AIBU to change career and retrain as a solicitor?

Meant to quote above.

A specialist paralegal can definitely earn on a par with an NQ but it takes time. Better to earn while you go though in your posi. And I think you are looking at big city solicitors who pay competitively putting up the average.

Are you not giving pay increases to your paralegals? Are they not contributing to your business success?

The below fits my experience of the industry.

https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Salaries/nq-solicitor-salary-SRCHKO0,12.htm

I'm a solicitor in a now senior position, although not working in the UK.

It took me years to qualify and my pay is fine now, but certainly not big money - £80k pa at 25years PQE.

I like my work and have a good work/life balance but wouldn't want to be working in the UK. It was bad 25 years ago and doesn't sound like it has improved

I’m a solicitor 25 years PQE. 20 years private practice now local government.
Local govt legal offers flexibility, my team are mainly wfh and do have flexibility eg school runs. I also don’t bill in 6 min units. The pay is dire, the salary quoted above for NQ is more than very senior lawyers on. My teen at McDonalds was on more than they pay the paralegals. So there’s a massive recruitment annd retention issue.

@ThatShyRoseViper have you considered becoming a legal auditor? It would doubtless mean a pay cut for you but there’s very little stress.

Change career by all means (I did at 50) - but a solicitor!!??

My DH worked in a silver circle firm in London for 10 years.

There is no way he could have done it as a single parent. I was a SAHM to manage everything else. He only saw our kids on the weekends.

He left home between 6/7 am and if he was home before 9pm it was a surprise. It was not exceptional to get in at midnight, shower, bed and up again at 6 to go back. As a genuine example, he was told to keep an eye on his emails and make sure he was available to respond when I was induced with our second child.

The stress was incredible. The money was great…. But it didn’t make it worth it long term. He got out.

Depends what kind of law but honestly I can’t imagine balancing training/studying/qualifying with children and childcare. We have a couple of solicitor apprentices which is another route to qualification, but they still have pretty long days and study most spare hours.

Like most professions, if you’re highly paid you’re probably selling part of your soul or at least all of your spare time. Even if you’re not actually working it’s very difficult to switch off from your cases and the fear of getting things wrong.

If I could pick I’d open the bakery. At least there’s cake and friendly faces. 😊

OP there’s some great advice here already so will try not to repeat it. If you’re really interested in law I would say you absolutely need to narrow down what area you are interested in and then get some work shadowing/work experience in that area. There’s everything from commercial law in big firms (broadly, well paid but long hours and little flexibility) to local and central Government law, to family (think divorces, wills etc.), criminal, employment…the list goes on and each area couldn’t be more different with different working environments. You really need to have a good idea about what the work will involve, working conditions, pay, before you embark on time-consuming and likely expensive training. What I would say is that being a solicitor can be really interesting, intellectually challenging and well-paid, but can also be “boring” to a lot of people (attention to detail is critical in most roles).

You certainly wouldn’t be qualified by the time your child starts school!

Have you actually looked into the process? It’s really hard. It will take you even longer with a young child.

This - it honestly can take years to qualify.

Not to mention the actual pressures of the job if you manage to finally get there. It’s not easy by any means.

That said, I know someone early 50s who has managed to go through the process and qualify. Her children were young adults though.

I’ve been a solicitor for 25 years and I wouldn’t go into it now. The pay is worse than most people think outside the City, especially for the hours worked. The firms that pay well have huge expectations of their trainees. After-school clubs won’t even begin to cut it. I waited to TTC until my career was established and I could work more “flexibly” - ha ha. Still needed a FT nanny though.

And AI is a HUGE issue for lawyers, especially at the junior end. The firms I instruct have cut their trainee intake in response to AI, some by half - frankly, it drafts better than the average trainee. I admire your enthusiasm but studying law is not the answer here.

I’m just leaving being a solicitor (not family but high street type). It was rewarding when I was in my 20s and 30s but these days I just find it very stressful, with so much bureaucracy and regulation, and you’re always afraid of making a career ending mistake. I was able to work flexibly as systems for wfh had vastly improved after Covid, but that still didn’t stop the 3am fears of things I hadn’t got done, especially with peri menopause and kids to balance. There are better ways to make money. None of my old law school friends are still solicitors and I won’t be recommending it to my kids!

I've worked in a support role for 5 law firms. I'm now senior at what I do. I wouldn't be a solicitor for a million pounds. Certainly not for a law firm anyway. In-house is different.

The pressure to endlessly be developing business and bringing in work, but not being given the time to do so. The very long hours. The pressure to be so exacting in your client work. Recording your entire day in 6 minute increments. The threat of AI, which is replacing junior roles now, but who knows how long until more senior roles are impacted.

