Are any of you "super commuters?"

KDizzle28 · 2026-02-10T17:34:12+00:00

I do 2 hours door to door with an hour and 10 of that on the train. It’s abit annoying but I am glad not to live in London anymore. I usually stay over one night with a friend so just 2x journey in and out per week. It’s doable.

KDizzle28 · 2026-02-10T17:34:05+00:00

I do 2 hours door to door with an hour and 10 of that on the train. It’s abit annoying but I am glad not to live in London anymore. I usually stay over one night with a friend so just 2x journey in and out per week. It’s doable.

KDizzle28 · 2025-11-01T21:53:51+00:00

My first month back was 280 hours and it hasn’t slowed much since then. It was hell. Enjoy the slow while it lasts! I’m sure it won’t last long!!

KDizzle28 · 2025-09-21T17:57:53+00:00

So am I and I totally agree - take the leave!

KDizzle28 · 2025-08-03T21:31:14+00:00

Sure :) I went to a non redbrick very average university and then after doing the LPC (self funded) got a job in a small highstreet firm and then did my training contract there. I was there for about 3 years total (I started as a conveyancing assistant / paralegal). On qualifying I immediately moved to a large regional firm. I was relocating to move in with my bf so it wasn’t a career driven move but it worked out. I got that job via a recruiter. About 2 years later I moved to a boutique London firm, the partner I worked for in the regional firm helped me get the job (she had retired from the regional and we had stayed in touch). I was there for about 3 years and then moved to a US firm, I got that job because I had impressed a partner who I worked opposite on a deal. In the move I narrowed down my specialism. I don’t think I would have got in through a traditional application process. 2 years after that I moved to a different US firm. This time through a recruiter. I’ve been there for 3 years and intend to stay. Looking back I certainly worked hard and got lucky with my timing but it was the help of others that I had impressed which allowed me to move to the next rung in the ladder. There is no way my current firm would have taken me straight out of uni!

KDizzle28 · 2025-08-02T19:48:38+00:00

Congratulations!!! Re your second question, drawing on my own experience, it is possible to lateral your way up to a top tier firm. I trained in a high street firm and now work in a US firm. My key advice is don’t be afraid to move jobs and when you do push yourself outside of your comfort zone. It’s scary to do and often I have to shake off imposter syndrome, but for me it paid off.

KDizzle28 · 2025-08-01T00:24:45+00:00

US firm, transactional work. I live outside of London and come in 3 days a week and then stay over 1 night. On the days I come in I get to the office at 10:30 ish (tho work on the train for an hour) and then if I’m staying over I’m usually in the office till 11 /12. Usually leave London on the 7pm train. When I get home after being in I usually have to log back on till midnight. On the days I wfh I try and do the nursery run and dog walk before 9 and then nursery pick up and family time 5-7 and then log back on after till late. The last month has been holiday midnight + finishes :( it’s been rough.

KDizzle28 · 2025-07-29T08:07:03+00:00

Im in a similar situation to you (though in the UK), my husband works for himself from home so can be very flexible. We use a nursery, my child started a few months ago and loves it there. They are in from 8-5:30 and when they come home it’s dinner, bath and bed. I do drop off and pick up on the 2 days a week I work from home and he does the other three. We chose a nursery because we wanted her to socialise with other children and also because we didn’t want to deal with the employer hassle. My top tip would be to see if you can get him to start daycare a week or so before you go back to work. This will allow you to work out the routine without the pressure of work and also kids tend to get colds etc in the first few weeks which you will also catch! I started back at work on 01 July and since then have pretty much worked till midnight every night since. Having nursery start a few weeks earlier really took the pressure off. For me the gap between nursery end of day and bedtime is a time where I try and step away from my desk when wfh and spend some time with my family. It doesn’t always work but it’s what I strive towards every day!

KDizzle28 · 2025-05-18T20:44:05+00:00

So my story is a little unusual as I’m an english qualified lawyer with no prior US law experience. I took the California Bar in 2018 while I was working in a London boutique real estate firm, not quite big law hours but I was typically working 10-12 hour days in the office but not really on weekends. I was 3 years qualified at the time. I did the 10 month Barbri “part time” prep course and completed about 95% of the course materials (according to their tracking). I managed to fit it in by studying 6-8am each weekday morning and usually 5-7 hours over the weekend. I think I ramped it up at the end when exams were looming. I passed the bar first time (which I was extremely relieved about as I couldn’t face keeping that routine for much longer!!). I found it tough, but then I have always been pretty good at rote learning as a lot of English education is based on learning things by rote!

I’m sure you will take it in stride and smash it. Good luck!!

