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Why lawyers are overworked and (relatively) underpaid

Lawyers are employed to work 38 hours a week, but that is a fantasy at most of Australia’s top-tier law firms.

Big law firms are built on a pyramid structure: junior lawyers make up the largest cohort, and if the attrition rate is as the firm expects, enough lawyers quit to leave relatively few partners at the top.

It is a model that relies on enough people leaving each year – enough, but not too many. For a while now it’s been far too many.

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