Research: Legal sector workers amongst happiest in UK

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By Bradley Fountain-Green on

16

Only bankers are loving life more

New research ranks lawyers and other legal sector workers as some of the happiest in the UK.

Gathering data from 500 business, the research found that 71% of staff in the legal profession would recommend their company to a friend, whilst 85% of workers approve of their CEO.

The research, conducted by equity management platform Vestd, also found that the median employee tenure for those in the legal profession to be 4.5 years, based on data gathered from LinkedIn.

The 2024 Legal Cheek Firms Most List

Only banking scored higher, with the legal sector beating out competition from the education, automotive and IT.

Explaining the findings, Ifty Nasir, CEO of Vestd, said that keeping workers happy was “just the start” for business leaders:

“Feeling happy in your job is a massive part of your general wellbeing and employers are increasingly aware of the importance of staff satisfaction, but happiness should be just the start. Taking employee happiness to the next level and generating employee engagement, where staff are highly motivated and genuinely invested in their company’s success, can have a huge impact on the bottom line.”

Of course, happiness is a notoriously difficult thing to measure. To get a picture of what trainees and junior lawyers think of their firms, check out the Legal Cheek Firms Most List 2024, with newly released rankings for 100+ firms on criteria including training, quality of work, peer support, partner approachability and more.

16 Comments

MC ass

Law firms have relatively flat hierarchies compared to other types of company (even if it doesn’t always feel like that) and, along with banking, it’s basically the only field in which salaries have kept up with inflation over the last 10 years. No shock that people are happier than the average.

Salim

Very valid points

Anonymous

Doubt

Anon

Did they read the data the wrong way round?

Rowan

Did they conduct this survey at gunpoint?

Anonymous

There must be a glitch in the system!

Junior Leachman

Very Valid points.

Kirkland NQ

Doesn’t surprise me. But then I drive a Lambo, own a townhouse in Chelsea, and hang around some of the best wine bars in the country with a model girlfriend.

5PQE

Yeah okay now get back to grinding out those PI claims

A non-knee mousse

Survey results are sarcasm en masse.

Anonymous

I was shouted at 2 hours ago by a partner, because our screen in the meeting room (for a remote client meeting) wasn’t working 30 minutes prior to the meeting. He then said “you should have gone in sooner to make sure all the IT was running smoothly”.

Yes, because as a solicitor at a top 10 law firm, it’s my job to ensure the hardware on site is working, and not the facilities team, apparently, and going into the meeting 30 minutes before is obviously too late. I’ll camp outside the meeting overnight next time.

So happy right now.

Hell Nawh

This article enrages me.

I’m sat today after a late night panic attack that lead to a tear filled argument and a massive drop in my mental well-being, all of which sprouted from dealing with massive workloads and unreasonable clients. I’m hardly the only person who can relate to this story.

Sure pay rises have kept up with inflation but that’s not the only valuable metric to measure happiness, and oh look, Vestd is an entity that provides corporate services to startups and young companies. Kinda gives it away when they ask lawyers to opine on their CEOs really…

Such absolute nonsense statistics, provided by an organisation that has a Vestd (Hah! puns!) interest in painting a rosier picture than May actually be the case, and resported by LC that barely stops to consider whether what they are reporting is maybe actually worth reporting.

Lawyers do get paid better but point me in the direction of any lawyer who’d say they are happy without at least heavily caveating that statement, and I’ll maybe believe this steaming nonsense.

And to those who’ll come in saying that it’s weak to be having panic attacks from the work pressure, either grow up, or retire, boomers. My professionalism remains steadfast, quality of work on point and helpfulness to scratch. I’m still allowed, in my private moments, to process and experience the inevitable stressful emotions that this job gives rise to, and I cope with these stresses too, but it’s pathetic to pretend like lawyers don’t undergo such feelings either.

Legal Cheek, do better or step off.

Enraged. What nonsense reporting.

Here here. Well spoken.

Such happy

Wait… so how do they explain the suicide rates? Lawyers so happy with life they can’t bear the joy of it all and just take off?

Akin Gump 4.5 pqe

I’m happy when I get paid. The end.

So who commissioned this to combat the bad press?

This seems just plainly not believable at all.

Really.. who did they interview?

People living the long hours high stress and relatively low pay common at many firms? Or did they just interview the silver circle trainees wanting to get into good books in time for NQ roles at qualification?

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