Work to live, or live to work?

The hours that you have to work can be an issue for lawyers.

Matthew Courtney

This has been in the news recently after Matthew Courtney, a trainee solicitor at a top city firm, fell to his death at London's Tate Modern . This immediately led to a rash of news stories about his workload, although I suspect his death was an accident, and even if it wasn't there is nothing to say it was linked to his working hours. Nonetheless, however little it had to do with his particular case, it has thrown into the spotlight how hard lawyers sometimes have to work.

Valentine's Day

I had a good illustration of this last week. My girlfriend is a barrister. She is the junior on an important ongoing trial. Something came up on February 14th which involved her in undertaking an enormous amount of work that evening, needed for the next day in court. Rather than work alone at her desk in her Chambers, we arranged that she would come over and work at my Chambers, so we were working in the same room. The plan was that we would go out when she was finished. Unfortunately going through all the paperwork took her until quarter to five the next morning. I worked on preparation for a forthcoming trial. Our Valentine's Day meal out did not happen. We had booked a hotel in town, where they were somewhat bemused that we did not turn up until after 5 a.m., specifying an 8 a.m. wake-up call. Since we both know how the job works, that is just the way things are. Sometimes deadlines have to take priority over everything.

Regardless

Not that that is what it is like every day. Most days you will have to work long hours, but nothing like that. The problem is that sometimes circumstances mean that you have no choice other than to do the work. If you are presenting something in court the next day, the work has to be done regardless. Ideally you will have prepared earlier, but sometimes material will come too late, or may just have been found, or the case may change because of an unexpected development. Then you have to put the hours in there and then.

All night

You can also be caught out by other matters. Once, as a junior, I was doing a case in Birmingham. I was commuting from Manchester, catching the train each morning at about 6:45 a.m.. One evening I got back to find a set of papers waiting for me. It was a complicated company matter and required a great deal of work. It said they had to be ready for the next morning. I telephoned my clerk and told him that that was out of the question, only to be told that there was unless order which expired the next day (which meant that if the particular document was not produced and filed at court the next day the client's case would be struck out). Therefore I had no choice. I finished work on that at 3 a.m., did a couple of hours reading for the next day in court, had a quick nap, showered and shaved and left.

The ability to catnap

I'm quite lucky that I'm able to catnap. That means that a 40 minute nap can bring me round. Also, whether it be a court room challenge, finding the answer to some knotty problem against a deadline (or for corporate lawyers, working on a big deal) or whatever, work pressure tends to flood your system with adrenaline. You find that you can keep going, because you are literally on a high.

Divorce rate

Some worry about the effect that tiredness and lack of sleep has on the quality of work. It depends on the person. I always found there was never a problem when I was working. The buzz always kept you going. The problem came when you had a day off. As soon as the adrenaline levels slipped, you tend to fall asleep all over the place. It doesn't look good when it happens whenever you spend time with the wife and family. Apparently the Bar has the highest divorce rate of any professional group, and when I think of barristers who've gone through divorce (including myself) it's a pretty frightening percentage.

Drink

The other thing that barristers have to watch is drink. It's very easy to replace the work buzz with an alcohol buzz in the evening if you are noticing that your high has started to diminish. I like a drink but I'm pretty strict about it. Not every day and only rarely having very much. Usually it's wine with a meal or champagne to celebrate. From time to time I have self-imposed periods when I don't drink, sometimes a month, sometimes a few months, or (2004, post marriage breakup) a whole year.

Is it worth it?

Are the hours unreasonable? Frequently. Are they unbearable? That depends on you. No lawyer works all the time. Sometimes they have to work hours that most people would regard as plain barmy, but at others they will just be reasonably busy and making the most of their spare time. When free time is at a premium, you tend to enjoy it and do much more with it than when it is not. Also it really comes down to how much you enjoy your job. If you find the work challenging, exciting, intellectually stimulating, and let's be honest, despite the pressure, loads of fun, then an immense workload is a lot more bearable than you would think.

Michael J. Booth QC