THE VALUE OF TIME.

THE VALUE OF TIME.

Robert Bell and Sophia Watson are father and daughter. Both lawyers in the City. Talking to them can sometimes feel like talking to the same person; they confidently interrupt each other, finishing each other’s sentences. That word ‘confident’ is so applicable to both of them. But it is a confidence that stems not from arrogance but from knowledge, self-awareness and hard work. Both are ambitious and clear that failure is not an option. Both enjoy solving problems and work hard to find solutions. We spoke to them about the stresses and pressures on solicitors - and whether these have changed in the last few decades.

Robert is a Competition & Regulatory specialist with over 30 years’ experience advising clients on complex competition and regulatory matters involving some of the leading cases before the Competition & Markets Authority, the European Commission, and the UK Courts. Formerly he was Master of the City of London Solicitors' Company and President of the City of London Law Society 2020-22 and a partner at several major law firms. He now acts as a nonexclusive consultant to law firms providing competition law expertise to those that don’t have dedicated competition law teams. Thus he now focuses solely on the work rather than management.

He believes the stresses he faced when starting out in his career are very different from what Sophia and other young lawyers have to deal with today - and these changes have been brought about by a “cocktail of changing culture, increased competition and new technology which over the past 40 years has revolutionised the practice of law.”

Robert says the emphasis on high quality and getting things right has always been there but what has really changed is the need to respond immediately.

“Back in the day, you used to send a letter asking for instructions - and then you waited. There was no email. The pace was very much slower.”

Robert recalls when the profession had way less competition, when there was less international work and more domestic, when there were few US law firms based in the City and the salaries were good but not crazy.

“There were always long hours but they were not constant, much more sporadic. Now because of the vast amounts of money that junior associates earn, they are working relentlessly to justify their salaries. That leads to mental pressure and a lack of work/ life balance. Whilst everyone realises this is absolutely a people business and, therefore,

people are really important, there is a tension between getting payback for those huge salaries and looking after people’s well-being. Certain firms get it, some just pay lip service to it.”

Sophia originally studied History of Art at university which, while seemingly unrelated, was still highly analytical and essay based, which proved useful for her legal career. She started her law journey as a paralegal in Banking and Finance before embarking on her training contract at a City Firm, during which she spent 6 months seconded in the Middle East. She qualified four years ago and is a Senior Associate specialising in Real Estate Finance at a City firm. Sophia is also a Freeman of the City of London Solicitors’ Company (CLSC) and Vice Chairman of its Whittington Committee (a committee tasked with promoting the CLSC to junior lawyers).

Sophia says a career in law was an obvious choice for her.

My father and I are very similar people. We are logical, analytical and we get satisfaction from problem solving. I knew because law was suited to him, it would suit me too.

“My father and I are very similar people. We are logical, analytical and we get satisfaction from problem solving. I knew because law was suited to him, it would suit me too.”

When Sophia told her father she wanted to be a lawyer, he told her not to do it. He was honest about how hard it was. Sophia’s mum too was not keen.

“My mum couldn’t see a ‘me’ in law firms. She knew a lot of female lawyers and, in her mind, they were very different from me. She saw me as creative and she did not want to dull that down.”

Like Robert, Sophia is headstrong and once she decides on her path, it’s not easy to get her off it, so she ignored her parents’ advice.

“If anything, them telling me not to do it enticed me more. I love a challenge.”

As a transactional lawyer, Sophia does work long hours. She is also newly wed, so how does she juggle a relationship with a workload that sometimes involves all nighters?

Fortunately, her husband works in Private Equity and is no stranger to long hours himself so he understands and accepts the demands Sophia faces.

“A lot of our weeknights involve sitting on the sofa with our laptops.”

But the relentless pressure does take its toll, inevitably. How does Sophia deal with that?

“Over time, I have learned to take the smaller setbacks less seriously. When I was a paralegal, I remember being nervous and conscious of every move I made. I recall one particular incident, where I asked someone on the other side of a deal a question about delivery of a document under a loan agreement. It quickly became clear that the document had already been delivered and I should have known, having

been copied into the email chain. My inbox had been flooded with emails so I had missed the email. My heart dropped, I felt embarrassed and worried as to how that made me look. Now it wouldn’t bother me. Experience teaches you what mistakes are important - this one in particular was so minor, it didn’t merit a second thought.

Managing your time is also important. I know in the quieter periods I need to conserve my energy so I can deal with the more frantic times. Getting enough sleep is vital for cognitive function. I am an early morning person which can conflict with the late night demands of a transaction. But I try to take autonomy over my time where I can. Obviously, I cannot control partner or client demands but I can, for example, choose to draft something complicated early in the morning when I am at my most productive.”

Does Sophia aspire to being a partner? She says she would be interested in partnership as she is ambitious and wants to progress in her career, but it is about timing. She wants to feel she's ready.

“You see in some firms partners appointed after six/seven years of being qualified. Partnership isn’t something that should be taken lightly. I would like to go through a proper process, have been trained well and have a specialty before I progressed to that stage in my career.”

Robert says the allure of being a partner was always the goal in his day but the attraction has waned considerably today. Young lawyers see the pressure partners go through and it's not very appealing - especially when you factor in that equity partners need to borrow substantial sums of money as capital and there is no guarantee what they will earn.

Working from home has brought about conflict too. Some law firms have huge real estate commitments and would prefer to a greater or lesser extent to see those spaces being filled with people helping pay for that space and visibly earning their salaries. But from a staff perspective, they prefer the flexibility and the opportunity to inject more of a balance into their lives.

