To re-train as a solicitor?

[FithColumnist]

At the moment I'm a teacher, and I'm looking at alternative career options as I desperately want to get out. I was wondering about soliciting...

I graduated with a first in Modern Languages, and would be looking at doing a conversion course like a CPE or GDL. Has anyone done anything similar? I'd love to hear your experiences and stories if so- one thing that's preying on my mind is that I'm 34. Is that too old to be changing careers in this way?

An ex-boyfriend of mine has gone the other way - he had an engineering degree and worked in industry for many years. He has retrained as a teacher of physics.

Here is the Solicitors Regulation Authority's consultation page on the new qualification scheme:

www.sra.org.uk/sra/consultations/new-regulations.page#heading_toc_j_0

Friend of mine was CILEX and retrained to be a teacher. Regrets it deeply.

Virtually impossible to get a training contract for most who do law degrees or conversion courses. At a large local authority I do lots of work with all the legal assistants (on poor pay) all have good law degrees and have applied hard for training contracts with no joy. As an aside the days of the civil serice and LAs offering training contracts are long gone too.

I started retraining as an accountant when I was 36. I still have some way to go and my earnings are still below what they were but it’s the best thing I ever did. I can’t comment on being a lawyer but taking a backwards step to train in something you’ll love is something I can recommend.

I am a solicitor , but wouldn’t advise any of my dcs to enter the profession.
Law is definitely not the same profession it was when I qualified. One of the reasons is that there are more institutions doing CPE/GDL and the LPC/BVC. This means that there are more outstanding graduates and thus firms can pick and choose.
Areas such as Employment Law are gradually being taken over by consultants ( in fact I know a few lEmployment Lawyers who have set up their own consultancies)
The pay is not that brilliant , despite public perception.
I know many lawyers who are looking for a way out of the profession.
If you have a passion for law, then go ahead.
I just think one should think carefully before embarking on a legal career at present

Yes I should say the paralegals working with us are highly qualified, very bright individuals. Far brighter than I am. I got a training contract with a city firm 20 years ago, they should be doing much better than they are, but there is simply too much competition.

You might have some success in a niche area like education law, but...

Don't think of pound signs, either. Some City lawyers earn a huge amount of money, most lawyers do not.

I wouldnt unless you can survive on no pay for two years whilst training, then you have to be lucky to get a training contract and you start on 16 k and unless you in london in one of the big firms you earn more as a teacher. My dh regrets doing it. Everyone is leaving at the moment in his firm.

OP _ the reality is that you won’t get a training contract, unless you are absolutely outstanding (and probably not even then)

I think the first thing to consider is the sort of law that you want to do- the life of a high street solicitor (in terms of hours, working practices, type of work, pay etc) is so different from the City that they are effectively completely different jobs.

If what you are looking for is work/life balance, I would not even consider the City. I did this for many years and my husband is a partner in a big City firm- the reality is that very long hours are not uncommon (midnight or later, occasional all-nighters) and the amount of pressure is huge. My husband manages his own work entirely but is almost never home before 9pm and is regularly on his phone dealing with work matters all evening. The situation is often harder when you're junior. In house is generally better (depending on where you work- in house in a bank is a very different prospect from in house in a charity, say), but you're likely to need a number of years' PQE under your belt before you can consider this kind of move. You also need to be realistic about your chances of getting a TC- bear in mind that law schools take on far, far more students than will ever become lawyers. And bear in mind that most firms are taking a cautious approach to recruitment at the moment due to worries about the Brexit downturn.

High street is generally better in terms of hours but not easy to get into, simply because there are fewer TCs.

In short, unless you have a burning desire to be a lawyer for its own sake, I'd think very hard before doing this- it's high cost, risky and likely to be at least as much work as teaching and possibly much more.

Do you have any contacts? It would be worth getting in touch with them, if so. Also maybe worth thinking about the GLS- not something I know a huge amount about though and suspect it is v competitive to get in as a trainee.

Sorry to be so negative.

Maybe teaching isnt all that bad ! I have people where i work seemingly desperate to get out and i look and think,,,why? Frying pan>fire... Often the issue is really in our heads or in other parts of our lives and we focus on work as the cause because we cant or won't identify the real cause... Just focus on enjoying and becoming a better teacher. Think of the money :)

I really regret it. I'm on extended maternity leave and am looking at retraining. I'd stay where you are!

I wouldn't. I did the big city thing to the age of 35, paid my dues and now I'm at a regional commercial practice where I get to leave at 5.30pm. I'm paid well because of my city experience but it's still insanely hard with children.

It's not worth doing criminal or family or High Street. The money is shit and they recruit paralegals for dinner money.

Commercial law is insanely competitive. You can expect to be competing against 200 people with first class degrees from decent red brick universities for one or two jobs. As a trainee to maybe about 4-6 years PQE you can expect to work 12-14 hour days plus commute. Then, if you want any semblance of a life, you'll move to a smaller firm. By that point the hundreds of solicitors who are as equally burnt out as you will be competing for the same jobs with any kind of work life balance.

