whims.

2) They’re unpredictable enough that it is not unusual for something to come up that leads me to unexpectedly work much later than I planned. When I was very junior, I basically just didn’t make weeknight plans for this reason. As I got more senior and also built some credibility, I felt more free to *occasionally* buy weeknight theater tickets or make “nice” weeknight dinner plans, both because I wasn’t expected to be constantly available in the way that juniors are, and because I had built enough credibility that I didn’t come off as super irresponsible if something came in at 5 PM and I was like “hey I’m theoretically trying to be out of pocket from ~7-10 tonight but can start on this now and then then back to it right after. Also happy to cancel if needed,
of course.” It also gets easier to see what’s a real fire drill and what is just a senior associate panicking or being a tool.

3) Late, pretty often, although some of that is just a lack of self discipline or a large volume of work. It was worse when I was more junior. All night, a few times a year. Usually there’s a procrastination element to those nights that I’ve brought on myself, but sometimes it’s genuinely out of my control - e.g., I’m working on a govt presentation that’s a logistical mess and after a full day of prep I have to stay up all night to finalize stuff/do other work. I work at least a couple of hours pretty much every weekend and find that my colleagues seem to as well. The reason and amount of time worked varies, but the most common explanation is that I haven’t gotten to various important but not super urgent tasks during the week because I’ve had to devote time to unexpected work (e.g. someone found a bad document that raises a lot of new issues so now we need to follow up and research and discuss with the client etc, or the government asks to interview someone next week out of nowhere).

4) I think practice area is usually going to be much more relevant. The firm does matter - some are just gluttons for punishment, and my smaller current firm is generally more relaxed than my prior biglaw firm - but there’s a lot more similarity between white collar lit work at various firms than there is between white collar lit and m&a at the same firm.

[Anonymous User]

Any niche regulatory practitioners willing to chime in? More specifically, anyone in international trade/national security, but any word about a DC-based regulatory practice would be very insightful.



*Anon bc I don’t want to associate my username with practice area

On average, regulatory practices will be a lot more predictable and somewhat less demanding than core corporate practices for sure. But it will depend a lot on the type of work you’re doing.

IME, this depends less on your substantive niche than whether your practice is more focused on advisory, deal support, or investigations/litigation-y work (think bid protests). The more advisory work you’re doing, the more predictable your schedule will be, but the hours will likely be more intellectually intense. There’s no doc review to get easier hours. The more deal support, the crazier things will be.

I don’t have a ton of insight on international trade/national security specifically, but from my brief exposure, I believe CFIUS work can be pretty intense and fire drilly, since it tends to be deal-focused and the clients are often in very different time zones. But like I said, I don’t have that much insight and could be wrong.

[eastcoast_iub]

Any niche regulatory practitioners willing to chime in? More specifically, anyone in international trade/national security, but any word about a DC-based regulatory practice would be very insightful.



*Anon bc I don’t want to associate my username with practice area

On average, regulatory practices will be a lot more predictable and somewhat less demanding than core corporate practices for sure. But it will depend a lot on the type of work you’re doing.

IME, this depends less on your substantive niche than whether your practice is more focused on advisory, deal support, or investigations/litigation-y work (think bid protests). The more advisory work you’re doing, the more predictable your schedule will be, but the hours will likely be more intellectually intense. There’s no doc review to get easier hours. The more deal support, the crazier things will be.

I don’t have a ton of insight on international trade/national security specifically, but from my brief exposure, I believe CFIUS work can be pretty intense and fire drilly, since it tends to be deal-focused and the clients are often in very different time zones. But like I said, I don’t have that much insight and could be wrong.

I work in an international trade/CFIUS group. The hours are a lot more predictable than M&A and it is much easier to keep a regular schedule than M&A. It's not a cakewalk - CFIUS is generally more intense than other international trade practices, and it does have fire drills on occasion because CFIUS is a key gating item for many transactions. But they are less time-consuming than M&A fire drills and there are many fewer documents that you touch in a CFIUS practice than in M&A.

Maybe DC is the most desirable market just b/c it is a cool city, very international, highly educated populace, and that's where the government agencies are, but I also think a part of why it is so competitive to get into is the regularity of regulatory practices vs. other practices.

[Anonymous User]

Any niche regulatory practitioners willing to chime in? More specifically, anyone in international trade/national security, but any word about a DC-based regulatory practice would be very insightful.



*Anon bc I don’t want to associate my username with practice area

On average, regulatory practices will be a lot more predictable and somewhat less demanding than core corporate practices for sure. But it will depend a lot on the type of work you’re doing.

