Career change from being a lawyer

[Arcadia]

Has anyone successfully changed career after being a lawyer (I'm a Solicitor) for some years?
I'm sitting at my computer today thinking - I don't want to do this anymore.
I'm 100% a people person, I'm not a corporate lawyer. So my work is more court hearings and client meetings than drafting long documents.
What else could I do?
I'm not particularly high earning and could afford to take a pay cut so doesn't need to be very well paid.

I am not a lawyer, but a similar professional who also dreams of a career change. It's complicated slightly by DP, who has the same job and really enjoys it, whereas I do not.

I am planning on dragging myself through another 5 or so years before completely changing, and hopefully moving somewhere far away to restart. I think I'll be able to persuade DP to join me as the job could probably continue anywhere.

So I did a law degree but didn't end up becoming a solicitor. I ended up in health and safety in construction. The fact I had experience in understanding legislation and rules (so to speak) also I was experienced in writing coherently (some engineers writing skills are abysmal).

I've been here four years and I'm really enjoying it. I would recommend looking for HSE roles.

I came across an ex lawyer who is now a TA on Twitter the other day. She says she loves it, but does keep saying that she used to be a lawyer so I'm not sure how much she respects her choice or her colleagues.

Have you thought about moving to a different area of the law? Then you won't have to start from the beginning of your career again.

Or possibly move in house to an industry which interests you?

what area of law are you in OP?

i agree about in-house. Or perhaps working in the charity sector? i have worked for too many years in a human rights charity and I can say for sure our sector needs highly trained professionals in the law.

Are there any roles within your firm that look interesting to you? Like HR or BD? Ex lawyers are often snapped up into law firm support positions because their experience in the business is invaluable.

Not a lawyer myself, but have a lot of lawyer friends and am in a similar profession.

Lawyer friends have gone in-house for better life-work balance. I also know of one who went freelance, picking up odd jobs from her previous employer, but keeping to her own part-time hours. Another friend went to teach law.

In my similar profession, I went in house after a year's post-qualification, and haven't regretted it. DH stayed at the firm and has progressed well over the years, but for us as a family unit, it made sense that we couldn't both keep on the same trajectory. We both now (gulp - 20 years post qualified) have a really good work-life balance.

In house, PSL (so no fee earning targets), teaching (post grad qualification) are common moves for a better way to use your hard earned skills

I could have written your post OP. I've handed my notice in today and so have a few months to decide what I'm going to do. Just couldn't face it anymore. At the moment it feels like anything but law would be a good idea, but I wonder if I should think more seriously about trying to move to a different area. I just have a feeling that the things I hate about this role are probably common to a lot of firms and most work types.

I know 3 ex-lawyers who are now teachers/TAs. One is a TA in a year 4 class, one is a year 3 teacher and one is an English teacher in a secondary school. Both myself and dh are teachers so not sure I’d recommend it though. Fancy a job swap? love the sound of your job. I’m a Geography head of department.

What kind of job interests you?

I did a Jurisprudence degree which I hated from the very first day.

Got a low 2:1 but landed a milk-round job with a global manufacturing company on graduation. Still working for them now as a contractor and hoping to return in a full-time management role once DD is older.

Even full-time I earned a third of my peers’ annual income, but worked just as anti-social hours and arguably carried greater personal responsibility (actual consumers, regulators etc rather than M&A).

In hindsight, I should have stayed on track, qualified as a lawyer, and retired early.

Not a lawyer, but work with them. Getting out of the high stressed game too, so I’ve started to retrain in a new industry.

Being a lawyer gives you huge advantages in other industries.

Have a think about what interests you, and that might lead you to a new industry, or you can consider a complete change of career.

Also have a think about what makes you happy or unhappy in your job. Be it the hours, the lack of creative, opportunity etc. This may help.

Without knowing which area of law you’re in, it’s difficult to advise on options for transferring, but remember you do have transferrable skills.

