What type of lawyers have the best work-life balance?

[DennisNextDoor]

19 hours ago, easttowest said:

What did you do though?

I mean, the work was not all that difficult as I worked in debt collection and foreclosures, but definitely taxing and the culture where I was at just did not fit for what I was looking for long-term. The nice thing about those areas of law (especially foreclosure) is that the legal assistants were able to do all of the work on the file. Lawyers would essentially come in to argue matters in court and go address any extraordinary complexities with a file if there were any.

[GGrievous]

14 minutes ago, DennisNextDoor said:

worked in debt collection and foreclosures,

Man that sounds super depressing

[DennisNextDoor]

3 minutes ago, Barry said:

Man that sounds super depressing

The work really didn't bug me as much as the culture of where I was. Hours were great, but not worth the trade off of a work culture that I personally was not a huge fan of and didn't see myself wanting long term. 

[99problems]

1 hour ago, DennisNextDoor said:

The work really didn't bug me as much as the culture of where I was. Hours were great, but not worth the trade off of a work culture that I personally was not a huge fan of and didn't see myself wanting long term. 

Can you elaborate the culture?

[t3ctonics]

6 hours ago, DennisNextDoor said:

I mean, the work was not all that difficult as I worked in debt collection and foreclosures, but definitely taxing and the culture where I was at just did not fit for what I was looking for long-term. The nice thing about those areas of law (especially foreclosure) is that the legal assistants were able to do all of the work on the file. Lawyers would essentially come in to argue matters in court and go address any extraordinary complexities with a file if there were any.

5 hours ago, Barry said:

Man that sounds super depressing

Part of my practice was foreclosures and debt collection when I was in private practice, and yeah it was super depressing. The legal work was alright - mostly reviewing assistants and paralegals' work product and arguing in court - but taking people's houses is not exactly uplifting. Most of the files were against desperate self-reps. There was a lot of foreclosure work shortly after I started (2014), because a lot of people lost their jobs when oil and potash prices crashed, and then house prices dropped and some banks started calling in demand loans (including HELOCs).

Sometimes we could actually help them in some way, like working out a payment plan, or a quitclaim. That was an option many people weren't aware of, and for people who were underwater on their mortgages it was usually a huge relief, because with a purchase money mortgage the mortgagee can't sue on the deficiency in Saskatchewan. So they can just hand over the house and walk away without having to worry about any deficiency on the sale. Some people were actually happy, and thanked me.

But for the most part, the people I delt with pleaded with me, screamed at me, and called me names for trying to get the bank's money back.

I did get a fair bit of experience in court though. All just chambers practice, but still in court at least. 

[DennisNextDoor]

On 3/3/2022 at 11:20 AM, 99problems said:

Can you elaborate the culture?

Without getting into too much detail, a lot of yelling and putting down of not just lawyers, but staff as well. I had assistants tell me they felt they were walking on eggshells with senior lawyers. This created a massive amount of turnover and good people leaving. At one point, my department had three people doing the work that eleven did previously. The culture and administrative portion of the firm needed to change in order to keep staff, and keep staff happy. It didn't and that is why the turnover rate continues to be high. 

[Ruthless4Life]

Professor of law ?

[Labienus]

I think in-house positions can offer pretty good work/life balance, but of course it varies according to the industry and company culture.

I work for an infrastructure construction company and my hours are most of the time 9-5:30 with longer hours close to tender submission. 

Edited April 20, 2022 by Labienus