Can Law be done very part time?

[Iittledayaof]

As a solicitor? I’m not interested in making loads of money. I just want a profession I can access and do on a very part time basis. Is there an area of law more suitable to this? Again, doesn’t need to be well paid.

I had always been drawn to the profession but spent my working time as a PA. I was really happy with that, I got to £40k by age 23!

I read a book about law as a degree and I’m so drawn to it.

I got an A in A Level History if that serves any relevance

I’ve had a look and seen studying for the actual degree can be done via Open Uni

What does “very part time” mean for you?

@SomeMonstersEatTelly I’d say working 16-30 hours a week?

How are you defining "very part time"?

You could possibly do private client which is mostly less deadline based than, anything else really.

IME part time conveyancers are a bit of a nightmare for colleagues especially the ones who don't work Fridays.

Ooh! Or do you mean studying part time? In which case ignore me but it will take you years!

No. Any non - medical professional role sucks part time.

Could possibly look at working in procurement for a public sector organisation... Might be able to be 3 days a week...

Yes, it can be done very part time. But probably not to start with. You would have to put in your time, full time, for a number of years first, to get experience and pay your dues etc. Then, yes, it is very able to be done part time.

Family law is probably the most flexible and local as there would be family lawyers in most larger towns. Criminal I would say is the least, at the mercy of the courts and the police stations etc. In house lawyers for insurance companies etc would allow you to work 3 days a week.

The issue with law is that you have clients that will have schedules and deadlines. Plenty work part time but for instance a friend works 5 hours per day 4 days a week (MTTF) conveyancing, Fridays are really busy.

Business customers would need their solicitor available most days too, and criminal lawyers often have to be on call. It really depends on how very part time, not sure if under 20 hours is possible

In my opinion, I can’t think of anywhere that would take anyone on for 16 hours a week. And that is as a qualified solicitor. I think it would be impossible to find a training contract on that basis (there is already too few TCs v the number of people who want them as it is).

I couldn’t do my job in just 16 hours and I work part time at the moment having just come back from maternity leave (running down accrued leave). That’s with a lot of support from my organisation - even so, “just” three days is bloody hard going. It can be quite difficult to carve up legal tasks to fit three days, in my view, and my colleagues who do three days either job share or have at least one day which is a very long day.

After qualification, I think it is possible to find in-house legal work or local/central government work. I do one of these and will be working four days soon (30 hours). But I think your first hurdle is a training contract.

The issue with part time is that you have no control over when court hearings are. You can’t do a training contract part time to my knowledge but there are other routes now, so possibly. You tend to work well over your hours in any legal role though.

Part time professional roles are usually 60% of the pay for 90% of the work...

I should say, one of my trainee intake did her training contract part-time (4 days a week) and I think the SRA required her to do 6 months’ extra - so another seat - which took her to 2.5 years.

There is also this.

I used to work in private ppractice and can't imagine how I would gave carried out that role part time. However I went in house in a company legal department and was able to work very part time and term time only.

Although you have looked at how you may do a law degree you also need to look how you would qualify as a solicitor via SQE and work experience or as a Legal Executive via ILEX. This adds further time and expense to get qualified as a legal practitioner.

Focus on technology law, software, licensing. 50k for 20 hours a week from home, that was several years ago, probably 60 now.

In house work would be your best bet as someone else said. I work a few hours a week drafting legal documents as I quickly discovered that practice wasn’t workable alongside my caring commitments. The nature of the work is unpredictable as if there’s a deadline, you end up working round the clock. It’s not the most forgiving of professions!

As a lawyer in a non-contentious area, I’d still say that ‘very’ part time is not doable. Even if you don’t have court deadlines, clients still expect a certain level of service which it’s much harder to provide on that basis. You’ll also be expected to network in order to bring in work, which will involve evening drinks, dinners,etc. All of that will generally be in addition to your agreed working hours.
The only people at my firm who work less than four days per week are in non-fee earning roles, e.g. professional support lawyers. The problem is that you need years of experience as a fee earner to get those types of roles.

I used to work 22.5hrs in conveyancing. It was doable but annoying, because I'd have to leave things with colleagues for every day off and the nature of the job means things can change quite quickly. I'd come in to a mountain of emails after a day off.

I was Associate level and wouldn't have wanted to do so few hours as a trainee/NQ tbh, I think it would be hard to feel properly in the loop and it can be time consuming when you need things to be checked by a senior.

Agree with PPs advising to look into the full route to qualification. SQE/the prep courses for it are not cheap (or easy!)

Absolutely can in the public sector, never seen it work in the private sector im afraid

OP I know you say money isn't important, but you'd be looking at a significant drop in salary, at least until you're qualified. Also I would say in-house is hugely variable in terms of commitment required, it really depends on the sector, employer's policies and size of the team. If it's your dream, go for it, but if you're still on the fence after doing your research I would reconsider.

As a grumpy solicitor who is nearly 25 years qualified, I’d say absolutely not and don’t even consider it. Practising the law is, in the end, very little to do with the actual law. It’s business development, office politics, admin, debt chasing and billing, managing and training, and remembering at all times to be nice to clients even when they’re being utterly unreasonable. We are business people who happen to sell legal services and have stringent targets to meet each year. That’s without the compliance and risk management side of things which are becoming worse and more nightmarish each year.

I’m afraid I would never advise anyone to become a solicitor. Do something else that floats your boat and steer well clear. I’ve told my children never to train as a solicitor and they’ve seen enough of my workload and pressure on me to have said they’d never consider it.

in short, you could do the training part time but it would take years and you could only practice part time once you had got sufficiently experienced and had enough goodwill built up to do so. And even then almost all part time work really equals part time pay for near as dammit full time workload.