Almost half of all law students expect to work more than 50 hours a week after qualifying into the profession, according to new research, with just 1% of prospective lawyers targeting a career in-house.

Forty-seven percent of law students intend to opt out of the Working Time Directive, which limits the working week to 48 hours, according to the Sweet & Maxwell survey. The study finds just 13% of law students expect to work less than 39 hours a week, while 5% said they were willing to work as many hours as necessary.

Just 1% of respondents aspire to working in-house, while 14% aim to be barristers and 10% intend to work in a public sector legal department.

Commenting on the findings, SJ Berwin property partner Jon Vivian said: "Everyone in the City expects to work fairly long hours and so opting out of the Working Time Directive is nothing unusual."

While Law Society figures show the average salary for a trainee solicitor is £20,025, some 27% of respondents to the study said they expected to earn more than £31,000 on qualification – almost half as much again.

Forty percent of respondents expect their peak earnings to exceed £70,000, while 3% think they will earn over £500,000 a year at some point in their career. However, more than a quarter (26%) expect to have not reached partner status in 10 years' time.

According to the survey, the most important factor for deciding where to apply for a training contract is the training and development offered by the firm, closely followed by the firm's status. Not one respondent said holidays counted in their considerations.

Judge John Deed (pictured above) was voted the most popular fictional lawyer.

Separately, Allen & Overy was voted most popular graduate recruiter in law at the TARGET National Graduate Recruitment Awards. Nabarro was cited as offering the best undergraduate internship/vacation programme.

Talkback: Do law students heading for the City have a clue what they are letting themselves in for? Click here to have your say.