Whether you’re looking to delve into a successful career in law or you’re about to jump ship and up your game at a much larger firm, one thing you’re going to have to work out is how to manage your complex work schedule and still have a life outside of work. Below Angela Ferrante, Senior VP of operations at GCG, provides Lawyer Monthly with her top three tips on striking the right balance.

According to the 2017 Retention Report by the Work Institute, the majority of employees leave a position for one of several reasons: career development, compensation and benefits, wellbeing, and work-life balance.

Work-life balance, defined by The Balance as “a concept that supports the efforts of employees to split their time and energy between work and the other important aspects of their lives,” may seem to be an elusive perk for lawyers, one often achieved at the expense of professional growth, respect, or even partnership opportunities.

But this intangible balance between personal and professional commitment can be achieved, even for young lawyers and without sacrificing their career trajectories, if they are committed to prioritizing it from the outset.

Define personal boundaries up front

Everyone defines work-life balance differently. Law students, in many cases, are used to working late nights and weekends while they balance course load, positions as summer associates, and other personal commitments. So, when they make the shift to full-time law practice, many are comfortable dedicating a significant number of hours to their new firms. Others simply are not, and that does not make them less capable attorneys.

Before students accept their first post-collegiate positions, they should spend time in personal reflection to define their work-life boundaries. Asking questions such as: Am I comfortable answering emails in the evening and, if so, until what time? What personal commitments do I have that I am unwilling to sacrifice for professional demands? How important is it that I take one or two weeks’ vacation each year? How flexible can I be with my employer without feeling discouraged or disengaged? Do I want the option to work remotely now or in the future?

Identifying these boundaries up front will shape the conversations recent graduates have with prospective employers, which will help set expectations up front and eliminate difficult conversations when unexpected professional demands arise.

Ask the right questions in the interview

Potential employees in any industry must approach interviews as a two-way street; applicants are not only being interviewed for positions, but are also interviewing employers to determine whether they fit within the organization’s structure and culture.

Law firm applicants should take advantage of the employment interview to ask questions that uncover the firm’s commitment to work-life balance while also adequately conveying their commitment to delivering results. Posing questions in a way that encourages a discussion about existing norms and behaviors as opposed to the applicant’s own work-life preferences will provide truer insight into firm expectations and help the applicant avoid appearing overly self-interested.

Drawing on the personal boundaries they’ve identified, law firm applicants should ask questions such as: You described the vacation policy; how many first-year associates would you say take all of their allotted vacation time? Do you find that associates support one another when personal commitments, such as sick children, arise without notice? How are associates evaluated for promotions and merit increases? The responses that follow will help applicants evaluate the firm within the context of their own work-life needs.

Take charge of the dialogue

Once new lawyers have been hired and are settled into their firms, the real task of maintaining a healthy work-life balance begins. Young associates are often eager to make a good impression out of the gate, and doing so may come with long hours and missed personal obligations. That’s okay. Failing to adhere to any of the boundaries they have identified with their supervisors, on the other hand, could result in burnout.

Young associates should take charge of the work-life balance dialogue with their superiors, sharing positive feedback when things are on track and tactfully expressing concerns when they are not. To ensure this dialogue supports work-life boundaries, consider keeping a written log of successes amassed during your tenure, which can be referenced during formal performance appraisals or in the event your professional commitment is challenged.

Remember, employers know that personal circumstances can change instantaneously, and work-life boundaries may shift as a result. But leadership will look to employees to take charge of maintaining their own boundaries, and that starts with open, honest, and ongoing dialogue.

There are few industries more demanding than the practice of law, which means there are few industries where work-life balance is more critical to the success of its workforce. Young lawyers cannot wait for someone to hand them the perfect work-life balance solution; they must become their own advocates. And they can, by prioritizing both personal and professional obligations and recognizing that having a successful law career and a healthy personal life are not mutually exclusive.

Lawyer  Monthly recommends you take a look at the above video, along with the remaining 6 parts of this crash course on intellectual property law, as part of CrashCourse's 7part video playlist.

This week, Stan Muller launches the Crash Course Intellectual Property mini-series. So, what is intellectual property, and why are we teaching it? Well, intellectual property is about ideas and their ownership, and it's basically about the rights of creators to make money from their work. Intellectual property is so pervasive in today's world, we thought you ought to know a little bit about it. We're going to discuss the three major elements of IP: Copyright, Patents, and Trademarks.

Even as adults, half of us still don’t know our rights as tenants, our landlords skirt the law, and we end up out of pocket or unjustly evicted. So how are younger generations supposed to fare? Here Leon Ifayemi, CEO and Founder of SPCE, explains the student rental market and the essentials students need to be aware of.

Ask anybody about their university experience and amidst stories of eccentric lecturers, infamous nights on the town and class romances, you’ll no doubt hear a few horror stories about the trials and tribulations faced when looking for and living in private accommodation. For first year students living in residential halls, the transition from university accommodation to the rental market can often be a trying experience.

No longer able to rely on the services readily on offer from on-campus support, students are flung into an alien environment where they must navigate landlords, agencies, mountains of paperwork and, perhaps most importantly, find a house whose location, amenities and charm make it a fitting place to live.

The student rental market is a complicated beast which is why it is extremely important for you to understand your rights as tenants. According to a recent survey of more than 400 landlords across the UK, only 1% say students are their favoured tenants. This is a shame given that university students are often misrepresented in the press – portrayed as loud and inconsiderate tenants more interested in indulging in life’s pleasures than bedding down and studying.

In reality, it is wrong to stereotype students as party animals; in fact, almost all students are backed by their parents as guarantors, meaning they are far less likely to be unable to meet their rent or pay for any damages during their tenancy.

Students should no longer been seen as a last resort for a landlord, but instead must be recognised as a demographic of renter requiring greater support. Living away from home, they are often unaware of what to look out for, and ignorant of the rights they possess as a tenant. Looking back to my days as a student ambassador, one of my duties was to connect students with landlords and rental accommodation.

Almost immediately, you would see groups of students hastily signing leases in the fear that they could lose out on a property, without properly assessing the conditions of the house or reading the fine print of the contract. The worst thing you could possibly imagine is to move into a house in September only to discover soon after that is has damp, a faulty boiler and poor insulation.

It’s important for students to realise that their rights as tenants can vary according to which part of the UK they reside in, with some variation between England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Nevertheless, protection laws exist across each jurisdiction to ensure that landlords must deliver accommodation that satisfies certain conditions.

Before moving into a house, it’s wise to put a few hours aside to properly review the state of the property. Check for signs of dampness, make note of any previous damage to the property such as marks on the wall and stains on the carpet, and test that the locks are in good shape. There’s no harm in being thorough, particularly if you want to receive your full deposit back at the end of the tenancy.

Students must also be aware of the laws governing the return of their deposit. The landlord must return your deposit within ten days once the amount refunded has been agreed upon. If the landlord refuses to send the full deposit back, or seeks to make deductions to compensate for damage to the house, students are in a position to dispute by using the alternative dispute resolution (ADR) service. Through an independent review of the case, the ADR ensures students can resolve any problems without having to go to court.

The student letting market has been traditionally marred by issues of communication between landlords, letting agencies and students. Thankfully, innovations in the digital space are having a positive impact on the student rental market, with new apps enhancing accessibility and streamlining the process so that there is greater transparency. By embracing such proptech solutions, both landlords and tenants will benefit from a superior rental experience.

DLA Piper is one of the biggest law firms worldwide. Here their Head of graduate recruitment gives her best advice on making the cut.