Sidley Austin

Hours

7.8 / 10
8 reviews
How would you describe your work hours? In a typical week, how many hours do you spend in the office?
2013 Reviews

  • Generally work hours are 9am- 7pm on a good day, but it can go on til much later in the evening. However there is some flexibility if you need to come in late for some reason.

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  • We do tend to work long and unpredictable hours and while this work style can be challenging, I think that just comes with the nature of the job.

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  • Only stay late when vital.

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  • These are varied and you will often find out on the day whether you will be staying on longer than normal.

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2012 Reviews

  • In certain departments the working hours can be demanding and can take up almost all evenings and some weekends. However, in other departments, this culture is less prevalent. When a department is busy, however, some late evenings are expected and this is entirely reasonable. By way of example, my time-sheet in November 2011 ran to 296 hours, which comprised many late nights and weekends. However, subsequent months (alongside a seat move) have seen these hours diminish to an average of 50-55 hours per week with 'spikes' during busy weeks.

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  • In my previous seat it was an average of 50, in this seat it's an average of 42.

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  • It hard to give an average, however, my hours have been much better than I expected. Generally, you are only expected to work late when there is a lot of urgent work.

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  • Depends from one department to another. I generally work until about 20:00, though sometimes later. I have only had to work on a week-end once in 9 months. What bothers me most is unpredictability of working hours in advance.

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  • This depends on a variety of factors such as the department that I am sitting in, my supervisor, and the volume of work that that department has at a particular time. In the finance group, my hours were rather demanding at times, including several very late nights and weekends. There was an 8 week period in which my time-sheet ran to 530 hours. This was extremely difficult to 'get through'. I have since moved to a different department where my hours are a lot more within 9.30am - 7.30pm parameters, although there are times when staying later on a sustained basis is required (for example, during a busy week or a closing). This has included all nighters and little sleep. Generally, however, I am satisfied that my hours are now down to a more reasonable level.

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  • Obviously this depends on the group. However, on average over my seats, I would say I have clocked about 12 hours a day (i.e. At least 60 hours a week).

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  • About 40 hours per week unless there is a deal I am involved in that requires me to work longer hours.

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  • It really does vary from week to week. Some weeks, you can be out the door by 6 and others, you don't see the door at all. On the whole, the variety is good.

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  • 45-50 hours a week on average.

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  • On average, I spend about 48 hours in the office (excluding an hour lunch break).

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2011 Reviews

  • I work no more than my friends in other City firms and in some cases, I work less. I am yet to do an all-nighter!

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  • ...The nature of the legal profession is such that your work goes through bouts of very busy periods and very quiet ones – there is no happy medium ever.

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  • The UK billing hours target is 1600 hours a year. My hours in the office are variable. If I am working on a transaction, approaching closing, then I can often find myself in the office quite late into the night. At other times, I am able to leave at about six-thirty in the evening. Thankfully, to date, I have not had to work too many weekends. I have never had a problem taking any holidays. There is no ability to purchase additional holidays, but the allowance of 25 days is fairly good.

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  • 9.30am – 6.30pm are the key hours with an hour for lunch. No one minds if you have to leave early or have an appointment during the day. If required, you may need to stay late and may need to stay late several nights/weeks in a row. Dinner and taxis are provided and as you are busy, staying isn't too painful.

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  • The number of hours can vary a lot, depending on which department you sit in. Being an American firm, there is an expectation of long hours, which has been the case in more transactional seats and less so in the advisory seats.

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  • Hours are generally good. There have been a few late nights in the run-up to signing a transaction which is naturally to be expected. The start time is flexible and on average, one would work approximately 9-10 hours per day.

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  • 50/60 hours per week. I am working the sort of hours I expected.

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  • I work on average probably 45-50 hours a week, which is about what I expected, maybe even a bit less.

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