I read with interest the recent article in Legal Week “Hard work without meaning is a prison – does City law pass the Gladwell test?” which examined why commercial lawyers might be unfulfilled personally and intellectually.
The article is very welcome, not least because it dares to say what many lawyers think but are afraid to admit. Practising law in the City can be hell. There are many commercial lawyers out there working over 12 hour days and weekends, desperately trying to meet increasingly tough billing targets but deep down wondering what on earth they are doing it for.
Many decide to leave the profession before they burn out; some are not so lucky. As the article’s author says, “I don’t think I’ve ever heard commercial law called a vocation” and yet commercial lawyers devote most of their waking hours to chargeable work, often at the expense of their personal relationships and families.
This is not an exaggeration. Women lawyers in the City admit confidentially that either they have sacrificed having a partner or family completely for a career in the City, or where they have managed to fit in having kids, they have little or no meaningful relationship with them. Male lawyers are not immune from the effects of the working culture, with divorce and separation rates higher amongst lawyers, likewise the instances of stress-related illness, alcoholism and drug misuse.
There is a culture in the City however of survival of the fittest. Lawyers, being largely Type A personalities, are resistant to giving in. To walk away from the City is to admit defeat. It is to wave a white flag and become a “failed” City lawyer.
What this means is scores of unhappy and therefore unproductive lawyers who slog it out, purely because they cannot see any alternative. The truth is there are now plenty of other options available for talented lawyers, which provide a lucrative and satisfying career without the unnecessary sacrifices. As more lawyers realise that the demands of the City are not sustainable, and as more courageous lawyers are able to say that there is more to life than due diligence and late nights, firms will lose their most innovative and talented employees. These lawyers are already turning to alternative ways of working such as virtual law firms, where they can enjoy high quality work, earn just as much, and still have a life.
Individual lawyers are increasingly discovering coaching and other ways of helping themselves to find their real “vocation”. Law firms meanwhile are missing a trick. We have seen reports recently of many City firms introducing draconian measures to track billing, such as publishing individual billing figures or introducing coloured screens which light up in red if you are behind target. Such initiatives are simply going to exacerbate the problem. What law firms need to do is to better engage lawyers in their work by ensuring that they are fulfilled, by introducing more creative ways to restore a work/life balance, and by allowing lawyers to feel they have a voice and a stake in the success of the business as a whole. Employee engagement is a concept being embraced in other industries and is showing results, yet many commercial law firms are comparatively moving backwards.
City lawyers usually start out as intelligent, confident, energetic and driven newly qualifieds. The idea must be to develop and capitalise on these qualities in a much more sustainable and productive way.
Lawcoach provides specialist individual coaching to City lawyers.
