Updated 2022 Version: Lawyers: What is your typical day? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Thought this was worth it as I barely saw any recent responses with daily schedules from corporate attorneys in big law. Thought it would be worthwhile to get this started again as the original thread is nearly dead and the only relevant responses for certain types of work date back to 2016 or earlier.

What's your title (including years of experience)/Type of work/ practice group/city or location?
+ Schedule.

Example:
First year Commercial Real Estate/Corporate Law, Boutique Firm, Major U.S. Market. No billable requirement.

7:00 AM - wake up, breakfast, get ready
8:15 AM - leave house
8:45-9:15AM - arrive at work
9:15-11:00AM - answer e-mails from the night before, review what deals will be closing soon and what still needs to be done in the way of due diligence, etc.
11AM-12:00PM - reviewing loan documents/drafting and amending various organizational documents for entities in preparation for acquisition or financing (usually our clients operate through LLCs, so, operating agreements, articles of organization, etc.)
12PM - 1PM - Lunch - usually at my desk while surfing the web, sometimes I go out. I try to take a little bit of time during the day to step away.
1PM - 5PM - conference calls/status calls with lenders and clients on various deals, as well as other client work such as drafting/reviewing commercial leases or purchase and sale agreements.
5:30-6:00PM - finish up for the day, send final e-mails, head out.

If a big deal is closing I'll be in the office later than above, but typically I'm out by 5:30 /6:30

[Anonymous User]

Fifth year. Corp lit. Major U.S. Market. 2000 hour billable requirement.

7:10am - wake up and turn off my alarm. sit in bed and look at social media and news on my personal phone. Try to lay on my back to stretch and flatten out my aching body out. Feel the weight of another restless night where I can't sleep from a combination of work anxiety and noisy neighbors.
7:30am - force myself to get out of bed and pee.
7:30-8am - drink coffee and play the crossword. Resist looking at my work phone (a small black square that haunts me daily and will almost certainly be full of nightmares waiting for me), dread the day to come.
815am - finally boot up my work computer (my firm is still remote). Delay looking at work phone/email as long as possible.
830am - look at work email. Can't help but laugh at the fact that there have been another 15-20 emails sent in the few hour timespan I was asleep for things that are insignificant but have been magnified and scrutinized over again and again by people with worse anxiety than me and who apparently don't sleep.
830-9am - go through each new work email that came in while I was asleep to assess how much my day or week has been further ruined, what needs immediate response, what can be ignored.
9-930am - respond to a handful of emails, look at my calendar and remind myself of what my day will look like, what calls I have, when I will actually have time to do the assignments they keep piling on me. Strategize how to say "no" to an email I got on Saturday asking me to work on something new.
930-10am - shower and get dressed, try to listen to a sports podcast that I only hear half of because I am having imaginary arguments in my head about how I am going to respond to the 15-20 emails that came in while I was asleep.
10am-7pm - work. This involves everything from drafting discovery responses and requests, drafting motions and briefs, getting on calls with partners and clients to discuss said assignments. Manage document productions. Meet and confer with opposing counsel and argue about inane things. Calls with expert witnesses. Prepare deposition outlines. I probably take about 15-20 minutes around 12pm to go to my kitchen to quickly eat some bread and eggs.
7pm-730pm - eat dinner and ask my partner about their day. Try to listen and have good conversations but can't stop thinking about work.
730-9pm - work more, keep responding to emails from partners. Decide I am going to "stand up for myself" and stop responding because it is 9pm.
9-10pm - try to read recreationally, but am so burnt out from the day I end up looking at my phone or watching something terrible on TV.
11pm - drift into a limbo semi consciousness where I toss and turn in bed, lost between a waking state and dream state. If I fall asleep I have nightmares about floods and tidal waves. If I am awake I think about work.

[Anonymous User]

Fifth year. Corp lit. Major U.S. Market. 2000 hour billable requirement.

