Lawyer Work-Life Balance

  • | Analysis

    A different ball game - from professional footballer to lawyer

    By Legal Week | November 26, 2010

    Brabners Chaffe Street trainee-to-be Ben Purkiss has just finished training. It was a light session, following the 1-0 defeat the day before, away to West Ham United in the third round of the League Cup. Purkiss, who played the full 90 minutes, is disappointed, but delighted his team, League Two outfit Oxford United, held its own against such quality opposition – a last-gasp goal by England international midfielder Scott Parker the only difference between the teams. The result is confirmation that his dream of making it as a top-level professional footballer is still on.

  • | Analysis

    Hanging up my wig - an ex-barrister on why he chose to jump the track

    By Legal Week | November 16, 2010

    Three months after my pupillage finished in 2002, I decided to 'cross the floor' to become an assistant solicitor. A few years later I re-qualified, and now, as a senior associate at Reynolds Porter Chamberlain (RPC), I look back with no regrets. Unsure about the long term after leaving school, I knew I wanted to go to Edinburgh University. There was no point in studying law there, so I did philosophy and politics instead, with a view to possibly converting afterwards.

  • | Analysis

    Party before the crunch - City lawyers reminisce about Hedgestock

    By Legal Week | November 9, 2010

    A man wearing love beads leans against a Volkswagen campervan emblazoned with peace stickers and cheerful multicoloured flowers. Nearby, a haphazard queue begins, as tie-dye swathed hippies wait for a free massage next to a group playing ball games. Elsewhere, a cloud of thick, perfumed smoke pervades the air as the crowd lay back on giant bean bags, enjoying the warmth of the sun, while in the distance The Who tunes up in preparation for the night's performance.

  • | Analysis

    The path less travelled - roundabout routes into City law

    By Alex Aldridge | November 4, 2010

    Missing out on a training contract with a leading firm doesn't mean you'll never make it to the top. Alex Aldridge meets four lawyers whose careers have veered away from the conventional path

  • Man power - why men should not be excluded from the work/life balance debate

    By Legal Week | November 2, 2010

    Joan Williams, the director of the Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California, Hastings College of Law, has long worked in the work/life balance trenches. She's written a new book, Reshaping the Work-Family Debate: Why Men and Class Matter. I recently talked to her about what makes her book on this well-trodden subject different.

  • First, take a shower – the survival guide for laid-off lawyers still looking for a job

    By Legal Week | October 26, 2010

    Big law firms are acting like it's business as usual. There's talk about bonuses again, partners are hopping around, and merger fever is in the air (the latest being the aborted merger between Orrick and Akin Gump) There are signs of a rebound in the legal industry, except for this little annoying fact: thousands of lawyers are still jobless - the ones laid off during the recession and the recent law school graduates who can't find employment.

  • | Analysis

    Change begets change - tax treatment of pensions for high earners explained

    By Legal Week | October 26, 2010

    In April 2009 the then Labour Government took steps to prevent high income individuals from obtaining higher rate tax relief on additional pension savings in 2009-10 and 2010-11 in excess of their normal ongoing pattern of contributions. These 'anti-forestalling' provisions went hand-in-hand with the announcement that higher rate relief on pension savings for high income individuals would be restricted from 6 April 2011. Having announced that measure in advance it was felt necessary to take immediate steps to prevent advantage being taken of higher rate relief in the intervening period.

  • | Analysis

    Tweet disposition - the tech-savvy lawyers making social media work for them

    By Sofia Lind | October 20, 2010

    Do you tweet? Among journalists the answer is becoming a given, but among City lawyers the question may be considered a little less relevant. Not so, say a host of web-literate legal advisers and in-house counsel.

  • | Analysis

    Courtroom drama - the City's top film lawyers pick their favourite movies

    By Sofia Lind | October 13, 2010

    The City's top film lawyers might be experts when it comes to questions of finance, distribution and intellectual property law - but do they know what makes a good movie? Sofia Lind asks a line-up of film law partners for their recommendations

  • Do law firms care about staff morale?

    By Legal Week | October 8, 2010

    My fellow blogger Steven Harper has some insightful thoughts about associate morale in The Am Law Daily. He seems troubled - though I assume not surprised - by the high dissatifaction rate among mid-level associates. In the post, Harper makes the rather radical suggestion that partners be held accountable for associate satisfaction...

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