Solicitor wanting to become ex solicitor

[StuckSolicitor]

Help!

I’ve name changed as this is seriously outting in the small world that is law. I’ve changed some small details.

I am a solicitor in a really niche property law area. I have practised as both a contentious and non-contentious solicitor for 25 years. And on my goodness but I can’t keep going. I started out wanting to help families which failed at the first hurdle because I ended up getting a training contract at a corporate law firm and so got nowhere near anything other than large scale, high value clients and their matters.

I took 4 years out when I had my 3 children - not on maternity leave, I just quit and didn’t have a paid job for that time. And I went back when my youngest was 18 months.

I hate how the job has changed. Time recording is now the absolute be all and end all. Targets, business development (for which we seemingly receive no credit), supervision, marketing, know how, CPD, compliance and regulatory issues, being a team player, keeping up with the latest buzz words from the partnership and on and on and on it goes. All in making sure the PEP is as high as it can be.

The question is what on earth can I do instead? I’m based in a very rural part of England and cannot move for various family reasons so the job options seem limited. I would like to be able to do something that had more soul to it and meant I was doing something good. At the moment I simply seem to be making rich people richer and that sits very uncomfortably with me.

Are there any solicitors out there who have successfully become ex solicitors? I need to earn a minimum of £40,000 per annum as my husband’s teaching job is not very secure and we still have a large mortgage (although our house is small and nothing special - 2008 banking crash walloped us).

Any ideas or experiences?

Not too far off it with the crofters rights actually. Really not too far off. I’d say exactly what I do if the legal world wasn’t so blimmin small. If I say what I do it would honestly be completely outting (not sure anyone else does the weird collection of odd stuff I do) and I have a horrid feeling at least one colleague will be on here.

Ditto! <fist bump> wouldn't go back, so wonderful to free of all that shit

Am in local govt and I find the drive to time record and constant pressure is worse than when I was in private practice. Seriously considering going back

I hadn't appreciated some LAs did this. Do you recharge different departments then?

Yes if we had to time record anyway it would make the pay differential less acceptable.

We work incredibly hard , but there's no pressure to justify time spent on a file /non billable stuff etc.

Yep - recharged to different client depts. you’re called upon to justify below target figures every month and they are very stern about it

@XelaM do you find you feel secure enough financially in the freelance role (appreciate that's part of the trade off for greater earning potential)? And do you do other things to earn money as well, or just teaching?

You could look at in house work for organisations that have large property portfolios eg Crown Estates, some of the older Unis, the MOD, the Anglican Church, Forestry Commission?
Otherwise more general regulatory compliance work is a growth area. In particular environmental, social and governance (ESG) so any familiarity with environmental regs may bring opportunities.

I found it much more lucrative (and less stressful) to do it freelance than to be a full-time tutor.

If you are willing to cover classes/marking at short notice, you will be in daily demand. Plus, you have fixed classes that you teach each week even as a freelancer. If you teach 3 classes per day (6 hours work) you can make £450 per day, which is a decent daily rate for only 6 hours' work. However, if you work full time you just get £50K and are expected to work a full day plus you have to also do pastoral care, which honestly I found the most difficult to deal with.

BUT full disclosure, after 2 years of teaching I actually went back to private practice 🫣as I couldn't take the financial hit. I'm a single mum though and still paying for private school and my daughter's show jumping endeavours, so I just couldn't deal with the pay cut.

Thank you. I've already somewhat sacrificed earning potential for flexibility, and I've kept my outgoings fairly low - no private school etc, although mortgage will rise steeply at the end of the year 😫So I think feasible from that perspective.

It sounds like it's pretty flexible, which tbh would be my big driver in doing this alongside other work. And if freelance keeps me at a slight distance from that inevitable overspill of general other work dross that can fill up time then sounds a win-win!

@StuckSolicitor OP, how are you getting on? Has anything else come up?

I turned down a second interview for an in-house role this week as I didn’t get good vibes and the travel would have been a lot more than I was used to.

tonight I’ve had an email from a separate in house company wanting to meet me for a “final conversation” about a role I interviewed for last week.

trying not to get my hopes up but could this be my get out?!

Are you vaguely close to a big university? Enough to be in 1 day a week? Because professional services is decent pay and over the entire "department" which includes Estates and H&S we average less than 2 days/week in office. Quite a lot of senior management are hybrid - pretty w

Hi all, I just thought I’d update my thread to say thank you to you all for your advice and comments.

I’ve just accepted a consultancy role at a specialist firm which I’m really pleased about. I can choose what work I take on and when and can completely dictate my hours. So still a solicitor but not anywhere near as stuck!

Brilliant! Thank you for updating