This is not necessarily evidence that U of T students are smarter, its equally valid to argue that they simply have access to better coaching.
I'm not saying that U of T students aren't smarter, just that the evidence you're relying on to prove your point is not as solid as you think it is.
@WannaBeLaw99 For my own curiosity, a few questions. When you say you handle drafting, as a partner, are you still taking the first stab at any document? For the more complex documents, how much variation do you have in the quality level of what’s handed to you for review - are you reviewing things drafted by juniors very often, or is there always a senior associate polishing things before they get to your desk?
And what do you think is the likely difference between our practices that makes your weekends more predictable? I primarily do private transactions, almost exclusively PE, and while there are some weekends I’m working on something I just couldn’t get to over the week with no tight deadline, any weekend day with 10+ hours of work is usually a matter of receiving drafts in on Friday night/weekend or having a client send an email that causes everything to jumpstart asap. I don’t think the partners I work for have weekends that are significantly more predictable than mine. Though they can obviously get away with saying they’ll do something tomorrow a little easier than I can.
The variation is nice in the sense that a month where I bill 150 means more time with my wife. But the flip side of that coin is that I more often have to cancel plans or suddenly and unexpectedly tell my wife I won’t be around for a chunk of time. I don’t know which is better in the long run, but I know that when I was a junior, the hardest part of the hours wasn’t the hours - it was the sense of being unable to control my own life.Â