So is it worth it?
^ TOPWanting a life
Last week I talked about the pressure of work. Since then a talented and personable young barrister I know (and whose wedding I attended last year) has given notice to leave his chambers. Although he has a great career in prospect, he wants a life as well. Working in the evenings and one day at the weekend he was happy with. Working usually into the small hours and having to work both days of the weekend seemed no life at all. He will be working as an advocate at a top City firm. Long hours, hard work, but nothing ridiculous.
^ TOPPost Clementi
This of course is anything but turning his back on a career. Post Clementi and the Legal Services Bill it might well be that he will find himself in the ideal position to do very well. Someone talented and likeable such as him is always likely to do well wherever he ends up. My purpose in considering this is as regards what this tells us about the work life balance for young lawyers generally.
^ TOPWork pressures
Work pressure affects different people in different ways. Some live on adrenaline. That means that the buzz they get from pressure compensates for the workload. You also have to be realistic. You only ever get anywhere by setting feasible targets. Let us say that you could pick up a weight of 100 lbs. If you decided that you were going to try and manage with 110 lbs you might well manage it. If you decided to go for 150 lbs or even 200 lbs it would be a complete nonstarter. By trying to do too much you would fail completely. While the analogy is far from perfect, the same sort of things applies to a workload. If you overload yourself (or overload others) to a ridiculous degree then you actually end up accomplishing very little - less than if you'd set a realistic target in the first place.
^ TOPEstablishing expectations
One thing I always try and establish with juniors when working on a case with them is what I can expect them to do, and whether they regard that as reasonably achievable. I encourage them to tell me if they don't think so. I point out that I have no problem with them saying the workload is too much, what I do have a problem with is them saying the workload is fine, saying they will do it, and then not doing it because they say it is too much. What I insist on is us all knowing where we stand.
^ TOPPerformance activity
Part of that involves making sure that your clerks know what you realistically can and cannot do. Of course that is often easier said than done at the junior end of the Bar. Sometimes it is hard for work that you turn down to be accommodated in Chambers. You are obviously eagerly trying to build up your client base. You never know which is going to be the case that turns out to be the big one. In any event as between two different people, you will have different levels of workloads that you are comfortable with. The bottom line is, if the workload is consistently too much, you will neither be happy nor give of your best. Legal Services Bill Advocacy is a performance activity. You would not send an athlete to the Olympics if he was completely knackered, nor a racehorse into the Derby. The same applies to barristers. If you want to get the best out of their intellect and skill, you have to make sure that they are not too drained to give it.
Even if they are not too drained and can give of their best, if it ever stops being fun for someone then they will go. Putting in long hours is bad enough. Putting them in when it has stopped being fun is a lot worse.
^ TOPNegotiate from strength
The key thing for any young lawyer is to always try and negotiate from a position of strength. Whether you are dealing with someone higher up in a firm, or explaining things to the clerks or more senior members of Chambers, it is best to do so when you have just worked really well and effectively on something. Waiting until you are seriously overworked, tired and not capable of giving of your best (and hence well behind) is usually the worst time to approach this, but the time when most people do. Don’t be one of them.