A career as a lawyer: hype vs reality

On one hand, you’ve got glitzy law firm promotional brochures, complimentary booze-fuelled recruitment events and vac schemes featuring day-trips to Paris. On the other, there are the horror stories of regular 18-hour days, claims that associates do little more than menial tasks and, increasingly, talk of redundancies at many firms.

So which is true? Well, a bit of both. But you already knew that.

So how do you decide if a career as a City lawyer is for you? Simple: read legalweek.com’s guide to the various types of lawyer found at City firms, decide which category you fall into and take a glimpse into what your potential legal future might look like.

The work-hard, play-hard go-getter

Highly driven, ferocious work ethic, taste for the high life, likes martinis and midweek nightclubbing.

See: Neel Sachdev, 33, finance partner in the London office of US firm Kirkland & Ellis, taste for Savile Row suits and Jimmy Choo shoes, career to date split between London and New York, currently lives in a glamorous penthouse in East London 20 minutes walk from his office in the Gherkin building in the City – not, of course, that he walks.

The problem? While lots of people are exceptionally gifted at playing hard, few can match the true work-hard, play-hard go-getter’s talent for genuine graft. And while the City may be going through a quiet time at the moment, that won’t last forever. As a Match of the Day pundit might say, “Do you really want it enough?”

The super-bright conformist

Highly intelligent, well-balanced, immaculately mannered, impeccably groomed individuals – you know, the friend your mum really likes and often references in conversations about your future.
 
Linklaters’ Nicola Hopkins is one such individual. To quote the Times Online, which featured her as a ‘future star of the City’ in 2007: “At 17, she was an undergraduate at Somerville College, Oxford. At 22, a trainee solicitor. In May 2007, she became the youngest and first female partner in Linklaters' highly-rated investment management group. According to colleagues, she possesses 'the Full Monty of skill sets'.” You get the picture.

While the super-bright conformist is usually okay with the long hours, they tend to get tetchy about the lack of intellectual challenge. And most City lawyers are prepared to concede, off the record, that there is plenty of the latter in the big firms.

One senior lawyer at a magic circle firm recently confided to Legal Week: “To be perfectly honest, much of the work we do is f*cking boring. Of course, many of the assistants are extremely bright, which creates issues.”

Hence the greater prominence that many firms are giving to CSR initiatives and pro bono. Just remember that you get to do these things in addition to your work, not instead of it.

The rebel

If they’re not careful, disgruntled work-hard, play-hard go-getters and super-bright conformists can become rebels pretty quickly.

Ex-Linklaters associate Lisa Lacob, now a barrister at 3 Verulam Buildings, explains why:

“The hours at Linklaters were, frankly, quite ridiculous. I’d be in the office after midnight — often much later — at least two days a week. Even on a quiet day I wouldn’t finish before eight. Having a life became virtually impossible.”

On the lack on intellectual challenge, Lacob says: “I didn’t really feel like I was a lawyer at Linklaters. I certainly wasn’t practising law in any sense. My job basically involved co-ordinating very small parts of huge deals: in other words, going through a whole lot of documents and making sure that the figures were correct. Anybody with any sort of training and an ability to work relatively quickly and efficiently could have done it.” She admits to missing the perks of City law firms, though.

The regular guy/girl

You have your flashy moments, your ultra-polished moments, your mutinous moments… but ultimately lack the necessary levels of said traits to box you into one of the aforementioned categories. So what sort of a lawyer would you make?

Peter Evans (name changed), a two-year qualified associate at Latham & Watkins’ London office, who got a 2.1 in economics from a leading university before going into law via the GDL/CPE route, believes it’s important that prospective lawyers keep in mind that they may well not become partners. “Most associates at the leading firms don’t go on to make partner, which means statistically you’re probably never going to be one of the big ‘rainmaking’ lawyers that people often talk about,” he says.

If you’re female, the stats weigh even more heavily against you making it to the top - something that doesn’t worry Jane Thompson (name changed), a three-year qualified assistant at Slaughter and May.

“When I went into law, I never really thought about having kids. Now, though, I know that it’s something I want to do. While I enjoy my job – most of the time - I also don’t want to spend all my time at work when they’re growing up, so I’m realising that I may not do this forever,” she explains.

Possible future options for the regular guy/girl include: moving to a smaller firm out of London, moving to one of the firm’s offices abroad (which in both cases could increase the chances of making partner), leaving private practice to work in-house or, dare we say it, bagging a rich co-worker spouse.

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Still not sure what to do?

Bearing in mind that there aren’t many jobs around right now, if you do get offered a training contract, it may not be a bad idea to gratefully accept. If you hate it, don’t worry, it’ll give you a grounding in law and business that will transfer well into most other careers when the economy gets going again. And if you like it, well, you’ve got legalweek.com to thank.