Nervous
Starting out at a top US law firm is no small feat. In this week’s Career Conundrum, one future trainee solicitor wants to know: how do you stay on top of a demanding workload when everything is new?
“Hello team! I’m lucky to have recently secured a training contract at a leading US law firm’s London office (I’d rather not say where!). I know it’s going to be a steep learning curve with an intense workload and often long hours, but I’ve done my research and I’m not going in blind! That said, I am nervous as this will be my first ‘real’ corporate job, and I’m looking for advice on how to prepare if possible. It would be great to hear from those who have completed training contracts at top US firms or similar and what they wished they had known before starting. Thank you in advance!”
If you have a career conundrum, email us at tips@legalcheek.com.
Prepare to run on no sleep and deal with some psychotic associates and partners.
Get some sleep now. And enjoy life!
It’s going to be challenging, no doubt about it – but will be a fantastic learning experience that many students would give their right arm for!
If you want to know what it’s like, find the most objectionable, egomaniacal person possible, ask them to demean you and give you pointless tasks for 15 hours a day, and for the other 9 tell you off if you don’t reply to their every whim on email at a moments notice. Then eat greasy takeaway food three meals a day, skip the gym and don’t talk to your family or friends for weeks. That will prepare you for what your life will be like.
I’m not at a US firm although as an NQ my advice is to just enjoy your life for now.
Regardless of whether you prepare or not – you absolutely will be thrown into the mix when you start and will get up to speed. No one is going to notice (or care) about how you’ve prepped for the role.
Right now you have this golden period where you have job security and a very high salary waiting for you.
Meet friends, travel, have fun and don’t worry about the TC.
Believe me, when the TC starts. the preparation you have done prior will mean buggar all after a week. You’re better off enjoy the freedom you currently have as you will not have this again in big law.
Great opportunity to learn how to strike the balance between being a team player and setting professional boundaries.
Shouldn’t you be more focused on enjoying your free time while it lasts?
Lots of the work won’t be as difficult as any legal theory essays you’ve had to write in college. Most US firms have tons of internal examples, guidance and training on virtually every issue that could come up on a deal (whether that’s in M&A, finance or some of the specialist teams). When you’re given a task – for example, a research task – try to come up with the answers yourself, don’t rely on AI and treat it all as a job interview. Figure out the dress code, formalities, working styles and go with that in each seat. Treat each task as if it’s the most important task you’ve ever done, try do everything well and before you go and ask your supervisor for help, try figure out what the answer is – that might take a bit of reading and analysis yourself and if you’re still stuck, it shows you’ve tried. Nobody will criticise you for getting a technical or commercial point wrong, they’ll criticise you for not trying or being lazy. Socialising wise, people forget that a lot of teams choose people based on personality and team fit on top of the work quality you produce. So if you’re doing the work well but not going for team drinks and actually acting like a normal person, you won’t be hired. Each firm / team has people that are nice and helpful but equally, there’s difficult people in every team / job / industry so it’s no different than any other job. You need to be able to get on with it, not take feedback negatively and do your best. If you’ve gotten into a US firm, you’ve got good credentials but so will everyone else. You’ll be starting from scratch so treat it all as learning and pushing on with your skills. Try to take the good things you learn from good lawyers and leave the bad things aside. Doing that over 4 seats (or over a career in law) you’ll probably end up a very good lawyer.
Consider it like you are entering into an abusive relationship. I’m talking about most top law firms here but everyone says US firms are worse. They basically expect you to become a slave. In my view it’s not getting enough sleep which is the worst aspect and is exactly how slaves are treated.
Then consider how many trainees have been binned across the city in recent qualification rounds due to the economy doing poorly. Most of those trainees were probably good little slaves.
That shows how much firms care about their trainees. They could easily pay for them to stay on but they dgaf.
If you are not a good slave or even if you are but you hint that you will only be doing it for a couple of years after qualification, or even as someone else says they just don’t like you cos you don’t go on the raz with them, then you stand a good chance of being binned even if the economy is doing well. You have to pretend to love it.
It’s like joining a cult.
Maybe some people enjoy it but I would advise anyone who is normal to never pursue a career in law particularly city law.
Drug dealers are actually nicer than most people in top law firms.
Shouldn’t you be studying for your first year exams?
The single most important thing you can do is get your accommodation as close to the office as possible. The difference between a 15-minute commute and a 45-minute commute when you are running on 4 hours of sleep is enormous.
