What is job satisfaction in the context of law firms?

It’s a process that’s all so common among the legal profession every year, no matter which jurisdiction you practice in.  After years of studying, internships, training and countless interviews, you obtain your legal qualification and you celebrate a new chapter in your life with the dreams of becoming a high-flying, high-earning lawyer involved in cutting edge deals or cases.

So you’ve made it! Right?

Not quite. Before we progress, let me ask you one thing. At the time you secured your training contract or signed an agreement on your admission as a solicitor or attorney, what were the most important criteria in your choice of the law firm you joined? The chances are, your reply would be any one or more of the following: 

• Brand or prestige of the firm 
• The pay/salary 
• The practice area of your choice
• I didn’t have a choice, it was the only option that was available to me at that time. 

Even more likely, you probably wouldn’t have had job satisfaction high on that list, given that you were a new starter in that role. 

Fast forward 2 or 3 years, and disillusion, boredom, unhappiness and even desperation sets in.  You may be fortunate enough to qualify in the department you wanted to specialise in, yet fulfillment seems to be lacking in your job since you qualified.  

To make matters worse, your friends who qualified at the same time as you seem to be climbing up the career ladder faster than you, and you don’t understand how or why that is, when you're both at law firms with a similar standing. You reflect on your own career and you feel frustrated why you’re not getting the job satisfaction you expected or had hoped. Pay and simply the brand name of your law firm may have added a nice sheen to your CV, but really, are you being challenged and nurtured in such a way that you are getting the job satisfaction you need in having a sustainable and long term career in that firm?  Time and time again, job satisfaction is overlooked by candidates in favour of remuneration. And this is something that requires a seismic shift in mentality, even culture, in Asia. 

This article isn't intended to tell you what job satisfaction is. It's an intangible, special quality that is unique to you.  A variety of factors will invariable come into play.

But there are certainly some common reasons why you are not being fulfilled in your role, and if one or more of the following considerations apply to you then, consider whether your current firm is for you, fast.  

1. You’re picking up bad habits early

Just as no two law firms are the same, no two individual lawyers are the same. When you reflect on your training period, you can probably identify which partners and senior lawyers you enjoyed working with the most. It’s typical for law firms to encourage their trainee solicitors to work for as many partners and senior lawyers as possible. 

Yet, once you enter a department on qualification, you will probably work with one or two partners or senior associates more closely than others. Who that person(s) is/are, is more down to the needs of that department than your personal preference or indeed, the preference of your line manager or partner. If you get matched with an inspiring, patient mentor of a partner who gives you regular constructive feedback on your work, then the foundations of a talented and motivated lawyer will be developed in you.   

However, if you get paired with a senior lawyer who doesn’t invest in your training and supervision, or seemingly redacts or criticises the majority of your work, the seeds of doubt are laid in your mind.  And those doubts will grow over time. Whether this is down to having an ‘old school’ partner at the twilight of his career who has a very old fashioned method of working, or an over-stressed, over-worked senior associate or partner, then the alarm bells should start ringing for you. 

2. Your team is too top heavy

Typically, the structure of  teams within law firms are a pyramid shape (or in football (soccer) parlance, a Christmas tree formation!). At the top, you’ll get a partner, followed by an Of Counsel and/or senior associate, two or three junior to mid-level associates, and a couple of trainees or paralegals.  That enables the work to cascade down the team structure and allow junior associates to be exposed to a broad suite of transactions and documents.  

If, however, the ratio in a team is 1 partner, 4 senior lawyers and one junior associate (you), guess who gets the raw deal?  In this situation, typically the senior lawyers will be fighting for the best quality work available and will push the quasi-administrative and routine work to the junior associate.   

"Time and time again, job satisfaction is overlooked by candidates in favour of remuneration."

Such an arrangement may be fine initially, when you’re a trainee or in your first year of qualification as a lawyer. But after a while, there are only so many disclosure bundles and witness statements you can prepare, or so many verification notes or due diligence reports to draft or proof read before you think, hang on, this isn’t what I signed up for.  

If you continue working in this team structure, after a couple of years, you’ll realise that you haven’t really gained much substantive and quality legal experience, and that could impede your career progression both within that same firm or when considering moving to another law firm or an in-house legal team.  

3. You don’t get on well with your partner or peers

Anecdotal evidence suggests that the primary cause for people to leave their job is because of a poor relationship with their manager.  As a junior lawyer, you are likely to be reporting to, or working for, a number of peers, whether they are a partner, of counsel, or an associate more senior than you.  

Sadly, stories of one-upmanship, sometimes even bullying, of associates who are only one or two years apart in experience (or even by their team manager), are not uncommon.  There may be a number of reasons why this happens but it wouldn’t be beyond the realms of reality if that associate sees you as a threat to their own status, or some insecurities lie deep in that person. In some cases, you may see your recorded time continually being written off at as ‘training’. This will have a far reaching impact, not least on your pay review the following year. 

If that applies, you may find that your personal career development (and confidence) is stunted from this unfortunate state of affairs. 

4. Your partner is picking up routine or high volume/low cost (ie boring) legal work 

If you’re working in an international law firm, the chances of gaining exposure to big ticket work are considerably higher compared with a local law firm (save for the top tier domestic law firms who often match the international firms for the quality of work).  

If the work being brought in is routine, high volume and low cost legal work, however, you have to query where this career path will lead you and whether this will give you the job satisfaction you need.  

5. Your partner is struggling to win work 

At least conducting routine, vanilla legal work allows you to hit your billing targets (or get closer to them)!  

If your partner happens to go through a dry patch of winning work when you see your practice area thriving in different firms, you have to query whether your long term job security is under threat. Moving firms is one option, but also consider whether working for other partners and senior associates in your department will help tide you over until your main partner 'finds his mojo' again. Meanwhile, working in a team is just that, you should invoke some entrepreneurial spirit in yourself and help your partner with business development.  That in itself is a major contributor to your own personal development as a well rounded commercial lawyer.  Don’t heap all the responsibility on your boss. 

The running of a law firm is by no means an easy feat. There are many reporting lines and chains of accountability (more so in the context of international law firms).  That sets enormous pressures on partners and senior lawyers in the firm to win business.  And that can have both positive and negative consequences to your own career development.  Should you find that any one or more of the above factors apply to you, then it would be time to think about moving law firms and to an environment where you are nurtured in the best possible manner.   

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