Young lawyers opt for work/life balance over high salaries

Reading time: two minutes

A growing number of young lawyers are choosing to leave their high-paying jobs in pursuit of a better work/life balance. Despite the allure of salaries that can reach up to £180,000 for newly qualified (NQ) solicitors at top City law firms like Paul Weiss and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher UK LLP, the demanding nature of the job is pushing generation Z (gen z) and millennial lawyers to seek alternative careers.

Former corporate lawyer at Fieldfisher, Melissa Layton, is a prime example of this trend. After years of “long hours in the office and midnight finishes”, Layton left her legal career to start Numinity, a wellness start-up. Speaking on her legal career, Layton said: “My first impression as a trainee, looking at the partners, was that even the people at the top are under palpable stress. It was like looking into the future and seeing where I was going to be in several years’ time.”

Elsewhere, a former solicitor in his 20s who used to work at magic circle law firm Slaughter & May, said: “A lot of people talk about weeks where you work 80 billable hours. You don’t really know what that’s like until you’ve done it and it’s pretty brutal.”

The demanding nature of the legal profession is not a new phenomenon, but it’s said that NQ lawyers today are more willing to walk away from lucrative positions compared to previous generations. It’s common for young lawyers to face long working hours, including weekends and being on-call. In addition, the recent stream of US law firms to the UK market is believed to have intensified the pressures young lawyers face, with expectations for many NQ lawyers to be available for both UK and US hours.

Find out more about work/life balance in the legal profession.

In the face of rising pressures, legal recruiter at Definitum Search Christopher Clark said that “gen Z are far more aware of the personal impact and money alone isn’t enough for some to stick it out”.

Partner at Witan Solicitors, Qarrar Somji, shared a similar sentiment: “Younger generations are more willing to walk away when they feel something isn’t the right fit, without the fear or stigma that may have held previous generations back.”

However, some critics have questioned whether the shift reflects a lack of “resilience” among younger workers and argue that the challenges faced by young lawyers are part of the profession's demanding nature – a profession that’s always required a high level of commitment and endurance.