My Two Cents Worth...

As an "infant" practitioner, I have to work extra hard to keep up with the jonses.Competition is all time great. Survival of the fittest - is always and will be the case. Take it or leave it. That is the choice we need to make, though difficult I must say.

siew yik, Malacca, Malaysia

I would like to quote the old legal maxim "nisi calorem subsistas, culinam fugi". If you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen.

(If you really know Latin, what should it be?)

Frank Upton, Solihull,

I read law at Birmingham '93 to '96. I thought carefully about staying on the conveyor belt and becoming a solicitor or barrister, but decided to keep doing what I liked, bearing in mind that there are few poor lawyers (legal aid aside) and they seldom get made redundant.

I resolved not to go to London because I wanted to be able to buy a house with a garden before I was 40, no London commute, no 60+ hour week, no giving up most of my waking life including weekends for the first 5+ years to climb up the ladder and no time to enjoy / spend my huge London salary. As a result I am comparatively well paid and happy doing quality legal work that interests me in the provinces, with sensible hours and a nice house 10 minutes drive from the office.

If I was able to make this assessment then how come no-one else did? Lawyers are supposed to be intelligent people who look at things from all sides. This all struck me as pretty obvious at the time.

A Smith, Notts

A Smith, Nottingham,

It is nothing short of bizarre to see people lose perspective so badly.
So, you're a lawyer and you want to make a lot of money? Huzzah! Then you work all day, get to be called up when you're on the loo or servicing the misses, but that's ok because you're making a lot of money.
Question: when do you actually enjoy spending some of that so hard-earned money?
This proves once more that this is a planet of slaves. At the very top, the slaves only have to serve money and it's obscene needs. They have to work hard but they get something substantial in return. At the bottome there's even more slaves but they have no hope whatsoever to ever live a decent life.
There is a class of functional psychopaths out there that steer our lives and who, because they are workaholics with no idea what to do outside of work, just force everybody else to work as much as they possibly can. This is then defined as: success.

Frances, London, UK

One would assume Richard is not a Lawyer and simply one who has joined the general ungrounded hatred-towards-solicitors bandwagon...

Tom, Biggin Hill,

The money that is made is only made by a few, not all. I know many lawyers who are having a difficulty making ends meet. I qualified and practiced in England for three years, and realised that the long hours were going to be part of the profession. I can live with that, what I can't live with is the fact that clients were calling me at home during my time off or my boss calling me to come back in the office just for the "one off" transaction. It's not any better anywhere else, as we have moved to Canada where I am practicing law, and it's the same thing all over again. I enjoy my career and am able to accomodate, but it still doesn't make the situation any better. Lawyers work hard for their pay and don't forget when everybody else can call it a day. We can't because we remain on the "on the hook". The stress is unbelievable and the hours ridiculous. In hindsight, I should have become a dentist.

Gern, Winnipeg/London, Canada/UK

Well done Alice, well said,

And if one reads "A Century in the City" about the history of Slaughter and May one wonders whether the original partners who pretty much until 1900 in the East End practised most kinds of law each (and included Tolley (of tax fame)), would be turning in their graves at the alientation in their firms....

Another ex partner in Nice, France once wrote in to the Law Society Gazette to say that 6 partners was enough predominantly to sit around a lunch table once a week to ensure that there were no major problems etc...

I suspect that there will simply be an about turn... I also suspect that those who don't make it as partners in these big firms will burn out, (and apparently are simply burning out... I sympathise with them but again they went in with their eyes open ... to a gilded cage according to a few of my colleagues who used them to train in alone...

Alice I think you made the right choice...

Pete Balchin, Solicitor, Bristol, uk

Shame! They want the money but not the hours. Long hours? I have yet to see anyone in the UK put in the hours that is common for high paid jobs overseas. Anyway work/life balance also involves family/wealth balance. Surprised that supposedly intelligent beings can't work that one out.

Richard, London,

All this stressful work; isn't it the lawyers who are supposed to help protect workers from the Victorian workhouse and money grabbing bosses. If the lawyers cannot protect themselves, what chance the rest? Or is it just that the lawyer's bosses know how to exploit the law better than their juniors, and use implicit methods of threats and intimidation to extract more and more to line their own pockets knowing that they can pick up another lawyer at the drop of a hat because of all the competition?

Keith Crossland, Cardiff, UK

I teach part-time at a law school and it is interesting how many younger people are determined to have a better work-life balance, especially the women. There is an increasing number of women going into the profession and I think they will have the effect of making work culture a bit more civilised. The firms will only be able to make people work long hours if they can find people who will do it. There are some signs that they might not be assured of doing so in the future.

Brian Holden, Glasgow, Scotland, UK