How is the social life with being a lawyer?

Hi Shantae,

A career as a lawyer can be very rewarding and enjoyable. However, what a lawyer does on a day-to-day basis (and how busy their work life will be) can vary greatly. The first place to start is to begin researching/exploring the different kinds of law practice that interest you. Many lawyers do in fact have jobs that require very long hours. If you want to argue in court (litigation), you might find yourself working late at night to prepare for a trial or finish an important legal brief. If you would like to work with big businesses and help them close million dollar deals (corporate law), you might find yourself also working late at night to finalize contracts and review other corporate documents before a deal is finished. While working in the private sector at a law firm in litigation or in corporate law can be a lucrative career, it may also require long hours and can make work-life balance challenging.

Some lawyers choose to go into the "public" sector. This means that they work for a non-profit organization, or perhaps the government. This means that you might advocate for low-income individuals in court, or work on policy issues, or even primarily write articles about important legal issues. Many of these jobs offer a good salary and fewer hours in the office, but it depends on the job. Even public interest lawyers often work long hours to advocate for their clients.

The important thing is to spend some time thinking about how you would like to use your career to make an impact in the world. Try to find some lawyers and talk to them about their daily life. Or read some articles on the internet that discuss the day in the life of a lawyer. The best case scenario is to find a career where going to work does not feel like a chore or a pain. Then, even if you occasionally have to work long hours, you will not feel like you are sacrificing your social life because you are doing something that is very important to the world.

Another thing to keep in mind is that many people start out their career in law and then go on to do other things. Many lawyers have become politicians, business owners, entrepreneurs, writers, and even teachers. Pursuing law school can definitely provide you with a solid foundation to do something great!

Hi!

While you are in law school, you generally don't have much time to have a social life because law school requires a lot of reading and studying. After law school you will take the bar exam. The bar exam also requires a lot of studying so there will not be much time for socializing. Once you are a lawyer, your social life may be determined by what type of lawyer you want to be. Some legal jobs require more of your time, but it is possible to have a legal job with regular hours and it is possible to have a career as a lawyer that is enjoyable. I am a lawyer and I enjoy my career. Good luck!

Etienne and Teresa provided some great answers already, but I wanted to jump in with my perspective as well. I've had a few different legal jobs and the time commitments have varied wildly and really the answer to your question is that 'it depends on what kind of legal job' you have, but below are some examples of work schedules based on my experience:

When I was in law school, I worked for a judge and the judge and her clerks worked 9-5 pretty much every day with no late nights or weekend work.

My first job after law school was for a big law firm, which if you've started thinking about being a lawyer, you might have heard some of the horror stories. While the pay was good, I probably averaged about 60 hours per week of work and during my time there, I worked multiple 80-90 hour weeks and the unpredictability of my schedule did impact my social life.

I now work 'in-house' (basically working directly for one company instead of multiple clients). This job is much more flexible and I work from home, which is great. While it's not a flat 9-5 job, I generally average around 40 hours per week and I have a lot of flexibility as to when and how much I work in any day.

There are so many different jobs you can do as a lawyer and the hours you work will vary wildly based on where you work and what type of law you practice. Most legal jobs aren't just flat 9-5 hours, but if you want to be a lawyer with a social life, there are certainly a number of jobs out there that can accommodate.