The pay is nothing to write home about, unless you work for a Magic Circle firm. I earn more than a salaried partner in my support role.

There are MUCH nicer ways to earn a living.

I think if you're after a more family-friendly career, law is not it!

Working for yourself as a single parent with limited childcare support is hard, but you have the benefit of being able to do drop-off and pick up and no one threatening to fire you if your child is off school sick. But you need wherever your working base is to be close to your child's school as, if you have to spend an hour travelling back and forth, then you only get 4 working hours per day.

Personally, I'd look into retraining as a project manager or, if you have the skills, cybersecurity.

They're very different paths although the bakery idea is clearly one that follows the skills you already have. Are they really your only 2 options?

Solicitor here. Started at 6am this morning, networking until 8pm tonight. I’ll probably work Sunday…and spend most of Saturday working out what I can retrain in or pivot to that will make me less miserable while still paying the mortgage.

Firms and clients want us to do more for less and all the while the SRA is breathing down our necks threatening horrific regulatory sanctions for the most minor breaches of the hundreds of rules and processes we have to follow. A bad year or two of billing could see you managed out through no fault of your own.

Everyone I know is looking for a way to get out or work less so they have some downtime to recuperate.

Get a nice, steady admin job, become a legal secretary if you must, but be realistic: being a solicitor is an absolute grind, to get there and even more so once you’re in the job.

As a solicitor, yes, it's a good career, but only now about 10 years in that I finally am starting to have some flexibility and steady hours (and I'm still working most evenings and weekends). The first 7-8 years as a trainee and then as an associate are very, very long hours and zero flexibility. Everything is client led. If client wants something at 5pm, you stay and do it. There is no walking out the door and doing it later.

It's also VERY hierarchical, which will be a challenge for someone older. You will have a 30 year old make you miss school runs and bedtime so you can spell check some documents.

Cilex (legal executive) or licensed conveyancer are other options to explore.
Check local council for school attendance legal assistant roles - it’s admin grade that doesn’t require any legal qualifications but may lead to other opportunities.

More on salaries. The published tables have paralegals on £20-40k outside London, trainee solicitors are on around £50k and NQs are £65-85k outside London.

AI is not where it currently needs to be to eliminate all human review but it is improving rapidly and there are fewer roles for juniors than there were and opportunities will continue to decline as the AI improves and more things are automated over time.

I'm an expert on nothing, but here's my take.

Where I live, bakeries and cafes are doing a roaring trade the last few years, and a few new ones have sprung up. There are far, far more people now in my area working from home than there were ten years ago, and I expect there is a connection. Also, there are a significant chunk of retired people with a high disposable income.

Also, have heard that others say there are far too many law graduates for the jobs available, and that AI will likely reduce need for workers more. I am also aware that a lot of these professional careers pay less in real terms than in decades past!

I am a writer (honestly, you wouldn't tell from the way I write posts) and am currently doing a proof-reading/editing course so I will be able edit my own work to save money. The colleges try to convince you that that you can still make money doing this work, but I suspect that the advances in software will make actually getting proof reading/editing gigs far more competitive than 10-15 years ago!

All the best

Local government legal is low paid but may be more open to none traditional backgrounds. Hard to recruit areas like childcare law, adult social care have paralegals on just over min wage but there may be opportunities to progress and be funded to train.

Blimey, @Whyx I don’t pay my paralegals anything like my NQ solicitors nor do I know anywhere who does! The NQs are probably on nearly double what the paralegals are and of course once qualified the salary goes up by more than the COL every year whereas the PL’s will stay roughly the same.

@Breathedeeper there are many many different types of law and whether you can work flexibly or from home depends on what area you choose to focus on. If you were doing conveyancing or private client there would be more flexibility. If you are doing criminal law you will have to be on call in evenings and weekends and will be mostly court or office based. Divorce work or any form of litigation will also be mostly court or office based. Corporate work/M and A etc will be very high pressured with long hours and unmovable deadlines and very unlikely to be fully WFH.

There will be many situations like your partner's where negotiation is necessary. However, surely there will be many others which involve consultations about questions that can be easily be answered by an AI model.
I can't see how job opportunities won't be reduced 🤷🏻‍♀️

BTW, I'm not fearful of AI at all and see it as a tool that helps most professionals become more productive. The future evolution of an industry is just something to keep in mind before embarking on a tough degree.

I really… no. The amount of negotiation, fine print and face to face discussion that’s needed for my partner’s field means AI would not be appropriate at all. Perhaps for creating template documents or something but they already do that.