Lawyer Salary

What about corporate lawyer compared to litigation lawyer?

does the former has better work life balance and less stress?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

What about corporate lawyer compared to litigation lawyer?

does the former has better work life balance and less stress?

Both are equally stressful. A piece of advice:

To do nothing.

This foundation concept is key to the noblest kind of action according to the philosophy of Daoism – and is at the heart of what it means to follow Dao or The Way. According to the central text of Daoism, the Dao De Jing: ‘The Way never acts yet nothing is left undone’. This is the paradox of wu wei. It doesn’t mean not acting, it means ‘effortless action’ or ‘actionless action’.

To do nothing is the noblest form of action humankind can undertake.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

What about corporate lawyer compared to litigation lawyer?

does the former has better work life balance and less stress?

As always with lawyers, it depends.

In my opinion however, the general rule is that litigation is more stressful.

You're in a much more combative environment, which often translates to a toxic internal team culture.

Timelines are far more relevant and common, and the consequences of missing them are more dire.

Adding to the stress is the make or break, all-in mentality of litigation.

You will live in the office during trial / arbitration.

On the flip side, depending on the team corporate can be more stressful, a sort of slow burn, if you end up working on many transactions at the same time as there is no 'downtime between trials'. Just a never-ending churn of transactions. Also possible that corporate clients can be more demanding, and because timelines are set by clients instead of the court, they can be much more unreasonable.

Thinking of applying to a disputes team. If my goal is to work in an international firm in the future (MC firms etc) would it be better for me to apply to a b4 team or a firm already with an international tie up like rodyk, baker, hogan lovells etc?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Thinking of applying to a disputes team. If my goal is to work in an international firm in the future (MC firms etc) would it be better for me to apply to a b4 team or a firm already with an international tie up like rodyk, baker, hogan lovells etc?

If your goal is to go to a MC firm, you have much better chances in Corp than disputes.

If the goal is to go to an MC or US firm for corp, would it be better to start your career in a legitimate FLA (e.g. Ashurst, Simmons, etc.) where you actually do the 2 year TC or PTC + 18 months, or start out in Big 4/BMWL?

Is it common for partners to tear up your drafts and redo everything, or am I just not there yet

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Thinking of applying to a disputes team. If my goal is to work in an international firm in the future (MC firms etc) would it be better for me to apply to a b4 team or a firm already with an international tie up like rodyk, baker, hogan lovells etc?

Just choose the best team you can get into with a reputation for doing high-quality, demanding and sophisticated disputes work (ideally with a significant arbitration component). These are usually the SC teams in the B4 - though keep in mind that even among B4 SCs, some are more highly regarded than others.

Whether your firm has an international tie-up is basically irrelevant to the hiring decisions of top international firms.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Is it common for partners to tear up your drafts and redo everything, or am I just not there yet

This is obviously toxic and partner not giving clear instructions.

Complain to law society

Originally Posted by Unregistered

This is obviously toxic and partner not giving clear instructions.

Complain to law society

Is it common where partners give unclear instructions (without even calling to explain the matter and merely sending you entire email chains for you to figure out)? And if your draft is not 100% they will just cross it out without giving any feedback then talk behind your back?