7:10am - wake up and turn off my alarm. sit in bed and look at social media and news on my personal phone. Try to lay on my back to stretch and flatten out my aching body out. Feel the weight of another restless night where I can't sleep from a combination of work anxiety and noisy neighbors.
7:30am - force myself to get out of bed and pee.
7:30-8am - drink coffee and play the crossword. Resist looking at my work phone (a small black square that haunts me daily and will almost certainly be full of nightmares waiting for me), dread the day to come.
815am - finally boot up my work computer (my firm is still remote). Delay looking at work phone/email as long as possible.
830am - look at work email. Can't help but laugh at the fact that there have been another 15-20 emails sent in the few hour timespan I was asleep for things that are insignificant but have been magnified and scrutinized over again and again by people with worse anxiety than me and who apparently don't sleep.
830-9am - go through each new work email that came in while I was asleep to assess how much my day or week has been further ruined, what needs immediate response, what can be ignored.
9-930am - respond to a handful of emails, look at my calendar and remind myself of what my day will look like, what calls I have, when I will actually have time to do the assignments they keep piling on me. Strategize how to say "no" to an email I got on Saturday asking me to work on something new.
930-10am - shower and get dressed, try to listen to a sports podcast that I only hear half of because I am having imaginary arguments in my head about how I am going to respond to the 15-20 emails that came in while I was asleep.
10am-7pm - work. This involves everything from drafting discovery responses and requests, drafting motions and briefs, getting on calls with partners and clients to discuss said assignments. Manage document productions. Meet and confer with opposing counsel and argue about inane things. Calls with expert witnesses. Prepare deposition outlines. I probably take about 15-20 minutes around 12pm to go to my kitchen to quickly eat some bread and eggs.
7pm-730pm - eat dinner and ask my partner about their day. Try to listen and have good conversations but can't stop thinking about work.
730-9pm - work more, keep responding to emails from partners. Decide I am going to "stand up for myself" and stop responding because it is 9pm.
9-10pm - try to read recreationally, but am so burnt out from the day I end up looking at my phone or watching something terrible on TV.
11pm - drift into a limbo semi consciousness where I toss and turn in bed, lost between a waking state and dream state. If I fall asleep I have nightmares about floods and tidal waves. If I am awake I think about work.

This is very detailed (thank you, it's helpful). But it's also terrifying to this 2L kjd. I'm guessing corporate transactional work is even more of a grind in terms of hours of availability required.

[Anonymous User]

This is very detailed (thank you, it's helpful). But it's also terrifying to this 2L kjd. I'm guessing corporate transactional work is even more of a grind in terms of hours of availability required.

I'm the previous poster you quoted, glad it was helpful. I can't speak to the grind of transactional work, but from what I've heard I think the biggest difference is that transactional can be much more high intensity for short period of times, whereas litigation is more a static but constant grind. For example, I basically never have to pull all nighters, but I'm on so many cases that as soon as one thing goes out the door (a court filing, a letter), I have to immediately switch to the next pending deadline. There is basically no "down time" and my understanding is that, at least historically (before corp work went bonkers over the last couple years and firms really started struggling to retain associates), after a deal ended there might be a short period of time (day, few days, week), where an associate might not be staffed on another deal.

[Anonymous User]

This is very detailed (thank you, it's helpful). But it's also terrifying to this 2L kjd. I'm guessing corporate transactional work is even more of a grind in terms of hours of availability required.

I'm the previous poster you quoted, glad it was helpful. I can't speak to the grind of transactional work, but from what I've heard I think the biggest difference is that transactional can be much more high intensity for short period of times, whereas litigation is more a static but constant grind. For example, I basically never have to pull all nighters, but I'm on so many cases that as soon as one thing goes out the door (a court filing, a letter), I have to immediately switch to the next pending deadline. There is basically no "down time" and my understanding is that, at least historically (before corp work went bonkers over the last couple years and firms really started struggling to retain associates), after a deal ended there might be a short period of time (day, few days, week), where an associate might not be staffed on another deal.

That definitely tracks with what I have heard about litigation. I don't think I have heard this about transactional work before but I was not plugged in prior to the last couple years. Thanks again!

I guess this is a good question to pose to transactional attorneys in big law: do you ever really have down time between deals these days?

[Anonymous User]

Thought this was worth it as I barely saw any recent responses with daily schedules from corporate attorneys in big law. Thought it would be worthwhile to get this started again as the original thread is nearly dead and the only relevant responses for certain types of work date back to 2016 or earlier.

What's your title (including years of experience)/Type of work/ practice group/city or location?
+ Schedule.

Example:
First year Commercial Real Estate/Corporate Law, Boutique Firm, Major U.S. Market. No billable requirement.

7:00 AM - wake up, breakfast, get ready
8:15 AM - leave house
8:45-9:15AM - arrive at work
9:15-11:00AM - answer e-mails from the night before, review what deals will be closing soon and what still needs to be done in the way of due diligence, etc.
11AM-12:00PM - reviewing loan documents/drafting and amending various organizational documents for entities in preparation for acquisition or financing (usually our clients operate through LLCs, so, operating agreements, articles of organization, etc.)
12PM - 1PM - Lunch - usually at my desk while surfing the web, sometimes I go out. I try to take a little bit of time during the day to step away.
1PM - 5PM - conference calls/status calls with lenders and clients on various deals, as well as other client work such as drafting/reviewing commercial leases or purchase and sale agreements.
5:30-6:00PM - finish up for the day, send final e-mails, head out.

If a big deal is closing I'll be in the office later than above, but typically I'm out by 5:30 /6:30

Is this your actual schedule? I’m a 2nd year in CRE in Biglaw in a large market. I consider myself to have reasonable hours on the scale of Biglaw but man I’d kill to start work at 915 and take an hour lunch and be off by 515. I do 8-7 with a 15 minute lunch break and consider that a win.