"You always have to be available, matters don't come at orderly times."

The legal industry is renowned for facing pressing client demands – the "fierce" deadlines of the Hayne royal commission, for example, saw some lawyers pulling 16-hour days.

The hours associated with such workloads were also an opportunity for young lawyers to learn, lawyer James Philips wrote in the newspaper this week.

"When I entered a large law firm as a graduate more than 30 years ago, my attitude to the moderate pay, high demands and long hours was that I was investing in my own skills and career prospects," he said.

"I wanted to learn as much as possible as quickly as possible."

'I have never, ever taken legal work home'

Prominent solicitor and company director Rod McGeoch, who reached partner at a meteoric pace after joining Corrs Chambers Westgarth as a junior in the 1990s, also said maintaining a home life was vital.

"I have never, ever taken legal work home. I’ve never had an office, laptop or desktop at home," Mr McGeoch said.


"My home life was my home life. I was really focused on keeping that time [at home] for my responsibilities as a father and a husband.

Rod McGeoch says he never worked a weekend when he was a law partner. AAP

"I don’t know if that is why, but I’ve been with the same woman for 42 years."

And what hours were required from Mr McGeoch to achieve his meteoric rise?

"I worked until 6.30/7pm at times, but in those days you didn’t work weekends," he said.

If firms were finding staff were concentrating on hours, that may come down to a fault in their leadership, Mr Denton said.

"Focusing on hours [not clients] is probably about purpose, and that’s a potential failure of law firm leadership. Leaders should be able to say what the wider purpose of the firm is and what is the good in what they do, or [working] will be transactional and about hours."

But meeting those client demands should not come at the cost of staff wellbeing, the lawyers agreed.


'Firms should ensure people are paid fairly'

"Law firms should ensure people are paid fairly, and if you can’t do that as a business, then you should rethink your business model," Mr Denton said.

"These issues are very important, ensuring the people who work for you are well and they’re taken care of."

New rules imposed by Fair Work, which have seen some graduates backpaid after their long hours meant their salaries did not reach award level, do not limit the hours worked by staff but require they are paid for those hours.

Firms also needed to consider that a focus on billable hours could compromise the culture of the practice in general, which in turn could damage retention and recruitment.

As chairman of Corrs in the 1990s, Mr McGeoch oversaw a shift in partner remuneration practices to focus on behaviour rather than billables.

"The culture changed overnight to an extraordinarily collegiate and reciprocal firm. Some of the partners who billed a lot and didn’t want to listen to change left and Corrs didn’t look back," he said.

The firm also made looking after and developing young lawyers a core value, and saw its popularity with graduates looking for work skyrocket.


The big six corporate firms acknowledge that the challenge of client demands and long hours was one they needed to meet.

"Overwork and fatigue should certainly not be taken as a given," Herbert Smith Freehills Australian executive partner Andrew Pike told The Financial Review last year.

"Long hours and a pressure to deliver are issues in our industry, but we certainly do not accept fatigue or poor mental health as a 'fact of life'," Ashurst managing partner Paul Jenkins added.