Best areas of Corporate Law for work life balance?

[replosr]

DD is training at a US law firm in London. It's fairly full service for a US firm. She is interested in things Corporate but does not want a career in the Corporate team because of horrific work life balance. At her firm Corporate associates often work 9am-11pm and weekends.

She's looking for an area that is aligned with Corporate that works 9am-7pm and has free weekends. She's not afraid of hard graft when necessary, but wants an area/niche that has a better work life balance. Any ideas?

Funds? Regulatory? Employment?

She is at the far extreme in her current role.

suggest a commercial seat next. Can be scaled up and down through your career

Ummmmm not sure that a US firm is the place for her. I imagine in most teams at least part of the role will be deal support. So if you are in employment and you’re supporting corporate on a deal and the employment warranties need be dealt with at 11pm then thats what will be expected.

A contentious area might be better.

As someone who spent 20+ years in contentious roles in international law firms can I just say:
Hahahahahahahaha
(Slightly manic laughter accompanied by a nervous twitch.)

Ultimately law firms only sell one thing, OP- the time of their lawyers. Most want to sell as much of that as possible, regardless of practice area. The differences between teams are pretty marginal in the top flight firms.

Commercial property will be steadier

I'd chose funds, try to get a client secondment, then go in house. You can't really do it in a US law firm. You can't make the level of partner profits without people working a lot of hours and being very available - that is what clients buy for over £1000/hour. (There's a Times article from yesterday that reports that US associates are working 12 hour days as an average, so some weeks will be a lot higher)

I sold my soul in my 20s / early 30s worked like a nutter and saved hard, bought a house than RAN as fast as I could and never looked back!

I am a contentious lawyer and hours are generally better than corporate but are of course busy when we trials/mediations etc on.

Being at a US firm in any department is going to demand long hours. 9-7 is pretty uncommon for lawyers in city firms but I think the best bet would be something like employment. However, when they are working on corporate deals and providing support it would be long hours.

In house is probably what she's looking for but it's best to get a few years in practice under her belt first

A US firm owns your organs! She needs to think carefully about whether she can stay. It's all about the hours.

BIL worked for a US firm for years - transactions. Overnighters and getting called back from holidays are par for the course (although in the last few years working all holiday remotely is also expected). A quiet week is 60 hours. However, the profit share is very good.
In-house might be the best place for work life balance.

DH moved into regulatory compliance consulting & risk management - amazing work/life balance and decent pay. Yes he could earn more but he wanted to see our daughter grow up and actually spend some time with her.

We worked our arses off in our twenties got house deposit and lived the high life then left London entirely and worked in mid tier firm / self employed legal work. Worked for us.

The few lawyers I know who worked in magic circle or silver circle law firms now work as in house legal counsel in non legal firms. However, one hasn’t been paid for the past few months so…

Another newly qualified lawyer I know went straight to working as in house legal counsel in retail and now has a temporary managerial promotion whilst her colleague is on maternity leave.

Tax can be reasonable hours and there would still be corporate deal work (though nothing is going to be particularly reasonable hours at a US firm). Tax also has the advantage that there is generally a shortage of tax lawyers and it is a specialised practice area which not everyone wants to do. My firm is much more flexible in recruiting for these sort of roles than for general corporate/ real estate e.g we have had people return from long career breaks working 2 days per week or term time only which would never be considered in more mainstream practice areas.

Otherwise commercial is good for being able to work in house.

Contentious work seems to have the worst hours at my firm.

Almost anywhere is going to be better than a US firm even in corporate but you do need to be careful with the firm and who you will be working with. Even much smaller regional firms can have pockets where very long hours are expected and that can be down to individual personalities.

OP 9am-7pm as any form of medium-top firm is limited and is likely impossible on a frequent basis in a US law firm. The pay, demands the hours. Go in house? (Will be significantly salary capped as an NQ). Family and friends are solicitors…when they want to work those hours they leave law! What are her billable hours expectations once qualified? Most wouldn’t hit target working 9-7.

Alternatively leave London after qualification but it would come with the accompanying drop in pay. Probably she would be paid the same as what she is being paid as a trainee (£55-65k?) at a decent regional.

No knowledge of US firms but in my old national firm tax and pensions was a good shout to work alongside the corporate team. Also commercial property focussing on corporate support.

I really think you can't have both the amazing salary and a decent work/life balance. It's one or the other really. But an amazing salary is probably great for a few years if she can stand it and then go in house or move "down" a tier.

Yes there’s a drop in salary but it evens out as you have to spend a fortune to achieve a standard middle class life in London that is much cheaper in say the south west especially if you are careful where you buy your house so you don’t need to pay for private school.