{"id":145723,"date":"2026-03-10T11:19:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T19:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/03\/10\/biglaw-chairman-says-u-s-lawyers-just-work-harder-and-firms-are-paying-big-money-to-keep-them\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T11:19:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T19:19:00","slug":"biglaw-chairman-says-u-s-lawyers-just-work-harder-and-firms-are-paying-big-money-to-keep-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/03\/10\/biglaw-chairman-says-u-s-lawyers-just-work-harder-and-firms-are-paying-big-money-to-keep-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Biglaw Chairman Says U.S. Lawyers Just \u2018Work Harder\u2019 \u2014 And Firms Are Paying Big Money To Keep Them"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ed. note<\/u>: Welcome to our daily feature,\u00a0Quote of the Day<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Law practice at the highest level, especially litigation, is a labour-intensive exercise. There really aren\u2019t any shortcuts. There are no \u2018Einsteins\u2019 that enable you to do projects and get right to the end sooner because you\u2019ve had a flash of brilliance.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard work, it\u2019s time consuming. I\u2019ve seen data that indicates US firms on average tend to work much longer hours, or materially longer hours. You could say that maybe the British firms have a healthier sense of work-life balance, that may be one explanation.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014\u00a0John Quinn<\/a>, executive chairman of Quinn Emanuel, in comments given to The Times<\/a>, concerning the tendency of lawyers at U.S. firms in London to work more hours than their counterparts in British firms. \u201cUS firms, they may work harder, that\u2019s one thing,\u201d Quinn went on to say. \u201cThe other thing is, you see these stories about partners being poached by [American] firms in London and the US as well, with large sums being enticed to make moves with very large increases in compensation. I think they\u2019d be more willing to do that, and they have more money, they have more wherewithal, too.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Staci Zaretsky<\/a>\u00a0is the managing editor of Above the Law, where she\u2019s worked since 2011. She\u2019d love to hear from you, so please feel free to\u00a0email<\/a>\u00a0her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on\u00a0Bluesky<\/a>,\u00a0X\/Twitter<\/a>, and\u00a0Threads<\/a>,\u00a0or connect with her on\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Biglaw Chairman Says U.S. Lawyers Just \u2018Work Harder\u2019 \u2014 And Firms Are Paying Big Money To Keep Them<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Ed. note<\/u>: Welcome to our daily feature,\u00a0Quote of the Day<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Law practice at the highest level, especially litigation, is a labour-intensive exercise. There really aren\u2019t any shortcuts. There are no \u2018Einsteins\u2019 that enable you to do projects and get right to the end sooner because you\u2019ve had a flash of brilliance.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard work, it\u2019s time consuming. I\u2019ve seen data that indicates US firms on average tend to work much longer hours, or materially longer hours. You could say that maybe the British firms have a healthier sense of work-life balance, that may be one explanation.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014\u00a0John Quinn<\/a>, executive chairman of Quinn Emanuel, in comments given to The Times<\/a>, concerning the tendency of lawyers at U.S. firms in London to work more hours than their counterparts in British firms. \u201cUS firms, they may work harder, that\u2019s one thing,\u201d Quinn went on to say. \u201cThe other thing is, you see these stories about partners being poached by [American] firms in London and the US as well, with large sums being enticed to make moves with very large increases in compensation. I think they\u2019d be more willing to do that, and they have more money, they have more wherewithal, too.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Staci Zaretsky<\/a>\u00a0is the managing editor of Above the Law, where she\u2019s worked since 2011. She\u2019d love to hear from you, so please feel free to\u00a0email<\/a>\u00a0her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on\u00a0Bluesky<\/a>,\u00a0X\/Twitter<\/a>, and\u00a0Threads<\/a>,\u00a0or connect with her on\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ed. note: Welcome to our daily feature,\u00a0Quote of the Day. Law practice at the highest level, especially litigation, is a labour-intensive exercise. There really aren\u2019t any shortcuts. There are no \u2018Einsteins\u2019 that enable you to do projects and get right to the end sooner because you\u2019ve had a flash of brilliance. It\u2019s hard work, it\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":145724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-145723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Staci-Zaretsky-AlQ6GQ.jpg?fit=150%2C100&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}