corporate/commercial lawyer looking for career options/specialism change

[nickname7890]

hello

I am 8 years pqe, just finished maternity leave and not planning anothe baby. I trained in silver circle firm, qualified into corporate finance, moved in house to do commercial/corp work as was desparate for a life at 3 years pqe, and have stayed at that role in house ever since. My boss has now changed, and is aggressive, regressive and i just dont want to stay here. I am facing a life time working and I am an extremely driven and passionate person, yet corporate/commercial work is just NOT interesting to me and drains me and i have to put so much effort in to get myself interested in what i am doing as it is not a natural calling.

My issues are - I currently work from home twice a week, and work flexi time so i get home for bath time but then invariably log on in the evening and get little life, never ever make week day plans as i cannot face the stress of being more tired than i already am at work the next day. HOWEVER, i appreciate i am fortunate being able to have this flexible working arrangement, even if it does mean i have to work 7.30-9.30 pm then up at 5.15 for the tube to work...at least i get to see my son every day

1. i am just (only just) into 6 figures. is this an infalted salary, would i have to take a massive cut if i moved?

1. i always wanted to be a psychologist and have now missed my boat as we cannot afford a total career break / 4 or 5 year course. I have v high e-q (rare for a lawyer!) and just love people/stories/relationships. I wouldnt want a business developmetn style role only for the fact i would hate to have to entertain out of hours etc, but I know my strengths lie in understanding people and people naturally confide in me /find me easy to talk to (so im told!)

1. With this in mind, I'm thinking maybe moving in to FAMILY law would be an option - but (a) would i have to start at the beginning? (b) how would I go about this? (c) would i take a massive pay cut ? (d) what are the career/salary prospects? (d) is this a dying area for solicitors due to increase in mediation etc?

Would private client work be bette r(wills/probate etc?) or quite dull?

I do believe if I worked in something I love I would naturally do well, and so am so desparate to find that.
Perhaps another option is give a different inhouse role a try, in an industry sector I am interested in (ie not financial services) but I guess I would have to take a salary cut anyway?

ive seen CLA do conversion courses but understand taht they dont actually give you any sort of qualification and their testimonials do not inform as to where the alumni go to/come from...

any advice would be SO appreciated

x

Moving from corporate to family is a fairly well trodden path. You are looking at a pay cut though. In the city you may start on 60k - to get near 100k you need to be senior associate / partner level - I can’t see you could get to that without at least 5 years of experience. With seniority comes a lot of responsibility to bring work in yourself.
If you are not keen on business development that may have challenges.

I doubt I will be that helpful - I trained at and continue to work at a relatively small firm but it has (for some strange reason) a large planning/ commercial property department and that is where I found myself upon qualification. After my first DC I tried to work PT but found that the clients were too demanding and I ended up working in the evenings/ chained to my phone.
We had a really small Wills and Probate department which the partners wanted to build up and so they agreed for me to do the course and switch department. It hasn't been easy tbh - it is a very wide area of law - but it has been made easier by knowing the firm and clients.
I am now finding it hard to make a move out of a small firm which is not known for private client work, hence why I am now studying for STEP.

Realistically, you will probably have to start at the bottom and work up again - I probably would have been made partner now if it weren't for me changing track and going PT - which is probably difficult to do if you are relying on your salary.
Would you be able to go back into practice and suss out a sideways move that way?
As I say, I earn £50k FTE but that's at a small firm outside of London. Jobs I see advertised in London are more £70k + but none of those are interested in me as they want experience in "recognised" firms. Plus it is really hard to find a part time role.

Some local authorities in London now pay over the 50k mark for contract/commercial lawyers. You can then pick up new skills like in data protection

I moved from a magic circle firm to a regulator, and love my flexible, quite well paid and intellectually stimulating job.

Have you thought about PLC or Lexis and working as a PSL? They are based in London but very open to remote/part-time working and the pay is pretty good, I suspect you'd get about £90K FTE.

Probably easier to get a job with than a regulator/GLS too, who will make you jump through lots of hoops.

@Timeywimey10 I have considered the plc etc route but I suppose it's the lack of career progression I find frustrating as I would like to have the opportunity for growth as the children get older etc
Also thought maybe more focussed on black letter and less on the so called "softer" skills which I thought were a strength of mine that I could employ to further me in my career