I was asked whether being in corporate practice is less stressful and less hectic than being in litigation practice.

I think this kind of generalisation is not particularly helpful.

Different law firms have different cultures and expectations of their lawyers. Clients’ demand would also determine whether a particular project or piece of work is hectic.

Within corporate practice itself, there’s a lot of variation. If you’re doing transactional corporate work, it’s often unlikely that you’ll leave the office on time. But this holds true not just for corporate practice, but for other areas of law as well.

This post is not to glorify being busy, but I hope sharing my own experience would give some insights into corporate practice.

When I was a junior associate in another law firm, I was seated in an open area together with other associates. We could see what each other was up to in the open area. The litigation lawyers, conveyancing lawyers, banking lawyers and corporate lawyers all had their share of staying late to meet urgent deadlines.

There was an occasion when I was alone in office past midnight to finish up work before going on leave. Whenever I travelled with my friends, they kindly planned most of the trips because I was caught up in transactions and could not keep up with their planning discussions in WhatsApp groupchats. I was pretty much “sleepwalking” on the first day of trips due to lack of sleep.

Most corporate lawyers (and probably lawyers in other practice areas as well) would have the experience of working during weekends and public holidays including Labour Day.

I had a lot of such experience in my early years of practice. I started on Saturdays and thought I would not need to work the entire weekend. When Sunday evenings arrived, I would still be poring over the legal due diligence documents or agreements I was working on.

I’m glad to say that in my current firm, these “no weekend” weekends are rarer, though the work can still be demanding at times.

Choosing corporate practice over litigation practice based on the assumption that corporate is less stressful or less hectic is not wise. Everyone’s journey is different, but having an honest view of what to expect—whether in corporate law or litigation—helps you make an informed decision about where your own path might lead

#malaysiancorporatelawyer

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This post was first posted on LinkedIn on 23 January 2025.