ESG Practice Group Hours Forum

[Mr. Kister]

I've been invited to join my firm's relatively new ESG practice group. I'm hoping the hours will be more humane based on the overview I've been given of the work, but I also know that law firms find a way to make everything stressful. I'd appreciate any insight TLSers could give.

[Anonymous User]

Not an ESG person, but my firm has a small ESG group and I’m in a bigger transactional group. My impression is that it’s similar to any transactional specialist/support group, in that you do a smaller piece of each matter but you’re juggling a bunch. And you might still have to jump on a 9pm call on Saturday because the lead deal partner has a question (this happened on one of my matters recently). The other thing is that there may be an expectation of regularly writing client memos, etc. since it’s an emerging area, so you should ask about that and be prepared for it.

[Anonymous User]

I've been invited to join my firm's relatively new ESG practice group. I'm hoping the hours will be more humane based on the overview I've been given of the work, but I also know that law firms find a way to make everything stressful. I'd appreciate any insight TLSers could give.

this depends on what ESG means at your firm. i straddle my firm's esg group and unlike the poster above, it's a pretty standalone practice and is much more corp gov than transactional support. hours and deadlines are generally predictable (e.g., you'll be slammed around proxy season) though there's the (rare) fire drill. lots of client memos and advisory work, but ime, given the nature of ESG, no one's really rushing into anything so the pace is pretty relaxed (especially in comparison to the other work i do). seems like there's a decent demand for the skill set (for now, at least) wrt exit options.

[Anonymous User]

Terrible. I'd say this gets lumped into our firm's shareholder activism practice, so it's mostly governance and proxy fight things. The environmental/social are part of this but also through some energy work, too. Everything is a fire drill so you have to cancel on people a lot and there is no sense of when things happen since when opposing party files something, it's all hands on deck. Partners (although they are very nice people) schedule calls late at night on Sundays; sitting in on board meetings on weekends or late during weekdays after work hours. Have to deal with SEC comments and letters. Everything is contested in a proxy fight; it's probably the only practice area at our firm that has worse hours than typical M&A/capital markets. Most at my firm actively try to avoid getting staffed on these matters or just directly say no. This practice historically comes out of our NYC office, but they have been so short staffed, they try to staff anyone willing to take it (which end up being first years who don't know better).

Upside is that so few people do it, you'll pretty much be guaranteed to make partner if you stick through the misery, but it sort of messes up your exits if you aren't on deals and things like that. You can get sufficient governance work on deals for exits imo, so being super specialized with the intent to leave big law doesn't seem optimal.

Also as an interesting note, I've noticed that at my firm, the practice area is dominated by women (I only note this because the firm is very male heavy overall, and this is an observation I've had. I'm not really sure why this is the case, though).

[Mr. Kister]

I've been invited to join my firm's relatively new ESG practice group. I'm hoping the hours will be more humane based on the overview I've been given of the work, but I also know that law firms find a way to make everything stressful. I'd appreciate any insight TLSers could give.

this depends on what ESG means at your firm. i straddle my firm's esg group and unlike the poster above, it's a pretty standalone practice and is much more corp gov than transactional support. hours and deadlines are generally predictable (e.g., you'll be slammed around proxy season) though there's the (rare) fire drill. lots of client memos and advisory work, but ime, given the nature of ESG, no one's really rushing into anything so the pace is pretty relaxed (especially in comparison to the other work i do). seems like there's a decent demand for the skill set (for now, at least) wrt exit options.

Thank you all! It seems the correct response is to ensure its a pure ESG/corporate governance group that would lead to a situation like the one quoted. The other two sound pretty miserable.

[Anonymous User]

ESG/corp gov counseling/activist defense is like ~30% of my practice (rest being more general transactional)

I actually enjoy it, but proxy contests are as much work/as unpredictable hours as any M&A deal.

14a-8 letters are terrible though. Gibson Dunn does a ton and I would quit before I did that shit semi-fulltime

[Anonymous User]

ESG/corp gov counseling/activist defense is like ~30% of my practice (rest being more general transactional)

I actually enjoy it, but proxy contests are as much work/as unpredictable hours as any M&A deal.

14a-8 letters are terrible though. Gibson Dunn does a ton and I would quit before I did that shit semi-fulltime

So, would you say most of your time is predictable? What makes 14a-8 letters unpleasant?

[synergy]

Bump. Also interested in this, can people speak to exit options as well? Would also be interested in hearing what a typical day looks like if possible. Thanks in advance!