In finding out which law firms were the happiest, we also identified which cities make the happiest lawyers, and whether money, prestige or pro bono determine well-being.
Oil price? What oil price?
June 2016
Here we’ve ranked key legal markets by how happy the local lawyers are. For the second year in a row we have New England and Texas duking it out for the cheeriest place to be a lawyer. Apparently the oil price crash this year hasn’t messed with Texans, who remain perennially buoyant. The table hasn’t shifted dramatically apart from California’s rise this year into the upper half – where we’d expect. It’s in these regional rankings where we see the clearest relationship between stress and its erosion of happiness.
|
|
Regional legal market |
Happiness reported out of 10 |
|
1 |
8.39 |
|
|
2 |
7.95 |
|
|
3 |
7.81 |
|
|
4 |
7.73 |
|
|
5 |
7.71 |
|
|
6 |
7.65 |
|
|
7 |
7.61 |
|
|
8 |
7.50 |
|
|
9 |
7.49 |
|
|
Regional legal market |
Happier than expected % |
|
1 |
17% |
|
|
2 |
16% |
|
|
3 |
15% |
|
|
4 |
12% |
|
|
5 |
12% |
|
|
6 |
11% |
|
|
7 |
9% |
|
|
8 |
5% |
|
|
9 |
1% |
|
|
Regional legal market |
Stress rating out of 10 |
|
1 |
6.39 |
|
|
2 |
6.12 |
|
|
3 |
5.94 |
|
|
4 |
5.79 |
|
|
5 |
5.60 |
|
|
6 |
5.59 |
|
|
7 |
5.35 |
|
|
8 |
5.07 |
|
|
9 |
4.43 |
Job satisfaction by key market metrics
If anything makes a lawyer happy it’s money, surely? Well, not really. We broke our market down by a few variables that make a difference to a firm’s culture and a lawyer’s fulfilment, and money turned out to have little impact on happiness. This fits with research we did with law students this year which asked, ‘What’s the main reason you want you be a lawyer?’ And by a wide margin, ‘intellectually challenging work’ was the main draw into the profession (40%). The opportunity to ‘make the world a better place’ also trumped the ‘good salary’ option, which is reflected below in the pro bono test. Taking Chambers USA rankings as a measure of achievement, we also see that a law firm’s performance correlates with happiness.
‘Stress is less influenced by aspiration and pressure to achieve, but by how a firm manages their lawyers’ stress – the cultural factors that determine how you get the best out of your lawyers.’
|
Job satisfaction by key metrics |
Happier than expected % |
Stress rating out of 10 |
|
The top 25 performers in Chambers USA rankings |
13% |
5.7 |
|
The lower 25 performers in Chambers USA rankings |
8% |
5.4 |
|
--- |
|
|
|
Top 50 biggest firms |
14% |
5.7 |
|
Bottom 50 smallest firms |
9% |
5.5 |
|
--- |
|
|
|
Associates starting on $160,000 or higher |
12% |
5.6 |
|
Associates earning under $160,000 in their first year |
10% |
5.5 |
| --- |
|
|
|
Top 50 pro bono billers |
13% |
5.6 |
|
Bottom 50 pro bono billers |
10% |
5.5 |
Across all law firms, average stress ratings ranged from 7.4 to 3.8 out of 10, so variance firm-by-firm is significant. But looking at the table above, we see that the stress ratings level out no matter what portion of the market you look at. We know that pressure and workload is high across the profession, but factors like law firm size or market position appear to have little impact on how stressed lawyers are. The conclusion, then, should be that stress is less influenced by aspiration and pressure to achieve, but by how a firm manages their lawyers’ stress – the cultural factors that determine how you get the best out of your lawyers. Law firms are a little preoccupied with defining their culture, so perhaps we should listen to our happiest lawyers this year at Paul Hastings, who dismissed this talk of culture: “A lot of the time it’s a load of crap.”
If we take anything from this survey, it’s that you should decide what you want from your career before you start researching firms. Consider the elements you think would make life fulfilling or otherwise, then ask which law firms can match that.