Editors' Blog

Time to reflect

Posted 27/02/2007 by John Malpas

The debate on legalweek.com sparked by the death of the young lawyer Matthew Courtney has been a heartfelt one.

One person who posted a response to my last blog entry was on the same course as Courtney at Oxford. “I remember him as an absolutely first-rate lawyer,” recalls ‘Dizzy Trainee’, “with the type of intellect that put just about everyone else’s (and certainly mine) into the shade”.

Many contributors warn against racing to conclusions about the circumstances surrounding Courtney’s death. But there is widespread recognition among contributors that too many lawyers are being subjected to unacceptable levels of stress.

For some, this is a price worth paying for the financial rewards and career prospects on offer at the leading firms. Indeed many people thrive in such an atmosphere. But others do not. Dizzy Trainee believes many young lawyers sleepwalk into these jobs without realising that they are not cut out for them. And once you are in, getting out can be difficult - not least because of the debts that young people now accumulate before even embarking on their careers.

Reading through the postings you get a sense of a profession that has been collectively seduced into a way of life that makes little sense when viewed rationally.

 As ‘Castrated partner’ comments here: “What we do is send emails to our counterparts at midnight, attaching a document ‘subject to instructions’ - half-finished, in other words, because it wasn't possible to finish it when we said we would. When our counterparts don't accept the draft as final, because they can't, we cast aspersions about their competence to retain your business as a client. They, for their part, do the same to us. Work is duplicated, and frequently wrong, because no-one knows what the state of an issue is or has had time to properly consider it.”