Solicitors' Working Hours
updated on 25 February 2003
Dear Oracle
I wonder if you can help me. I am considering a career as a solicitor and I understand that the average working week ranges from 45 to over 50 hours. Does this apply to the number of hours spent at work or the number of hours spent working?The Oracle replies
In general solicitors are expected to work as long as it takes to get their
clients' work done. This may well mean missing lunch, dinner and indeed bedtime.
It's not really possible to generalise further - working hours will depend on
the type of law practiced, the firm, the business cycle, the state of the economy
etc.
In October 1998, the UK Working Time Regulations 1998 implemented the European
Commission's Working Time Directive. The protection afforded to employees by
the regulations means that employees should have:
- a maximum working week of 48 hours (averaged over a 17-week period);
- 4 weeks' annual leave (although this is not additional to statutory bank holidays);
- 11 hours' continuous rest between each working day; and
- 24 hours' continuous rest every seven days or 48 hours continuous rest every two weeks.
An employee cannot be forced to work in excess of these hours. However, many trainees and newly-qualified solicitors keen to make a good impression think nothing of signing away their rights to the Working Time Directive and justifying their salaries by working unacceptable hours. Note that it is standard practice in some City firms for trainees to be presented with a waiver form on their first day. Although not forced to sign the form, doing so is hardly likely to be beneficial to a trainee's career. Ask yourself whether you would be happy to waive such rights.
Bear in mind the demands of different areas of law - corporate law, for example, can mean late nights in the office (transactional work, by its nature, involves periods of intense activity, midnight completion meetings and drafting into the early hours) . In contrast, a lawyer who concentrates on conveyancing will probably have his or her job confined to normal working hours.
