BigLaw (of) counsel work-life balance Forum

[will81999]

BigLaw (Of) Counsel for those attorneys who choose to stay without the hope of making partner ever, making (of) counsel their last and career decision, do they have a work-life balance?

[existentialcrisis]

In my experience, no.

Honestly, I’m not sure it’s even possible to have a big firm job that will give you much balance, at least if you’re doing deals.

Generally speaking, I don’t think you’re going to be able to find a job in private practice that will let you chill out and make 500k+ indefinitely. I feel like often they keep these folks around BECAUSE they’re willing to grind and run deals for the partners, when if they don’t have BD chops of their own.

[nealric]

BigLaw (Of) Counsel for those attorneys who choose to stay without the hope of making partner ever, making (of) counsel their last and career decision, do they have a work-life balance?

Biglaw has inherent schedule uncertainty and time pressures associated with it. However, I have seen long-term counsels who do a permanent "part time" schedule. I put "part time" in quotes, because it's not really part time but a reduced hours target. There's still random fire drills, but you can work fewer hours in total.

The viability of something like that is going to depend on your practice. It likely works better for an advisory practice like Tax or ERISA than M&A. If you really want work-life balance, your best bet is a small firm, in-house, or a government gig.

[johndhi]

"Have a work-life balance" isn't a clear thing to be able to answer.

I guess you can say partners can't.

The difference of being an of counsel and a partner is that of counsels have no pressure to bring in business, and it isn't the end of the world if their hours are a little low (but not insanely low). So they do generally work a lot less than partners, but it's not like it's easy.

[Anonymous User]

I used to work with someone who was an associate at a V50 in M&A for 15 years and then the firm promoted that person to counsel. He does just as much work as any senior associate (maybe more because he has so much experience that the partners do not check his work as closely). Firms will give a person the "counsel" role if the person is valuable in the sense that they could probably make partner elsewhere but the associate is fine with not making partner and just never leaves.

[trebekismyhero]

BigLaw (Of) Counsel for those attorneys who choose to stay without the hope of making partner ever, making (of) counsel their last and career decision, do they have a work-life balance?

Biglaw has inherent schedule uncertainty and time pressures associated with it. However, I have seen long-term counsels who do a permanent "part time" schedule. I put "part time" in quotes, because it's not really part time but a reduced hours target. There's still random fire drills, but you can work fewer hours in total.

The viability of something like that is going to depend on your practice. It likely works better for an advisory practice like Tax or ERISA than M&A. If you really want work-life balance, your best bet is a small firm, in-house, or a government gig.

Yep, I worked with an of counsel guy who did financial regulation. Great WLB, close 9-5 and was probably making $500k. He was also in his 60s and had a ton of knowledge so he wasn't going to go crazy working late. Everyone else I knew who was of counsel in lit or M&A still had to work the same as associates and junior partners.

[OPM]

There is incredible variation here. As others have pointed out, many counsel in larger practices or in harder driving roles / firms, work just as hard if not harder than senior associates because they have to manage the workflow on large matters plus do significantly more client interaction to support the billing partner and the overall practice. Sure, they don’t have BD work, but they often make up for it by doing a lot more substantive work. They’re often where the buck stops on substantive work product so counsel end up staying up late if someone more junior fucks up and the work needs to get done.

That being said, there are also counsel that have significantly better WLB. As others have pointed out, counsel in speciality groups often have better hours. These are often people that have a valuable supporting expertise and might have made partner in a larger practice group, but cannot bring in enough business on their own to support a partnership bid and draw. You also see this with very talented or credentialed lawyers who specifically negotiate a counsel role for a more manageable schedule. Folks who might have made partner but didn’t want to work the hours / do the BD, so they made a side deal to stay around at a slightly more humane pace. There are quite a few elite clerks kicking around some of the better litigation practices who do this.

The general rule is this, I think. If you’re partner material but it doesn’t make sense / you don’t want it, your counsel role can be more manageable and you have more leverage to make it so. If you’re counsel because you tried to partner and failed, you’re really not going to have as much leverage and your value to the firm will be measured in hours more like an associate.

[Anonymous User]

It would suck to be of counsel without portable business in some v60 in a super expensive city getting paid less than a fourth year and constantly dreading the sword of damocles to drop and end your career.

[nealric]

It would suck to be of counsel without portable business in some v60 in a super expensive city getting paid less than a fourth year and constantly dreading the sword of damocles to drop and end your career.

Someone at a v60 in a Counsel advisory role would generally be paid top of the associate scale if they are working full-time hours requirement. Making less than a fourth year would be indicative of a ~1400 hours target. That person could likely make $546k with Bonus if they wanted full time (if not more for certain very in-demand practices).

Your job could end, but getting laid off from your firm wouldn't be the end of your career in that situation, especially if you are in a niche specialty and are valued for that advise. For example, a lot of firms need someone who is a true expert in the '40 act (or other niche regulatory space) but don't really need a 2,000 hour expert. An of-counsel billing 1400 hours may be exactly what they need, but they wouldn't can that person for no good reason. And if they did, there's probably another firm out there that needs someone like that. You may not have a portable book, but you have portable skills if you managed to stick around in biglaw that long.