Lawyer Work-Life Balance
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In Russia with love
By Mark Goddard | April 22, 2009
For the unseasoned visitor, Moscow's insalubrious reputation as a haven for oil-rich but morally-questionable businessmen, gun-touting drug barons and Stalinist ideologies is probably quite intimidating.Throw in five airports, nine main train stations, nightmarish traffic and winters cold enough to freeze your caviar and it is understandable why visiting lawyers could be a little thrown by the prospect of a business trip to the Russian capital.
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| Analysis
Arrested development
By Mark Goddard | April 8, 2009
Over the last few months, increasing numbers of firms have been asking their 2009 graduate intake to delay their training contract start dates.Clifford Chance (CC), Norton Rose, Herbert Smith and Simmons & Simmons are among the firms to pay off recruits due to start in September, giving them the opportunity to put off their entry into the working world for a year. Some of the offers are dependent on the firms getting enough volunteers to defer; otherwise compulsory deferral may be introduced.
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The generation game
By Mark Goddard | April 1, 2009
I remember vividly the moment when I contemplated being unemployed. It was the summer of 2005. I had decided that I would not seek re-election as senior partner of Simmons & Simmons - believing, as I still do, that organisations benefit from the introduction of fresh thoughts and new ideas. My diary for 2006 was filling up with various commitments and meetings until August when my term as senior partner was due to end. After that, there was nothing but blank pages. What was I going to do next?
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Older and wiser
By Mark Goddard | April 1, 2009
Barely a week goes by at the moment without another firm announcing a wave of planned redundancies. While losing your job is a traumatic experience at any stage in life, it is often those who have been in the profession the longest who are hit the hardest and find it most difficult to get back into work. The declining value of pensions has combined with other lifestyle factors, such as having children later in life, to mean that more and more of the baby-boomer generation need to work beyond 60. Indeed, many professionals in their 60s feel they have more to give and want to keep on working: a recent survey on behalf of Standard Life reported that 42% of 46-65-year-olds want to continue working beyond their official retirement age.
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| Analysis
A good working relationship
By Mark Goddard | March 25, 2009
With long working hours and stressful jobs, many lawyers turn to colleagues or people in the same profession for a sympathetic ear. And so when it comes to affairs of the heart, it is not surprising that the profession has a little more in-breeding than most.But with the number of lawyers dating or married to other lawyers reaching almost endemic levels at some firms, what is the right way to handle an office romance? And how do you make it work in practice?
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| Analysis
Full of beans
By Mark Goddard | March 18, 2009
My firm is drowning in twin tsunamis: the hit our business is taking - and a tidal wave of Starbucks we're guzzling to energise our relief efforts and keep those of us left here alert. Any tips for getting more out of a workaholic lawyer's favourite fix du jour?A What a long way we've come since Sufi priests first boiled coffee bean husks in Arabia, drank the resulting elixir, and got dubbed "whirling dervishes" by Europeans witnessing the all-night religious ceremonies the drink fuelled. From such origins, caffeine has burgeoned into the most widely used psychoactive drug in the world, with Americans alone consuming 350 million cups of coffee daily - not to mention tea, Red Bull and countless other products - from cold remedies to weight loss pills - that contain caffeine.
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The lost generation
By Mark Goddard | March 12, 2009
"Do not curse your fortune, but rather thank your lucky stars. You have been saved!" is Giles Coren's message to graduates concerned about a City recruitment freeze. Writing last month in The Times, the journalist and occasional TV personality continues: "If the banks have closed their doors and the law firms don't want you, all you need is... our congratulations." Coren says that back when he graduated in 1991 it was only the "Hooray Henrys with an expensive lifestyle but very little brain who sold out to Linklaters and McKinsey and Deutsche Bank".
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| Analysis
Partners with partners
By Mark Goddard | March 4, 2009
Take it from someone who knows; if you are contemplating a move abroad, remember: you are not alone.More often than not if you are married or in a relationship and one of you takes a post overseas to join an existing business, the other is often 'slipstreaming'. It is important to remember that your spouse or partner may not have the same support network and exciting new things that you will have to occupy their time. You will have the familiarity of the organisation that you work for, the type of work you are doing and very often the people you are to be working with. Your spouse or partner, in contrast, is very often plucked out of their existing comfortable environment and thrown into an unfamiliar and stressful world. So remember to think about what's in it for your partner and how can you ease their transition; failure to do so may mean the move is only 50% successful. A year after my family's move and I am pleased to report it has achieved a 100% success rating, due to attention paid in the following areas.
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| Analysis
Movers and sheikers
By Mark Goddard | March 4, 2009
We are all living and working through exceptional times. Law firms and partners must respond to the increasing pace of change in the markets and with clients, and so partner flexibility and mobility have never been more important.My personal reaction to this new world was to move with my wife and three children (aged 11, 10 and seven) from London to Dubai to jointly run Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer's corporate practice in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The motivations and challenges for the move were many, and I and the firm have learned practical lessons from my transfer to the Middle East.
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| Analysis
Diverse City
By Mark Goddard | February 25, 2009
One of the most enjoyable aspects of what I do at the Black Lawyers Directory (BLD) is interviewing lawyers (and indeed non-lawyers), particularly for our Lawyers of the Month feature. What has struck me is that a significant number of those that I had interviewed were given what will now be shocking advice when they were starting out. One Chief Crown Prosecutor was told that they were aiming too high and should instead look at secretarial work. One partner at a top 100 law firm was told to forget becoming a lawyer and join the army instead because colour does not matter then. An amusing story, as told to me by John Roberts QC, was when he had just finished his pupillage and was looking for a tenancy. He recalled: "A clerk said to me: 'Sorry, sir, with you being black, solicitors won't brief you. If they do, I will eat my hat!'"
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