Nor was taking caffeine supplements or recreational drugs to stay awake, he said, citing an internal investigation by HR which involved interviewing about 20 lawyers in the banking and corporate teams.

These lawyers told HR that while some had used Oxyshred at work, a legal caffeinated pre-workout supplement, they did so as a coffee alternative or for working out, not to keep up with the demands of the job.

Mr Gilbert said an internal search of all staff emails revealed no evidence of illegal drug use on the premises.

'Disappointing but unsurprising'

SafeWork decided not to investigate the claim, but Mr Gilbert invited the workplace regulator to meet in January to discuss the complaint and workplace policies.

SafeWork then formally closed the matter, taking no further action, saying they were satisfied that the firm "had the organisational capacity and responsiveness to assess and address risks and issues as they arise".

A similar complaint regarding overwork and exhaustion at King & Wood Mallesons in Melbourne was met with a different response.

The Victorian regulator, WorkSafe, sent inspectors to the firm's Melbourne office and issued an "improvement notice" which included signs posted on every floor that say the firm may be in breach of the Occupational Health & Safety Act in relation to fatigue and overworking staff. The investigation into Mallesons is ongoing.


The head of NSW employment law at Maurice Blackburn, Alexandra Grayson, said SafeWork's decision to not launch its own investigation was "disappointing but unsurprising".

"It appears in these circumstances that they have taken a lighter touch and rather than going in and doing a full-blown investigation and interviewing employees, they've gone with doing more of a check on the processes and procedures that the employer has in place and forming a view as to whether they're adequate."

'Reasonable hours is contextual'

Although the SafeWork complaint has been resolved, Mr Gilbert said that the incident still inspired a level of "introspection", and that he and other G+T executives took the situation seriously.

"We operate in a very demanding environment where hard work and long hours are often the norm. At times many of our people work long hours over sustained periods under difficult timetables. Unfortunately, this is at times unavoidable," he said in an email to colleagues about the SafeWork complaint.

But he emphasised that workload should not affect health and safety.

The firm does not set specific work hours in lawyers' employment contracts, nor does it have a specific policy as to what constitutes "reasonable" hours.

G+T's chief operating officer, Sam Nickless, said it was difficult to create hard-and-fast rules around hours because lawyers might be working on international deals across different time-zones.


"Reasonable hours is contextual. Reasonable hours at a firm like Gilbert + Tobin and reasonable hours at a suburban law firm are going to be vastly different," Mr Gilbert said. "People come here with the knowledge and expectation that they're going to have to work hard."

But Mr Nickless said if lawyers are struggling with overwork, as a first point of call they should talk to their partner or HR.

Mr Gilbert and Mr Nickless also said that they had encouraged HR to take a more active approach to the issue. This means HR should monitor if lawyers are logging a spike in hours over time and intervene if they notice someone working, for example, three 15-hour days in a row.

Mr Gilbert also noted that the firm offers dinner and cab fares home to staff working late and that G+T pays its lawyers at the top end of the market.

50pc 'felt pressure'

G+T's staff survey conducted before the SafeWork complaint was completed by 79 per cent of staff, of which 84 per cent said that they felt engaged at work but 50 per cent felt their teams were under-resourced and "felt the pressure of sustained hard work".

"We're looking at the whole zeitgeist around how this has changed," said Mr Gilbert. "We're looking at this harder than we had in the past. Like all businesses, we realised it's a problem. We're constantly looking at this to improve our system."

Many junior lawyers working across top-tier law firms including G+T, Clayton Utz, Allens, King & Wood Mallesons and Herbert Smith Freehills in a recent report by the Financial Review raised long working hours as a key concern.

To contact the authors of this article: elouise.fowler@afr.com.au and natasha.gillezeau@fairfaxmedia.com.au