Thanks for all the responses, too many to reply to individually!
I'm a family lawyer at a high street firm in a small town (very outing, oh well!). Extremely nice colleagues and good atmosphere to work in, hours are fine and pretty flexible. Pay is fine and monthly bonuses based on billing rather than harsh targets imposed.
I like dealing with people but I'm getting ground down by it and in particular the ill feeling in the cases.
When I do 'well' for a client in a case I sometimes don't feel that great for the other 'side'. There are no winners in family law.
Not meeting clients face to face has taken away that part of the job that I like the most.
It's also just feeling samey, explaining the same concepts over and over again.
But I don't really enjoy contracts/technical law/legislation based work, I would get bored drafting contracts all day or dealing with regulatory stuff.
I've applied to be a DD judge previously to do alongside my job, but stuffed up the interview last time and possibly again this time (it was in January and I was so down and unmotivated due to lockdown etc). I have a tribunal role interview this month. If I don't get either of those I could do something voluntary part time say magistrate? I want to move to more of a decision making role.
I'm drawn to face to face stuff involving people.

I'm a trustee at a Citizens Advice. There is/will be a chronic shortage of decent debt advisors. There is also lots of work to be done supporting people with benefit tribunals.

@Madcats is that voluntary or paid work?

One of of my friends is a solicitor specialising in housing at CAB. She earns about £36 k and really enjoys it.

Also of course the various Law centres. They are paid also.

Moving from your area, have you thought about an in-house position in another industry? Or you might like the legal sales rep role if you’re keen on client facing. I work mainly with corporate and private client lawyers. You could have a think about transitioning to the trust side of private clients. There are also lots of family office roles you might enjoy.

I like the idea of the trustee role on the side - it’s a good first step whilst you rethink.

You haven’t mentioned property, but you might not enjoy the sameness of conveyancing... but, if you like property in general, you might still enjoy an in-house role in the industry. There are some really interesting jobs out there.

Sorry to hear your interview didn’t go well. I tend to think of any first interview following a decision to leave as a practice run. I tend to fail miserably, but nail it the next time. Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. You can only learn from what went wrong and fix it for the next interview. Don’t be too hard on yourself. You’re clearly a smart woman.

My final advice here is to know your worth and if there’s a role you aren’t sure you can do, you can bet that any man wouldn’t let that stop him (making assumptions here and sounding very sexist - I just know many women who won’t apply for roles because they think they can’t to it, plus there are studies on this, so I hope no one is offended by this comment). You have the right skill set, so focus on that.

Good luck!

Same position here. Family law, small high street firm, rural practice.

Had baby 2018 after fifteen years trying, then along came another last year.

I have no idea what to do with my life. I'm broken, cynical and drained by it. I did a large amount of complex cases, court reporting and curator work. I think I was overdone with this, I almost became a social worker in disguise.

I resigned from the partnership because they wouldn't accommodate part time anyway so have some time while they pay me out at a very small amount a month.

Not many ideas though.

Some companies like Lexis Nexis employ former solicitors etc to work on their PSL products. You get to work in law, use your subject specialism, but aren't subject to the pressures of practice. You could check out their websites, see if anything is available.

I retired as a lawyer 7 years ago. I was only too glad to give up the targets, general pressure and sheer hard graft - I was a City lawyer. I don’t miss it one bit and only now do I realise how much I gave to the job and how much it took out of me.

If the law isn’t satisfying for you, you are absolutely right to get out before it has a detrimental effect on you. I have no suggestions for an alternative career, I just wanted to add my support for your decision to do something else.

@arcadia it really depends on the office (there are 200+ individual charities all overseen by a national Citizens Advice).

Yes most offices rely on teams of volunteers supported by paid supervisors, finance and IT people, but we employ people for specialist roles where they are likely to encounter more sensitive or complicated work. Larger offices would tend to have housing and immigration teams (we refer prospective clients to local law firms if it looks complicated).

It is not unusual for a volunteer to join and undergo basic training and then move on to a paid role either with us or another agency. We tend to ask people to commit to x hours/week or a concentrated period of work if it is for a discrete project.

This link might give you an idea of the sort of roles www.citizensadvice.org.uk/about-us/job-and-voluntary-opportunities/

It makes me feel good to know that I am giving something back (though the local population should be glad I decided to focus on a governance role).

Ombudsman? Well suited to legal types, £40-£50k salary and work from home options.