Senior lawyers working more hours as accountants threaten: survey
UK law firm partners are working longer hours, as they attempt to seize new business opportunities while warding off competition from the Big Four accountancy firms, according to a new survey.
At the same time, however, the pressure has eased slightly on more junior lawyers as confidence grows over job prospects.
The findings come from specialist legal and compliance recruiter Laurence Simons, which reports that average partner hours have risen over the past two or three years from 50¼ per week in 2013-14 to 55¾ per week in 2015-16, driven by new business opportunities and increased competition from other legal services providers. This amounts to an extra 263 hours in the office every year, or an additional six and a half weeks based on a working week of 40 hours.
Laurence Simons points to increased revenues at the biggest law firms, with the top 10 having grown their revenues by 6% over the 12 months to October 2015, while those ranked 11 to 25 were up by 2%. While the opportunities are there to improve their position after the difficult years of the recession, the increase in new business comes at a time when other providers are now able to operate as alternative business structures.
Clare Butler, global managing director at Laurence Simons, commented: “Since this liberalisation, the senior players at law firms are having to fend off competition from newly formed Big Four accountancy firm legal teams. Partners have been fighting back by nurturing current client relationships and seeking out new opportunities and will continue to do so. Despite this change, we predict the legal sector will remain strong – for example, the Magic Circle has retained its presence and prestige notwithstanding stiff competition from the USA in recent years.
“On top of this, finance departments are hawkishly looking at the balance sheet as they seek to build leaner and meaner firms, leaving little room for high earning partners who aren’t bringing in fees. With their performance under intense scrutiny, it is little wonder partners are firing on all cylinders.”
However only of the lawyers questioned in the survey said that putting in long hours was essential to getting to the top of the profession. This reflects a slight downward trend at junior levels, where lawyers are now working 46¾ hours per week on average compared with 47½ hours in 2013-14. Laurence Simons says these findings point to a decrease in the trend of "presenteeism", with juniors previously worried about job losses now feeling more confident about their futures.
Ms Butler observed: “Redundancy no longer looms in their minds and given the ongoing war for exceptional talent, A-players know they could secure a new role without too much difficulty if their current position isn’t satisfying their personal and development needs. Presenteeism is on the decline.”
The survey found that overall, lawyers are putting in more hours on average than accountants, at 48 hours per week compared with 43.
Ms Butler added: “The lines between the professions are becoming blurred as clients start to prefer the services and convenience of a single entity which can provide multiple services, which is why the Big Four legal departments are starting to look desirable. The hours put in by lawyers at all levels are significantly higher than those of accountants, especially when you scale this up to an entire year. Accountants are innovating, but lawyers aren’t going out without a fight, and we may see accountants working increasing working hours throughout 2016 to make up the gap.”