为啥都这么喜欢公司法啊？

The UK - and to varying degrees the whole western world - has suffered a huge increase in wealth inequality over the last few years. This has a real impact on house prices and the cost of living.

If a young person wants to have a nice four bed house with a garden in a pleasant area, a couple of international holidays a year, to do their food shopping at Waitrose and M&S, and, crucially, to do that in a place like London that actually has something approaching a cultural and social life, they need a lot of money. This is not an average lifestyle. You can’t buy a decent house even in a cheap area of London for less than a million quid any more.

Money is therefore actually very important.

I remember being told growing up to “do something you enjoy since money shouldn’t be your main concern”. Well, I’m glad I ignored that to do corporate law because if I hadn’t I’d be in the same place as most of my non-City friends - living in a good area but renting a shit small flat with no hope of buying, or living in the middle of nowhere, driving 3 hours a day as a commute, and still only owning a small house. And most of them enjoy their jobs less than I do, since I’m surrounded by smart, motivated, young, fun people and most of their coworkers are 40+ clock watchers.

Something like the GLS is an abysmal and fundamentally unrealistic option these days - £50k to work in central London? Madness. Working in crime or family only supports a decent lifestyle if you do mostly private work for rich people, which IMO is often far more socially dubious than doing finance or M&A.

And actually, the work is quite interesting as it turns out!

Just to build on the money point that others have mentioned - corporate (or to be more precise, commercial) law gives you (comparatively) a lot of money at an early age, and much more importantly, is easier to get into (comparatively) than other similarly high-paying professions.

Making 125K as an NQ (since you mentioned the Magic Circle) is something that most professions don’t offer so early on - two years into your profession. Medicine you need to stick around for years to get to. Teaching you might find that salary at well-heeled private schools once you’re the head teacher. Even sales you are unlikely to make that much that early.

The higher-paying graduate professions than commercial law at two years in are chiefly IB (front office, not back office) and consultancy. Although both - at the upper end - pay better than law, they are also considerably harder to get into at graduate entry level.

Thinking of the tests that friends of mine at uni did to get into bulge bracket banks (just for starters, you need to be good at modelling!), how lengthy and brutal the summer schemes are, and just what a small percentage of those interns they offer analyst roles to…it’s tougher to get into front office IB or the blue chip consultancy firms.

What this means is that if money is your primary motivator, law is often an easier option to get into (aside from not being a commercial barrister) than other similarly or better paid alternatives. More TCs offered, less rigorous entry requirements - or at least less technical entry requirements.

This leads to a massive tail of people applying who may (or more frequently may not) be up to the requisite standard to get that sort of TC, but apply just on the off chance, simply because they aren’t eliminated from the start in the way that they would be from IB if they cannot model.

You mention banking in your post as an alternative career. I’m an MA/senior associate at an MC firm…and wouldn’t have a hope in hell of doing banking, not least because I’m crap at modelling!

There’s also the international element - a lot of people from overseas who have done degrees (particularly online law degrees) are interested in coming to the U.K., but for visa reasons are restricted to the bigger commercial firms (plus are unlikely to want to work on other areas of law given the money they have spent already).

Okay so I've seen quite a few of these why MC/SC posts lately, as a trainee at one of these firms I therefore thought I would put down some reasons why people want to or do work in them. This isn't me saying that these firms are better than others or more fulfilling than other types of law, just saying some reasons why people like it.


The money - people keep saying 'apart from the money' as if it isn't one of the most important factors. But the reality is that even as a trainee I am in the top 1% of earners in my age bracket, I generally make over double what my close friends make. Once you hit NQ you are on 6 figures and earning more than what most could hope to make in their lifetime, usually by mid 20s, and if your interested in partnership could be earning millions by mid forties, so yes the money is a big part.
The work. You're working on really high calibre deals and cases often worth 100s of millions or billions. These deals are complex, interesting and your working with household names like Google, Meta etc. There is also a large variety of work, a lot of smaller firms are more specialised, at top firms you can do top disputes and top corporate work for example.
The people. You're working with some of the top people in the industry. Also people are generally really good at their job and care a lot. It's a real benefit some people take for granted. No one is lazy and your never having redo bad work. You don't get that in every company.
The prestige and career prospects. Yes a lot of people want it for the prestige. If you say you work at one of these firms (MC especially) people do look at you differently, it's kind of like why people want to go to Oxbridge. Also the career prospects, people in these posts seem to assume that people want to work at MCs forever, but it is a lot easier to go down then to work your way up. Someone at a high street firm would find it almost impossible to work up to an MC, but an MC trainee could easier move to high street.
The perks. You get a lot of perks at these firms, eg free gyms/dinners. Free tickets to events. Free or discounted trips abroad, sailing/ski trips. They often have committees and societies that are fun to be on. Not to mention other perks like private medical/dental, travel insurance etc. There's also a lot of free corporate events at places like the gherkin etc.
It's enjoyable. Some people seem to think that working at these firms is just this horrible experience that everyone hates. Yes there are bad days/periods, but day to day I really enjoy my work. The works interesting, the hours for a lot of trainees aren't as bad as people think (I'm usually 10-6) and being with such a large group of trainees who are basically friends is like being at uni again. You are also get actually quite a lot of freedom to manage your own schedule/day.


So yes, obviously there are lots of negatives for these firms (and if anyone wants a list of those just ask!) but there are also loads of positives, and I generally enjoy it a lot, despite some tough parts (but that's what keeps it exciting and helps you grow as a lawyer in my opinion).