Areas of law to consider if you want to maintain a healthy work/life balance?

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Are you looking at areas from the perspective of an attorney? Or other members of a legal team? (Ex. Paralegal, legal assistant, legal
Project manager, etc)

Perspective of an attorney. Working OT isn’t an issue for me, but maintaining my overall well-being is a priority. I’m interested in going into Big Law, but I preemptively fear the burn out.

Very helpful. Thank you!

Transactional practices! Avoid litigation and build a practice in one of the many areas of law where you can do transactional work. I never had an interest in transactional practice areas because I thought it was going to be dull and I believed litigation was much more in line with my skill set but I could not have been more wrong! I personally found litigation to be a miserable practice that made for high stress, long hours and a constant feeling that I was not truly benefiting my clients because costs and burden of litigating often outweighed the outcomes and the risks of litigation are high and rarely predictable. I moreover, it’s an easy practice to burn out on because you are representing clients who don’t wanna be in the situation that they are paying you for and as a result it can be a very thankless service that often involves managing difficult people and challenging situations that are full of stress. In a transactional arrangement your client is generally paying you for a service they want and believe they need a lawyer for and it tends to be a much more amicable relationship at all stages. You also can build business much faster in a transactional practice because you do not have to wait for a dispute to arise before someone needs your services and you can proactively market yourself to retain clients at any given time and turn them into long term institutional business relationships. The ability to build business is where you get the most freedom in your law practice and can really create the type of career path you want. I am an employment lawyer and have recently narrowed my services to primarily the transactional side where I advise employers on day-to-day employment law needs and assist with creating affective compliance programs and policies and procedures and ever since I stopped doing litigation and I have been 1000 times happier and more balanced while making way more money. You can really create an amazing practice in a ton of transactional practice areas whether it’s general corporate law, real estate law mergers and acquisition’s, the transactional side of intellectual property (ie trademarking, drafting NDAs and trade secret agreements, etc), commercial contracting and many others). I wish I would have given it more consideration in law school and not been so quick to assume that litigation was the exciting area of law because I would’ve done it differently from the start knowing what I know now

Also, it all depends on the firm and the attorneys you work with and there are tons of law firms both big and small that are making a point to have a better work culture where burn out can be avoided and that are not just based on billing a ton of hours. Look for firms that market themselves as offering flexible work arrangements and firms that are moving away from billable hour requirements or compensation based primarily on billable hours because those are more likely to have the kind of work cultures that foster balance. Other good things to look for are firms that prioritize mentorship in a meaningful way and that offer benefits that show a priority toward attorney’s personal lives (ie great vacation or parental leave policies, opportunity to go part time or take advantage of sabbatical type opportunities, firms that offer personal benefits like childcare support or employee counseling services, firms that encourage virtual/remote work or do not expect lawyers to work a set schedule). Ask the attorneys that you meet with or interview with what their typical daily schedule is and and how often they find themselves working in the evenings or weekends because that will inherently impact the internal pressure and expectations the firm puts on everyone. Look for firms where “face time” is not a big deal and where lawyers are involved in activities outside of the firm. Find out if lawyers there ever go to the gym in the middle of the day or if they encourage leaving the office for lunch. And I also find that more and more law firms are allowing lawyers to have outside employment and being open to hiring lawyers that have their own business or side hustle and that is a good sign that the firm will value balance as well.

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