What motivates Lawyers?
| Number of hours worked per week | UK Firms | US Firms | In-house | >25k | 25-40k | 41-75k | 76-120k | 121k+ |
| 35-49 hours | 63% | 0% | 70% | 81% | 75% | 55% | 22% | 0% |
| 50-60 hours | 32% | 83% | 26% | 16% | 22% | 40% | 70% | 80% |
| 61+ hours | 5% | 17% | 3% | 3% | 3% | 5% | 7% | 20% |
The impression that private practice lawyers work excessively longer hours than in-house lawyers is down-played by the research, although the results also show that hours increase with salaries. (80% of lawyers earning in excess of £120k work more than 50 hours per week compared to 81% of lawyers earning £25k or less who work fewer than 50 hours per week). Lawyers working for US firms work more hours than their UK counterparts with 100% of respondents working 50 hours or more per week.
| Working on the weekends | UK Firms | US Firms | In-house | >25k | 25-40k | 41-75k | 76-120k | 121k+ |
| Once a month | 32% | 67% | 28% | 23% | 29% | 35% | 48% | 80% |
| Once a quarter | 19% | 33% | 18% | 10% | 17% | 23% | 30% | 0% |
| Twice a year | 17% | 0% | 14% | 10% | 19% | 18% | 7% | 0% |
| Never | 20% | 0% | 28% | 29% | 26% | 16% | 4% | 0% |
| Most weekends | 13% | 0% | 12% | 23% | 8% | 8% | 11% | 20% |
Following on from working hours, the results show that lawyers in US firms are more likely to work weekends with 67% of respondents stating they worked at least one weekend per month. Again, these results correlate with salary ranges-the higher the salary, the more likely weekend work is required. Of lawyers working weekends, 50% claim to work from home.
