Reddit user offers insights into workload, training and the realities of qualifying
An anonymous Reddit user claiming to be a junior lawyer has shared a candid account of life as a trainee at a leading US law firm in London, offering what they describe as an insider perspective that cuts through other online content that is “either a bit sanitised or sensationalist”.
The post was shared anonymously on the site’s r/uklaw thread, with the author — who left the unnamed firm on qualification — saying they were motivated by “a lot of law students messaging me on LinkedIn about this kind of thing”.
One of the most common questions they receive concerns hours. According to the lawyer, the reality is more nuanced than the stereotype. “People often ask, ‘Is it really 3am finishes every night?’,” they wrote. “The answer is no.” That said, long days were still the norm in certain teams. “In certain departments I never left before 11pm.”
The idea of “peaks and troughs” was described as only partly accurate. While quieter periods did exist, the poster said they rarely compensated for intense stretches of work. “Realistically, you will often end up doing weeks of very late finishes followed by weeks of having barely anything to do,” they explained, adding that “the latter brings its own set of challenges”.
Weekend work depended heavily on the matters involved. During one particularly demanding deal, the lawyer says they worked continuously for six weeks, including weekends. “[I] ended up working every weekend for the duration, roughly 9 to 8 on both Saturday and Sunday, because it was just that type of deal.” Across the training contract overall, they estimated that “around a third of weekends involved some small amount of work”, with several months involving full weekends.
While the hours can often be heavy going, it is worth bearing in mind that US law firms remain among the highest-paying in the City, with The Legal Cheek Firms Most List 2026 showing that newly qualified lawyers can earn as much as £180,000. Long hours, however, are not the preserve of elite US players, with our exclusive working hours data showing that average start and finish times at some top US outfits broadly align with those at leading UK-headquartered firms.
For the lawyer, the most difficult aspect of the job was not the hours but the lack of predictability. The expectation, they said, was that work should take priority over everything else. “If you are asked to do something, you are expected to drop everything and do it,” they wrote, noting that while leaving at a set time was technically possible, “if you do this too often you will irritate people”.
They illustrated the point with an example from their own cohort. “There was a trainee in my cohort who regularly left to meet friends or go on dates,” the lawyer said. “He did high quality work but annoyed people so much by leaving that he was told he had no chance of qualifying at the firm anymore.” While acknowledging that not all firms would be so extreme, they added that the incident was “worth keeping in mind”.
Training was described as both extensive and deeply frustrating, with the firm offering weeks of structured instruction and hundreds of resources, yet the day-to-day reality often fell short. “Frequently you are simply told to ‘draft X’ with no further explanation,” the lawyer wrote, adding that instructions were often “either unnecessarily complicated or bewilderingly brief”.
The emotional impact of this learning curve was significant, particularly in the early stages of the training contract. As the lawyer put it:
“Most law graduates go from feeling like high achievers to feeling like idiots within a few weeks. It is pretty humbling, which can be good for some people. It can really knock your confidence.”
They stressed that struggling in this environment did not mean someone was incapable. “If you cannot get the hang of it, you are not an idiot,” they wrote. “You may just need a different style of instruction to thrive initially.”
Departmental culture varied widely. In some teams, hierarchy was rigid and intimidating. “In some departments people part like the Red Sea when a partner appears,” the lawyer said, describing colleagues who felt “physically sick approaching them with questions”. In other teams, partners were described as “normal, easy to talk to, approachable and genuinely involved in their teams”.
While completing the SQE together helped build friendships through what the lawyer described as “shared trauma”, it did not prevent more cut-throat dynamics from emerging once the training contract began. The post described trainees “butting in when others were speaking to senior lawyers”, “trying to take work that had been assigned to you” and “actively undermining you to associates”.
On qualification, the lawyer emphasised that doing good work was not enough on its own. “The people with the best chances of qualifying were those who had strong relationships with particular partners,” they said, as well as those who were vocal about wanting responsibility.