Work-Life Balance

In my introductory post I mentioned work-life balance as the reason I was leaning toward private practice instead of an associate position with a medium or large firm. Associates are expected to bill around 2,000 hours per year (sometimes more or less, depending on the firm). New lawyers may have to work two hours or more to total one billable hour, so a 60-80 hour work week is not out of the question.

Why the insane hours? I believe it all comes down to the money. Many high-achievers are drawn to law as a career because of the earning potential. The general perception is that you can roll out of law school into a six-figure job and be on easy street for the rest of your life. At JFKU, the first class you take is an Intro course that preps students for what law school and beyond will really be like. Many of the 1Ls (first-year law students) in my class were mortified to hear the going rate for first-year associates in the San Francisco metro area - it represented a significant pay cut for many of us. Some people walked out of class that day and never came back.

The money is there, believe me. But firms know that they will lose a large percentage of new hires through attrition because of the difficult working conditions. People will burn out, decide law isn't really for them, and bail. For those that can hack it, the median salary in my area is around $95,813 for lawyers in the first three years of practice (figures courtesy of salary.com). Sure this seems like a lot, but if you are consistently working 80-hour weeks with no vacation, you are only making around $23 per hour for your time.

Why does law practice have to be this way? Shouldn't lawyers be able to have a home life too? One of the real problems with lawyers is that we tend to focus on the problems, but not the people. Maybe if we spent more time being people we would be able to relate better to our clients.

Would more lawyers be willing to trade the high-six-figure income and the rep that goes with it if they could have a more well-rounded life? I don't know if I'm willing to sell my time with my kids, my wife, and the things we do together just for a few more bucks (OK, a lot more, but the answer is still the same).