Survey of American Lawyers at Major Law Firms: Job Satisfaction

The study presents data from 219 attorneys at major US law firms about how they feel about their profession, their jobs and their firms. The report helps its readers to answer questions such as: how happy are lawyers at their jobs? How many would once again become lawyers if they had to do it all over again? What would they have done differently whether or not they decided to become lawyers? How satisfied are they with their levels of compensation, their work-life balance, their workplace experience and their level of engagement in their work. What do they feel are the best aspects of their jobs? The worst aspects? What could their firms do to make their work experience better? Do they feel that they are better or worse off – overall – than professionals in banking and finance, medicine, engineering and higher education? The report is an ideal tool for law firm administrators and senior partners who want to find out what makes their lawyers happy. It is also invaluable for law students of those simply contemplating the study of law, as a guide to the experience of others. The data in the report is broken out for firm size, gender, age, work title and other variables. Just a few of the report’s many findings are that: • 73.52% said that they would choose to become a lawyer again if given a second chance. • Lawyers from firms with more than 200 lawyers ranked the happiness of their peers in the same firm the lowest, they rated the happiness of lawyers from other firms the highest. • Female lawyers are slightly less satisfied than male lawyers with their pension provisions but both men and women are relatively dissatisfied with their pension provision. • 55.56% of lawyers over age 60 feel that individuals working in higher education are happier in their work than lawyers. An additional 18.06% think professionals in higher education are much happier than lawyers.