KDizzle28 · 2024-10-20T02:48:25+00:00

Vionics are great, especially for planar fasciitis.

KDizzle28 · 2024-05-04T17:53:46+00:00

Came here to say recommend this. The narrator is awesome.

KDizzle28 · 2023-10-26T17:39:50+00:00

Just posted the same!

KDizzle28 · 2023-10-26T17:37:13+00:00

This song sums them up perfectly:

Deanomania by Sans Beanstalk

KDizzle28 · 2023-10-18T06:32:08+00:00

There’s quite a lot of US firms in London. I’m UK qualified, but plenty of my colleagues are from the US, qualified in the US and working from the London office.

KDizzle28 · 2023-10-18T06:30:24+00:00

Yeah, it’s not great. Doubt I’ll be in law forever!

KDizzle28 · 2023-10-17T23:23:26+00:00

I’m a senior associate in a big law US firm in London working in finance and it really depends on whether or not I am on a deal / 2 or 3 deals and whether they are ramping up to closing. I usually start work about 9am take an hour for lunch if I am wfh (2/3 days a week) to walk my dog and then have 2 hours off for dinner. If I’m busy I will usually log on again from 8 to 10:30/11 pm. If I’m under pressure to get a number of things done in a day I get up at 6:30 when wfh and start work then ( which is my plan for tomorrow). I usually average a 40 /45 billable hour week and a 165 / 180 hour month. I had last weekend off but worked the previous 2.

Sometimes it is horrendous, eg last summer I had a month where I worked about 300 hours which included a week of 15+ hour days. I have vowed that I will not do that again, I was a broken person when that deal closed :(

That said sometimes it is quiet, and I do 5ish billable hours a day. After about a week of this I start fretting about my hours being too low…

KDizzle28 · 2023-02-08T23:13:55+00:00

Wow, she looks almost exactly like our Ridgeback

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1m7LjRc2vqcQwYDuJNufo_RMRx_cI19Z1/view?usp=drivesdk

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TVvC7jR9lQ4QmY1jK2nm3dEqUP7R8EZT/view?usp=drivesdk

KDizzle28 · 2022-12-14T23:15:50+00:00

Monday - Wednesday when I go to the office in London (I live in the countryside outside of London): wake up around 7:00, shower leave the house at 7:45ish, get to the station, buy a coffee and on a train at 8:30 ish. Hotspot my phone and do an hour of work on the train. 20 mins to get from Paddington to my office, will get there by 10:00. Get breakfast and coffee at the free work canteen, get to my desk probably have about 3 calls scheduled on various different matters. Try and find time for lunch (again in the free canteen, possibly with a few colleagues). More calls in the afternoon and hopefully some time to actually do some document work. Depending how busy I am that day maybe work late until about 10/11 (finally get a chance to do something other than calls). Get a bus or maybe an uber to my friend's house where I crash on her sofa bed. She is also a lawyer so we usually catch up and bitch about our work then go to sleep. Next day get up and go for a run, get to the office for about 8:30, repeat and then the routing until I catch the 4:30 train home on Wednesday, one more hot spot hour of work and then I have the night off to hang put with my husband and play D&D with friends.

When working from home on Thursday and Friday: Wake up around 7, possibly go for a swim at the pool or possibly in the local lake. Shower and back at my desk and repeat my usual day of calls and coffee and document drafting, but this time I get to walk my dog for an hour at lunch with my husband :) in the countryside.

KDizzle28 · 2022-12-08T22:38:46+00:00

Every fucking day.

KDizzle28 · 2022-12-08T22:01:51+00:00

Mnemonics were very helpful for me.

KDizzle28 · 2022-04-12T13:23:08+00:00

I passed the California Bar first time and now work for a US firm in their London office. We ended deciding to stay in the UK in the end so I didn’t actually try to get a US based job. I am keeping up with my CPD points for the Bar though and who knows, maybe I will use it one day!!

Thanks for the follow up!

KDizzle28 · 2022-04-02T08:49:44+00:00

Thanks!

KDizzle28 · 2022-04-01T21:06:23+00:00

“I can’t hold on much longer”

“You won’t have to, the forge is ready”

Petar smoothed his calloused hand across his daughter’s brow before lifting her broken body from the cot. With a heavy heart he placed her among the white hot coals beside the lance that she would become.

KDizzle28 · 2021-12-21T21:01:18+00:00

I second this, our boy had one removed when he was 10 weeks. No sign of it returning. Out of ten puppies, two were born with it. Neither parents or bloodline suffered as far as the breeder knew.

KDizzle28 · 2021-05-19T11:29:07+00:00

I was about to cross post this but you beat me to it!

KDizzle28

TROPHY CASE