Career change to become a lawyer?

[lostinlife67]

I have changed my username for this post.

I am early 30s and seriously considering training to become a lawyer, specifically an employment lawyer.

I studied law at university so I have a qualifying law degree, but I never pursued it. However, after working in HR for a few years I’ve come to the conclusion that I really don’t enjoy HR but I do like the employment law aspect to it. Also, my earning potential will be a lot higher.

I am looking for some advice really on whether this is a feasible / sensible idea! I know that’s a very, very, very (!) wide and open question but perhaps you’re a lawyer, or you also had a career change, or you just feel a bit lost too and don’t know where your life is going! I’d appreciate any guidance, thank you!

Bump

I'm a lawyer. Plenty of people come into law after working in another job - it certainly isn't all fresh out of the box graduates. I think having experience in HR would give you a great start on the employment side. Do it!

I know someone who did something similar for the same reasons (pensions not HR in their case). The only downside was the massive salary reduction they took while training but, being single and with savings, they managed it. Do it.

I did the cpe then lpc. My advice would be gey yourself sponsored for a training contract and get them to pay for the lpc. It cost me so much money and I never found a training contract. If I could turn back time I wouldn't have bothered. I'm.sure there will be other ways to qualify now so I'd do some research

Look into training through Cilex instead.

Does your law degree still count? I thought qualifying law degrees expired after a certain period and then you’d have to do the conversion postgrad course, but that may have changed.

Do it! Things have changed these days and if you don't go down the normal route (degree, post-grad diploma if did non-law degree, LPC, training contract, qualification) you can always do the Solicitors' Qualifying Exam (SQE). I don't know much about it (I'm a solicitor and qualified the old-fashioned way) but there's loads of info out there.

Other option is CILEX but their regulatory body is in a bit of a mess at the moment and my CILEX qualified colleagues are always bitching about them...

Go for it, you'll be an asset to any firm if you're already working in HR in some form, despite being green re: qual time.

Training contracts are like hen's teeth and you have to do 4 seats - do some reading and have a think about what works for you. But it's not too late, is what I'm trying to say.

Due to the time that has elapsed since your law degree, You will now only be able to go down the SQE route. Some law firms offer an apprenticeship scheme whereby you work for them 4 days per week and have a study day to do the SQE online. The 4 days per week with the firm will count towards your qualifying work experience so that once you’ve passed all stages of the exam ( taken over the course of a year or less), you will be a qualified solicitor. This is especially useful if you know the area of law you want to qualify into as you don’t have to rotate between different departments.
The SQE is a mix of academic law and practical law and is all multiple choice.
Im sure with your experience you’d be a real asset to an employment firm so I would definitely recommend!

@SphincterSaysWhat ive been out of the loop for a while, but I’m interested, what is the problem with cilex and the regulator?

Cilex and Cilex Regulation are separate bodies (as far as I can tell!) and the former want to move away from the latter and are asking SRA to consider regulating them.

It's like turkeys voting for Christmas, if you ask me.

The disparity between this and a similar thread from a few days ago from someone wanting to retrain as a doctor!
makes me want to retrain as a lawyer!

I'm an employment lawyer and yes the money is good but the hours can be long and the work can be stressful. You're probably aware of the work being stressful having worked in HR - by stressful i mean having to manage emotive issues and often taking abuse from employees. As an employment lawyer the work is generally divided into three areas, 1) general HR advisory work so advising on grievances, disciplinaries, investigations, drafting settlement agreements, policy reviews and advising on the legal risks of wider HR projects - I suspect you'd be a real asset in this area 2) transactional support so advising on the employment law issues in respect of corporate transactions I.e TUPE, restructuring, redundancies etc 3) Employment Tribunal Litigation - requires a good working knowledge of unfair dismissal, discrimination claims, whistle blowing etc. Getting the opportunity to do some advocacy in the Tribunal.

Honestly when I completed my training contract I knew Employment was the department for me. I loved the diversity of the work. With your experience of HR you'd be a great addition to an Employment team - even better if you can maintain your HR contacts and turn them into clients if you plan on working in private practice😉.

My advice is go for it and good luck.

Hi @lostinlife67, just wondering if you decided to look into this further? I am also an HR professional thinking of becoming an employment lawyer. I've completed the LPC (many years ago...). Just wondering if you found any networking opportunities etc that have made this decision easier? Also, do you have a young family too? I'm slightly concerned about the challenges that come with this and negotiating a new career path.....

Edit to last post. You might be able to do the LPC this year but it’s the last year it’s running
Definitely do it!!