{"id":8743,"date":"2022-03-04T14:36:06","date_gmt":"2022-03-04T14:36:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.clio.com\/uk\/?p=8743"},"modified":"2026-02-27T22:24:38","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T22:24:38","slug":"is-work-life-balance-in-uk-law-achievable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clio.com\/uk\/blog\/is-work-life-balance-in-uk-law-achievable\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Work-Life Balance in UK Law Achievable?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is work-life balance in UK law achievable? It\u2019s a question that has been debated increasingly frequently in recent years in the legal space as many legal professionals now seek to find law careers with work-life balance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A good place to start with this question is by defining what work-life balance is. The<\/span> Cambridge Dictionary<\/span><\/a> defines it as \u201cthe amount of time you spend doing your job compared with the amount of time you spend with your family and doing things you enjoy.\u201d Using that definition, a lot of lawyers and other legal professionals might find they are not achieving the balance they want.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lawyers are notorious for their long hours and demanding workload, starting from the days of their legal education and subsequent traineeships. That pressure can be built into firm operations.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the <\/span>2022 Legal Trends Report<\/span><\/i><\/a>, 86% of lawyers work outside of the typical work day, with 73% regularly working during weekends. This is hardly surprising\u201468% of clients want to communicate with their lawyers after hours and the same percent expect to be able to chat with their solicitors over the weekends. <\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not surprising, then,\u00a0 that the legal industry is especially vulnerable to the pressures of time. Time outside of work and the office are often spent preparing for a trial or meeting clients, commuting, caring for children or other dependents, in meetings and conferences, waiting for court, and more. As a lawyer, it can feel like your personal time is never truly your own\u2014and even when you find some personal time, it\u2019s not enough.<\/span><\/p>\n

Use Clio’s Lawyer Mental Health guide<\/a> to identify when you\u2019re approaching burnout and discover what mindfulness is, and how to practice it in your daily life.<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\tGet the Guide<\/a>\n\t<\/p>\n

Causes of work-life balance disruption<\/h2>\n

Other factors that disrupt a lawyer\u2019s work-life balance include:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Presenteeism<\/b>, that is, working when not physically or mentally capable. A simple example is working while ill. While the person is \u201cworking,\u201d their productivity rate is lower than when they are in their full health which can lead to mistakes and oversights.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Long hours, particularly when training as a junior<\/b>. The pressure to work a lot begins early in the legal profession. A survey conducted by Legal Cheek<\/i><\/a> in 2022 showed that many trainee and associate lawyers work in excess of 11 or 12 hours in an average day. Some finish on average at 11.11 p.m.\u2014almost 14 hours after their day begins.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Time-recording requirements<\/b> also put more pressure on lawyers. While billable hour targets need to be met in a lot of firms, there is also work to be done that is not billable. An article from <\/span>The Law Society Gazette<\/span><\/a><\/em> explains:<\/span>
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\n<\/span>\u201c<\/span>A solicitor with a modest target of 1,400 billable hours per year will need to account for approximately 6 hours of billable time per day (divide 1,400 by 12 months, for four weeks, and then for five working days).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe result leaves around one hour in traditional core working hours (a 37-hour week) to complete other aspects of the job role including business development, administration, billing tasks, learning and development, supervision, one to ones, performance reviews, diversity and inclusion work and internal meetings.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe inevitable reality is that solicitors work long hours to account for the non-billable work which they do for the business. This additional time is often unrecognised by the traditional billable hours metric. It is, therefore, unsurprising that solicitors are reported to be struggling with work-life balance and burnout is all too common.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Lawyer work-life balance and mental health\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\t