IME, this depends less on your substantive niche than whether your practice is more focused on advisory, deal support, or investigations/litigation-y work (think bid protests). The more advisory work you’re doing, the more predictable your schedule will be, but the hours will likely be more intellectually intense. There’s no doc review to get easier hours. The more deal support, the crazier things will be.

I don’t have a ton of insight on international trade/national security specifically, but from my brief exposure, I believe CFIUS work can be pretty intense and fire drilly, since it tends to be deal-focused and the clients are often in very different time zones. But like I said, I don’t have that much insight and could be wrong.

I work in an international trade/CFIUS group. The hours are a lot more predictable than M&A and it is much easier to keep a regular schedule than M&A. It's not a cakewalk - CFIUS is generally more intense than other international trade practices, and it does have fire drills on occasion because CFIUS is a key gating item for many transactions. But they are less time-consuming than M&A fire drills and there are many fewer documents that you touch in a CFIUS practice than in M&A.

Maybe DC is the most desirable market just b/c it is a cool city, very international, highly educated populace, and that's where the government agencies are, but I also think a part of why it is so competitive to get into is the regularity of regulatory practices vs. other practices.

I am the anon who first asked the question. Thank you both for your answers, they are very insightful. Could you maybe touch a little more on the regularity aspect you both mentioned? Are hours more regular in the sense that one can expect their M-F schedule to more consistently be, for example, 9am-7pm (or whatever "average working hours" are), or is it that your busy/down periods are more predictable/fall in regular cycles. if that makes sense?

I am also wondering about the nature of weekend work in these practices, particularly in a more advisory/investigation leaning practice rather than deal support one. Is it safe to assume that working across from a government agency or helping a client with a longer term advisory matter results in less weekend work? I'm fully expecting to do some administrative work on weekends/get things together for the next week, but am curious about the frequency of having to do actual, substantive work in addition.

[Anonymous User]

(1) What group are you in and how predictable are your hours, generally?
(2) If they are not predictable, how unpredictable are they? How often do you have fire drills, and how intense are those fire drills?
(3) How often do you work late (until 12pm)? How often have you stayed up all night? Weekend work?
(4) Does what firm you are in effect the answer to these questions more than the practice group?

(1) Patent litigation at a V10. Hours are pretty high but generally predictable since the schedule is set around court deadlines.
(2) Fire drills are rare (maybe once every month or two), but when they happen they're a bitch.
(3) I work past midnight on a pretty regular basis but that's mostly by choice since I'm in the NY office of my firm, and mostly work with people in CA, so I don't even wake up until like 9 most days. I can count on one hand the number of times I've actually had to pull an all-nighter. There is a decent amount of weekend work but it's usually not all weekend. I might have a 10-4 Saturday and a 12-3 Sunday, which still leaves my weekends pretty open.
(4) I don't think so. Patent litigation is pretty consistently high (but not overwhelming) hours that is fairly predictable. Overall I really enjoy the work and the people I work with, so the hours aren't that burdensome.

[Anonymous User]

Any niche regulatory practitioners willing to chime in? More specifically, anyone in international trade/national security, but any word about a DC-based regulatory practice would be very insightful.



*Anon bc I don’t want to associate my username with practice area

On average, regulatory practices will be a lot more predictable and somewhat less demanding than core corporate practices for sure. But it will depend a lot on the type of work you’re doing.

IME, this depends less on your substantive niche than whether your practice is more focused on advisory, deal support, or investigations/litigation-y work (think bid protests). The more advisory work you’re doing, the more predictable your schedule will be, but the hours will likely be more intellectually intense. There’s no doc review to get easier hours. The more deal support, the crazier things will be.

I don’t have a ton of insight on international trade/national security specifically, but from my brief exposure, I believe CFIUS work can be pretty intense and fire drilly, since it tends to be deal-focused and the clients are often in very different time zones. But like I said, I don’t have that much insight and could be wrong.

I work in an international trade/CFIUS group. The hours are a lot more predictable than M&A and it is much easier to keep a regular schedule than M&A. It's not a cakewalk - CFIUS is generally more intense than other international trade practices, and it does have fire drills on occasion because CFIUS is a key gating item for many transactions. But they are less time-consuming than M&A fire drills and there are many fewer documents that you touch in a CFIUS practice than in M&A.

Maybe DC is the most desirable market just b/c it is a cool city, very international, highly educated populace, and that's where the government agencies are, but I also think a part of why it is so competitive to get into is the regularity of regulatory practices vs. other practices.

I am the anon who first asked the question. Thank you both for your answers, they are very insightful. Could you maybe touch a little more on the regularity aspect you both mentioned? Are hours more regular in the sense that one can expect their M-F schedule to more consistently be, for example, 9am-7pm (or whatever "average working hours" are), or is it that your busy/down periods are more predictable/fall in regular cycles. if that makes sense?

