Lawyers say the banking royal commission's tight deadlines pushed them to the limit, forcing some to work 15-hour shifts, seven days a week — highlighting a broader culture of excessive workloads across the profession.

Key points: A lawyer says she and her colleagues often worked past midnight, including on weekends, during the banking royal commission

A lawyer says she and her colleagues often worked past midnight, including on weekends, during the banking royal commission Legal professionals say overwork is endemic across the profession

Legal professionals say overwork is endemic across the profession One firm says a WorkSafe investigation into alleged health breaches was a catalyst for enhancing its focus on staff wellbeing

Commissioner Kenneth Hayne is due to bring out his final report this week, a little over a year after the commission was established.

To meet the deadlines of the royal commission, lawyers were regularly required to work weekends and stay in the office past midnight.

Legal professionals have told the ABC extraordinary hours are not uncommon and overwork is an endemic problem in the industry.

Scarlet Reid, a partner at McCullough Robertson Lawyers, said she and her staff were working more than 15 hours a day, seven days a week, when her client was required to gather evidence for the commission.

"There was quite a lot of work to do in a short period of time in order to meet those deadlines," she told ABC Radio Melbourne's Mornings program.

When her client was required to respond to notices for documents, lawyers would start work around 8:00am and would be lucky to get home before midnight, including on the weekend.

"It was a discrete period of time where we had to respond to those notices, but during that period it was quite intense, and the working hours were necessary to get the job done," she said.

"I would say that that would probably be across the board at every firm that was involved."

Ms Reid said it was "quite intense" working to the commission's tight deadlines. ( Supplied: Scarlet Reid )

This needs to change: Law Institute president

While the deadlines put down by the commission were tight, Ms Reid said long hours were a common expectation in the legal profession.

She is now part of a growing number of people calling for a change in the industry.

"We do need to think about ways we can get the work done, but in a way that can make the job more sustainable, so we can retain some of our talent in the profession longer," she said.

The president of the Law Institute of Victoria, Stuart Webb, said overwork was an extremely serious problem in the legal system, and one that was taking a serious toll on people's mental health.

"Lawyers often put in long working hours even when it is not justified by urgent or outstanding matters," he said.

"Yet excessive work hours usually lead to lower productivity and increased pressure on mental health. This needs to change."

He hopes more funding and generational change will help the situation improve.

"We know that lawyers are more likely than other professional groups to suffer anxiety and depression, with a third of solicitors and a fifth of barristers affected," he said.

"Millennial employees are actively choosing to work for employers who have progressive and well-established policies regarding work/life balance, and employers need to respond to the demands of this new generation workforce."

Firm 'enhances focus' after WorkSafe intervention

Last August, WorkSafe Victoria began investigating top-tier legal firm King & Wood Mallesons for "alleged health and safety breaches" after a complaint was made alleging staff were working unsafe hours to meet punishing royal commission deadlines.

King & Wood Mallesons told the ABC "while the wellbeing of our people has always been extremely important to us, the pressures of the royal commission timetable and WorkSafe's feedback to us in Melbourne were a catalyst for enhancing our focus on this issue".

After a review, the firm introduced measures it said ensured it was compliant with the improvement notice from WorkSafe Victoria.

Alex Solo, 29, co-founded online firm sprintlaw when he saw flaws with the way traditional law firms were run.

"There is a culture of people doing whatever it takes to get things done and I think it was probably only a matter of time before people started standing up and complaining about it," he told ABC Radio Melbourne.

Over the last decade he has seen more people pushing for workplaces that value the mental wellbeing of staff.

"The traditional models rely on people working really, really hard," he said.

"If the top talent stops standing for status quo and starts to really vote for these new models, where employee health is top of mind, then I think you are going to start to see a shift in the industry."

His firm focuses on the use of technology and resource management to avoid unnecessary overtime.

'It has been a scramble'

David Field, a board member of the Minds Count Foundation that promotes mental wellbeing in legal workplaces, said many firms were surprised by the amount of work required for the banking royal commission.

"It has been a scramble in many firms to try and manage those peaks in demand," he said.

"The workload has come in waves for each phase of the commission and it took a few waves for law firms to work out how to plan for it and resource for it."

Even outside the royal commission, Mr Field said there was a cultural problem with young lawyers being trained to value toughness and hard work to an unhealthy level.

"Young lawyers almost compete with each other to demonstrate how hard they are working or how many hours they are putting in," Mr Field said.

"It absolutely needs to change, but it is not easy."

To stop lawyers working extraordinary hours, Mr Field believes the entire legal system needed to change.

"If the person who is creating the dysfunctional workload is a judicial officer, a judge, a magistrate or a royal commissioner, your client doesn't want to get them offside," he said.

"How do you influence the demands there?

"The judiciary are struggling with these issues themselves. They've got undue pressures as well."