Working Hours at Gilbert + Tobin

All the practice groups are different when it comes to this. During busy times, the hours can be quite long (working until midnight frequently) and working on weekends. The firm is definitely quite flexible, though. Lawyers can work from home and can come in late if they've been working late at night.

Required to work late hours but always alongside a supportive team and with great flexibility and no micro-management

Depends on the individual transactions; very flexible to conduct your work day as it suits, including appointments and other commitments but work needs to get done

My team is less flexible but I haven't had a problem

Flexible but long when required

Very flexible - unless there is a real urgency to your task there is no expectation to stay back after hours

My usual hours are 8am - 6.30pm. The company is quite flexible when it comes to commitments / appointments and I have had no issues coming into the office slightly later if I have a doctor's appointments, or leaving earlier if I have had to attend rental property inspections.

Hours can be pretty variable - that's the nature of the job. The company is reasonably flexible when it comes to hours, but it has some room for improvement. Generally, the company is pretty good about letting people work when/how it suits them (like going home early for dinner and working from home if needed).

In the team I'm in, with the partners I have, very flexible. I can work from home if needed, and am not expected to stay back late/work weekends. That is not the case everywhere though.

G+T is good when it comes to flexible working arrangements. However, it is the nature of top-tier legal work that you will spend lots of unpredictable hours doing work.

My typical hours are pretty good relative to other grads in different practice areas and those at other law firms that I know. The company is pretty flexible in that generally I can decide if I want to come in early and leave early or vice versa.

They don't force you to stay late or make you feel like you have to but I have been busy so have had to stay late to get the work done, which I don't mind when you feel the work you are doing is important. I think the expectations of billable hours is unrealistic given you are paid for an 8 hours day and have a one hour lunch break. You have to work late to get the 7 hours in and don't get paid over time. I also don't like that it's hard to plan things for after work because at the start of the day you don't know what the end of the day will look like.

Since I started my hours have been very busy but I have been given opportunities to take days in lieu to make up for some of this where possible

I'm usually in the office about 8am to 6pm, although a lot of people arrive at 8:30am. If you're not especially busy, they don't mind if you leave at 5:30pm. If you are busy, you might work longer hours. The latest I've stayed was about 9pm, but that was only one time and it was on the eve of the start of a Supreme Court trial. The days you work later, you don't really notice because you're busy doing interesting work. But the firm is generally flexible if you have commitments. If I tell my supervising partner that I have to go to something at a particular time, there's never a problem. Lots of my colleagues leave early to collect kids from school or to go to sports training. If they still have work to do, they can just work from home.

Work hours are very good for the industry, very dependent on work-flow and current matters. Flexible, especially for people with families.

Company is fairly flexible in terms of hours - however, the hours are based on demand. So if a task needs to be completed, hours may be long.

Very flexible within reason.

We work long hours but they are flexible. When you are quiet, its very quiet and you can take some time off, but when you are busy it's all guns blazing.

The corporate team is very flexible with hours, as a grad I have been able to work mostly to my own schedule, arriving at 8 and leaving at 6. Occasionally this time increases, but the corporate team take notice of this and won't bat an eyelid if you leave at 4 on a quiet afternoon.

Work hours are significant. Flexibility is there if we need it, but we do work hard. This is not, in itself, a bad thing. I think G+T are quite proud of their reputation for being hard-working for their clients.