I am also wondering about the nature of weekend work in these practices, particularly in a more advisory/investigation leaning practice rather than deal support one. Is it safe to assume that working across from a government agency or helping a client with a longer term advisory matter results in less weekend work? I'm fully expecting to do some administrative work on weekends/get things together for the next week, but am curious about the frequency of having to do actual, substantive work in addition.

I’m the first anon (without the international trade experience). For advisory, required weekend work—rather than non-urgent work that has simply piled up—is rare. For investigations, it happens a decent amount. In my experience, at least, that wasn’t driven by the government so much as clients. Things can change quickly and there’s a lot at stake for the client, so there can be a good amount of urgency at times.

That said, being a DC regulatory attorney is still vastly superior to most other Biglaw jobs, as the other anon said. Plus you’re gaining expertise that is pretty rare and can make going in-house/to government easier than many other practices.

[eastcoast_iub]

Any niche regulatory practitioners willing to chime in? More specifically, anyone in international trade/national security, but any word about a DC-based regulatory practice would be very insightful.



*Anon bc I don’t want to associate my username with practice area

On average, regulatory practices will be a lot more predictable and somewhat less demanding than core corporate practices for sure. But it will depend a lot on the type of work you’re doing.

IME, this depends less on your substantive niche than whether your practice is more focused on advisory, deal support, or investigations/litigation-y work (think bid protests). The more advisory work you’re doing, the more predictable your schedule will be, but the hours will likely be more intellectually intense. There’s no doc review to get easier hours. The more deal support, the crazier things will be.

I don’t have a ton of insight on international trade/national security specifically, but from my brief exposure, I believe CFIUS work can be pretty intense and fire drilly, since it tends to be deal-focused and the clients are often in very different time zones. But like I said, I don’t have that much insight and could be wrong.

I work in an international trade/CFIUS group. The hours are a lot more predictable than M&A and it is much easier to keep a regular schedule than M&A. It's not a cakewalk - CFIUS is generally more intense than other international trade practices, and it does have fire drills on occasion because CFIUS is a key gating item for many transactions. But they are less time-consuming than M&A fire drills and there are many fewer documents that you touch in a CFIUS practice than in M&A.

Maybe DC is the most desirable market just b/c it is a cool city, very international, highly educated populace, and that's where the government agencies are, but I also think a part of why it is so competitive to get into is the regularity of regulatory practices vs. other practices.

I am the anon who first asked the question. Thank you both for your answers, they are very insightful. Could you maybe touch a little more on the regularity aspect you both mentioned? Are hours more regular in the sense that one can expect their M-F schedule to more consistently be, for example, 9am-7pm (or whatever "average working hours" are), or is it that your busy/down periods are more predictable/fall in regular cycles. if that makes sense?

I am also wondering about the nature of weekend work in these practices, particularly in a more advisory/investigation leaning practice rather than deal support one. Is it safe to assume that working across from a government agency or helping a client with a longer term advisory matter results in less weekend work? I'm fully expecting to do some administrative work on weekends/get things together for the next week, but am curious about the frequency of having to do actual, substantive work in addition.

Hours are definitely more consistent. I would say my most common hours are like 9-6, but those hours are not as heavy as M&A hours. Generally fewer e-mails to deal with b/c you are not playing the quarterback role of M&A, plus the practice is much less client facing at the junior to mid levels and therefore less stressful. Evening work does come up fairly regularly, but usually is comprised of discreet tasks that can be handled in 15-30 minutes. Same for weekend work, which is usually deal support. Less pressure to do CFIUS work over the weekend unless there is a tight filing timeline coded into the purchase agreement, but as you said the government is unavailable on the weekend, which helps a lot.

I would highly recommend the practice, the deal support is not my favorite but unlike some other specialist groups (e.g. benefits, labor) whose practice is heavily focused on deal support, if you develop a CFIUS specialty that will comprise a substantial portion of your work and it is important, high value-add work.

[Anonymous User]

If you’re at a firm that has a DC office that does this stuff, but you’re in a different office in general corporate, how could you transition? Should I be reaching out to attorneys in that group asking for work?

Thanks!

[lolwutpar]

(1) What group are you in and how predictable are your hours, generally?
(2) If they are not predictable, how unpredictable are they? How often do you have fire drills, and how intense are those fire drills?
(3) How often do you work late (until 12pm)? How often have you stayed up all night? Weekend work?
(4) Does what firm you are in effect the answer to these questions more than the practice group?