Additionally, sorting out your personal admin, such as food, cleaning, etc., so that it eats up as little of your free time as possible will be a big help.
Finally hone up your touch typing skills – this is super important.
This is not quite right though, is it? You’re crap at the job but by for you have a short commute? There’s a tax partner in K&E who gets the boat home every Thursday to the Isle of Wight.
Sorting out your personal admin is a basic requirement of being an adult, regardless of your job.
Touch typing is irrelevant. Unless you’re transcribing meetings in excruciating detail (hint – nobody is), a simple pen and paper will suffice.
You must work at a tin point US firm like Dechert. Chunky Monkey’s advice is possibly the best on this thread.
No – I work in an elite US firm. You must work in a practice area where your biggest professional responsibility is “managing the timelines on the SPA review by the specialists”. Please be nice to the vac schemers you take out to lunch at the end of their stint as they probably haven’t figured out you’re technically a fluffer and might take what you say seriously.
Intravenous caffeine and adult diapers.
Just chill for now + relax; don’t even think about it. Knowing you have a great job lined up and having (presumably) quite a lot of time free before you start is an incredible feeling. Go travelling. Have fun. Enjoy yourself.
Law, especially at a US firm, is one of those things that, from the outside looking in, looks incredibly demanding and extreme. That’s not to say that impression is completely wrong, but once you’re actually in the inside, you will just learn to do it, and before you know it the routine will be second nature.
At the end of the day, remember that it’s just a job, and your colleagues will just be normal people and not some sort of legal Übermensch. When you get there, be enthusiastic and be yourself – people usually appreciate you if you’re genuine.
Preparing for a role in a sweatshop…
I’ve worked in several practices and can say confidently that you’re right to seek advice. That said, nothing prepares you for the demands in US firms (some in particular). You may expect to be beasted to within an inch of your life, but nothing I say will make that likely period any easier. I noticed the trainees in my US firm can tend to be higher performing and cope better – unclear whether that’s because the firms are stricter on entry or they’ve survived beasting therefore are levelled up. Could be both. Magic Circle firms have their reputations / vibes, so depending on whether you’ve got an offer to one and whether it’s a firm that maps to you (no they are not the same, iykyk), might be a nicer life. Hint – MC is nicer life than US, however you won’t avoid doing long hours, it’s more of a weekend differentiator.
In my US firm I am expected to be working pretty much all hours. 0930 is not a start time, typically we get in for 0800. Regularly, I’ll work beyond midnight in the office, and a 11pm taxi home is seen as an early finish (although not much you can do when you get home other than check your emails again / send off final docs from the drive / try to sleep). I almost always work weekends. This is not to scare, however I wake up to emails by 8am, expected to respond the same day / within hours. Ex “SC” firm partner said of their early 00s partnership that they would expect a reply within 3 hours at the weekend – that requirement has only sped up. I’ll often work until after midnight on a Saturday and try to log off by 11pm on a Sunday. If you think I’m joking, I’m sadly not.
I look to the seniors in my area – they’re not who I’d spend parties or downtime (lol) with, and I wonder if they’re just in too deep. Sunk cost fallacy hard to truly think through when you’re billing comfortably over 2,400 hours per year – if I put my annual billing it might reveal me, so I won’t, but it’s north of that.
I will say, you’ll be able to cope with far more jobs in the future than if you’d trained somewhere less “prestige”, however even in the more UK/Intl/SC firms, you will still face being sweated. I’m talking about the firms with NQ around £100k to £140k too. Don’t believe me, just ask the associates/trainees there. Would I change my journey? Perhaps not, but the sacrifice isn’t staying worthwhile so I’m looking at options. The drop down in pay will be the hardest thing to contend with / accept, however hopefully I’ll get more meaning.
The work isn’t particularly difficult at a US firm, you’ll just find the challenge being the people (if you’re unlucky), the hours (relentless), sacrifice (relationships / health) and meaning (only so many blacklines you want to see at the weekend). Good luck, look after yourself, and don’t lose yourself.
(I trained at US, worked for until 1.5pqe, then two other firms where one of them I’m now at, after a few years).
Pilates queen out.
Relatable content gurl.. same for me although I am still in my firm but a trainee.
I felt bad for the associates trying their best but never getting relief or credit.
This is interesting but working 8am-11/12pm every day inc. weekends would mean averaging 112 billable hours a week or c.5,400 billable hours a year assuming 25 holidays holiday.
coming back to this – didn’t suggest I billed every single hour – impossible (and write offs).
This is all good advice.