But Robert does see a downside for particularly younger members of the profession working from home;

“They don't have the advantages of being in an office environment and the collegiate effect that has. They are not learning from osmosis. That creates another tension. It doesn’t mean we should throw the baby out with the bathwater and go back to working in the office five days a week. The world has changed and some law firms haven’t recognised that. Law is one of the professions where you can sit at a desk anywhere in the world and do your work effectively with the right technology. Location is becoming far less relevant.”

The increase in international work and the globalisation of business since Robert’s early days has also brought its own unique set of issues to contend with. Competing time zones can mean being on call 24/7. Sophia says that during busy periods, between 10pm and 6am you can get anything from 20 to 100 emails - and you can feel the pressure to be contactable during those hours. As a transactional lawyer, she knows that is what she has signed up for.

But the relentless pressure does take its toll, inevitably.  How does Sophia deal with that?

“Over time, I have learned to take the smaller setbacks less seriously. When I was a paralegal, I remember being nervous and conscious of every move I made. I recall one particular incident, where I asked someone on the other side of a deal a question about delivery of a document under a loan agreement.  It quickly became clear that the document had already been delivered and I should have known, having been copied into the email chain. My inbox had been flooded with emails so I had missed the email. My heart dropped,  I felt embarrassed and worried as to how that made me look. Now it wouldn’t bother me. Experience teaches you what mistakes are important - this one in particular was so minor, it didn’t merit a second thought. 

Managing your time is also important. I know in the quieter periods I need to conserve my energy so I can deal with the more frantic times. Getting enough sleep is vital for cognitive function. I am an early morning person which can conflict with the late night demands of a transaction. But I try to take autonomy over my time where I can. Obviously, I cannot control partner or client demands but I can, for example, choose to draft something complicated early in the morning when I am at my most productive.”

Does Sophia aspire to being a partner? She says she would be interested in partnership as she is ambitious and wants to progress in her career, but it is about timing. She wants to feel she's ready. 

“You see in some firms partners appointed after six/seven years of being qualified. Partnership isn’t something that should be taken lightly. I would like to go through a proper process, have been trained well and have a specialty before I progressed to that stage in my career.”

Robert says the allure of being a partner was always the goal in his day but the attraction has waned considerably today.  Young lawyers see the pressure partners go through and it's not very appealing - especially when you factor in that equity partners need to borrow substantial sums of money as capital and there is no guarantee what they will earn.

Working from home has brought about conflict too. Some law firms have huge real estate commitments and would prefer to a greater or lesser extent to see those spaces being filled with people helping pay for that space and visibly earning their salaries. But from a staff 

perspective, they prefer the flexibility and the opportunity to inject more of a balance into their lives.

But Robert does see a downside for particularly younger members of the profession working from home;

“They don't have the advantages of being in an office environment and the collegiate effect that has. They are not learning from osmosis. That creates another tension. It doesn’t mean we should throw the baby out with the bathwater and go back to working in the office five days a week. The world has changed and some law firms haven’t recognised that. Law is one of the professions where you can sit at a desk anywhere in the world and do your work effectively with the right technology. Location is becoming far less relevant.”  

The increase in international work and the globalisation of business since Robert’s early days has also brought its own unique set of issues to contend with. Competing time zones can mean being on call 24/7. Sophia says that during busy periods, between 10pm and 6am you can get anything from 20 to 100 emails - and you can feel the pressure to be contactable during those hours. As a transactional lawyer, she knows that is what she has signed up for.

What are Robert and Sophia’s favourite ways of switching off?

Sophia confesses to loving the Daily Mail online and watching trash TV. It counteracts the serious, complex, sometimes dry content of her day. She also loves to run - she says one of the problems about working from home during busier periods, is you can just find yourself at your desk all day without moving away from it. So a run is very therapeutic. She recalls hearing a CEO of a multinational company saying that balance is not always possible. It should be more about a shifting of priorities. Today is about work. But tomorrow could be about you. 

Robert takes the dogs for a walk, goes to the gym, gardens and tries to maintain a small piece of woodland to the back of his house - all physical stuff to take himself away from his desk. But he too switches off by binge watching some trash TV. 

Overall, it seems life in the law is way more stressful today for younger lawyers than it was a few decades ago. The expectations and pressure are more extreme. And the instantaneous responses that are required bear their toll. There needs to be an investment in making sure people working long hours are OK and that work is allocated fairly between those that always say yes and those that take more of a back seat.

Robert says;

“Managing the situation as opposed to not managing it is paramount to people’s well being. With all the pressure put on partners; to meet clients’ expectations, the concertinaed timeframes for delivery and the increased burden of regulation, it's easy for people to slip into second place. There needs to be an appropriate accommodation for a firm to work really well.”

Sophia feels it’s important for partners to have visibility over the hours their associates are working. In certain instances, partners should step in and tell their associates to take some down time when they are working too much. Left to the individual, they are more likely just to keep going because they feel they would be letting people down.

Obviously this increased pressure on partners has its effect on their mental well-being too and checks need to be in place to ensure that they too are coping. 

Do Robert and Sophia think the price they have paid having chosen law as a profession is worth it?  They both agree that if it suits you and you suit it (as they both clearly do) then it is a lifetime commitment that brings a lot of satisfaction with it.  Neither of them would do anything else.

Managing the situation as opposed to not managing it is paramount to people’s well being.