1. Corporate midlevel. Predictable ish. I do a bit of everything and when you're staffed on deals you'll have a general sense of how things need to move. I guess the unpredictability comes from not knowing when you'll get staffed on something. A partner could hit me up on Wednesday for a securities deal launching Thursday, for example. Or you could get staffed on a bunch of new shit within a few days.

2. I rarely have "unpredictable" fire drills. More often, you have a deal that's supposed to be imminently signing and something pops up that you need to scramble to deal with. It's more rare (but not uncommon) for a totally out of the blue fire drill to come up. When it's on, though, you are basically ignoring all other tasks and emails.

3. Very rarely. I don't stay up late generally, so I don't work until midnight unless it's absolutely crucial. I've never pulled an all nighter, but I've gotten like 2 hours of sleep. Weekend work has become more common as I've become more senior. It's rarely all weekend but I find myself needing to log on more than I used to.

4. No, not really. I suppose at my first firm (white shoe NYC based firm) we had more complex deals which meant more issues. So in that sense I have stayed up later and had more intense periods than my current firm. But I don't think it's an appreciable difference.

[eastcoast_iub]

If you’re at a firm that has a DC office that does this stuff, but you’re in a different office in general corporate, how could you transition? Should I be reaching out to attorneys in that group asking for work?

Thanks!

PM me.

[Anonymous User]

Any niche regulatory practitioners willing to chime in? More specifically, anyone in international trade/national security, but any word about a DC-based regulatory practice would be very insightful.



*Anon bc I don’t want to associate my username with practice area

On average, regulatory practices will be a lot more predictable and somewhat less demanding than core corporate practices for sure. But it will depend a lot on the type of work you’re doing.

IME, this depends less on your substantive niche than whether your practice is more focused on advisory, deal support, or investigations/litigation-y work (think bid protests). The more advisory work you’re doing, the more predictable your schedule will be, but the hours will likely be more intellectually intense. There’s no doc review to get easier hours. The more deal support, the crazier things will be.

I don’t have a ton of insight on international trade/national security specifically, but from my brief exposure, I believe CFIUS work can be pretty intense and fire drilly, since it tends to be deal-focused and the clients are often in very different time zones. But like I said, I don’t have that much insight and could be wrong.

I work in an international trade/CFIUS group. The hours are a lot more predictable than M&A and it is much easier to keep a regular schedule than M&A. It's not a cakewalk - CFIUS is generally more intense than other international trade practices, and it does have fire drills on occasion because CFIUS is a key gating item for many transactions. But they are less time-consuming than M&A fire drills and there are many fewer documents that you touch in a CFIUS practice than in M&A.

Maybe DC is the most desirable market just b/c it is a cool city, very international, highly educated populace, and that's where the government agencies are, but I also think a part of why it is so competitive to get into is the regularity of regulatory practices vs. other practices.

I am the anon who first asked the question. Thank you both for your answers, they are very insightful. Could you maybe touch a little more on the regularity aspect you both mentioned? Are hours more regular in the sense that one can expect their M-F schedule to more consistently be, for example, 9am-7pm (or whatever "average working hours" are), or is it that your busy/down periods are more predictable/fall in regular cycles. if that makes sense?

I am also wondering about the nature of weekend work in these practices, particularly in a more advisory/investigation leaning practice rather than deal support one. Is it safe to assume that working across from a government agency or helping a client with a longer term advisory matter results in less weekend work? I'm fully expecting to do some administrative work on weekends/get things together for the next week, but am curious about the frequency of having to do actual, substantive work in addition.

Hours are definitely more consistent. I would say my most common hours are like 9-6, but those hours are not as heavy as M&A hours. Generally fewer e-mails to deal with b/c you are not playing the quarterback role of M&A, plus the practice is much less client facing at the junior to mid levels and therefore less stressful. Evening work does come up fairly regularly, but usually is comprised of discreet tasks that can be handled in 15-30 minutes. Same for weekend work, which is usually deal support. Less pressure to do CFIUS work over the weekend unless there is a tight filing timeline coded into the purchase agreement, but as you said the government is unavailable on the weekend, which helps a lot.

I would highly recommend the practice, the deal support is not my favorite but unlike some other specialist groups (e.g. benefits, labor) whose practice is heavily focused on deal support, if you develop a CFIUS specialty that will comprise a substantial portion of your work and it is important, high value-add work.

Awesome, thank you so much for this. I will have an opportunity to get involved in my firm's CFIUS work but since its quite a niche practice, it's hard to get info on what its like ahead of time, so I really appreciate your insights.

I also just generally feel quite lucky to have gotten a regulatory gig in DC based on these comments!