The longest day

The year's longest day falls on June 21st. It heralds the start of summer in the northern hemisphere (hooray!) and conversely the beginning of winter in the southern hemisphere.

Come rain or shine on 21st spare a thought for UK's Criminal Solicitors and Paralegals whose working day according to our research is the longest in the profession. Criminal Lawyers are working on average twelve extra contractual hours a week. 67% regularly work extra hours compared to an average of 60% across all other disciplines. 

To be fair there is no hiding place in the legal profession. Corporate, Commercial and Finance Lawyers came in a close second burning the midnight oil for an average of eleven extra hours a week. Private Client Solicitors and CILEXs are getting the easiest ride clocking just seven extra hours a week. 

But they say hard work never killed anyone and it certainly seems that inflexibility can seriously damage your wealth. 30% of the group who stated they never worked any extra hours cited redundancy as the main reason they left their last job compared to 17% of all respondents. We are not making any assumptions here because the 2014 legal services market is in a fairly different place compared to 2013 but it appears that incorporating some flexibility in to your working week could improve your career prospects.