I booked my honeymoon in a destination where I knew there would be no phone signal (think private jungle safari) because clients had ruined my previous holidays. Incidentally one client called me on my wedding morning too.

At my old firm we had to bill 8 hours chargeable a day, 2 hours non chargeable and then if you wanted a bonus an extra 90 minutes a day on top. Obviously holidays you'd need to work extra across the year because your targets didn't reflect annual leave.

Enjoy teaching. If it hadn't meant a salary drop to go back to University I'd have seriously considered it when we left London.

Wanted to pop back as I felt I had been too purely negative. City law is great if:

• you find the law really interesting
• you find high stress to be buzzy and enlivening, rather than crushing
• you're happy to do long hours
• you can get into it

The pay is good, and can be great, and you get to use your brain and to work with clever people and be involved in matters that you'll see on the front page of the paper (well, business, section anyway).

So for the right person in the right situation, it can be great. But I really, really wouldn't go into in the expectation of work/life balance.

Another solicitor here that wouldn't recommend it - I work on the high street so my work life balance is better than most lawyers, but I still frequently work evenings/weekends. Some clients are lovely and make my day, some are genuinely nasty without reason and ruin it.

It's fiercely competitive to get a training contract and very expensive to do the GDL/LPC.

Salary is pretty rubbish too if I'm honest!

I did the GDL when I was 31 (part-time in the evenings as had a full time job) then Bar School full-time. But I already had a pupillage lined up (Government Legal Service) otherwise I would have struggled financially (GLS paid for Bar School) and already having the pupillage lined up gave me a strong sense of direction and an end point.

That was 10 years ago and I no longer work in the GLS (or GLD as it is now) but I am still in-house and have had two children since. In in-house is better for work life balance (I work 3 days a week with one from home). The pay isn't great but I do really interesting and challenging work.

Do you know what area of law you'd be interested in?

I'm in the first year of my law degree and I'm an aspiring solicitor and we've already had all the talks about how law is a cut throat sector and how there are not a lot of jobs for a hell of a lot of applicants. I'd think long and hard about whether you want to spend time doing a conversion course only to not be able to secure a training contract.

Also a lawyer here and although not U.K. qualified I worked as a foreign associate in a Magic Circle firm for a while. I am just going to echo what everyone else has said - yes it is doable, no it might not be the best idea. In-house is better for work/life balance but it is also highly competitive, especially as a junior.

If you have an interest in law and policy, maybe look up other career paths like lobbyist or policy analyst? Or, as a former teacher, maybe you would enjoy working in a firm that provides training on various subjects to their clients' teams? (E.g. "Data protection for digital marketing managers" types of training)

Some parts of Uk are desperate for solicitors. If you are prepared to relocate, you would certainly get employment in a high street firm.

In my experience the training is better than the reality ( my reality being high street). Fascinating training, very boring in practice after a few years. Overly conventional, quite stuffy profession which doesn't adapt to change quickly or well, but individually lots of great folk who are highly skilled and professional.

Money not great - most other professions earn more, in my experience.

I’m my experience - lots of applicants and not a lot of jobs. Horrible work life balance. I’ve worked in firms where the culture is better but in my current firm everyone is a martyr, works ridiculous hours (sending you stuff at 11 at night is surely just to prove a point), loves talking about how they never use any of their generous holiday allowance and the Monday chat is always about how they spent their weekend working.
Oh and billing targets are a total nightmare. I literally have nightmares about them.
There are 2 other women with children in my department and one of them was back in work 6 weeks after giving birth and one of them always tells the story that she was dictating pleadings while she was on the Labour ward. Not that there is anything wrong with either, should you be so inclined. But you get the picture.
People burn out constantly, and they often leave the profession entirely or don’t even have another job to go to (I picture some of them sat in a darkened room in the foetal position, rocking back and forth).
The pay isn’t even that good - no where near good enough to justify the sacrifices most people make.
I’m looking to leave the profession entirely within the next year or so...possibly to sit in a darkened room in the foetal position, rocking back and forth...

Interesting reading!

I think the OP is convinced!

Right. OK. Nope. To borrow a phrase from VladmirsPoutine, I have no intention of getting up from one pile of shit to sit on another. My current pile of shit stinks enough, thank you. Frankly, when someone says they envy a teacher's work-life balance, then it's definitely not going to be a goer.

Maybe alligator dentistry instead?

Oooh, or HR. I could so much do HR.

Sorry OP, as well as the fact that I'm a lawyer I'm also an employment lawyer. HR is flooded too, partly as someone said upthread because of the fact that employment lawyers are having to do HR work as well as pure legal work because the HR people are encroaching on the legal work.

Also an HR administrator will typically earn less than £20k. Is that what you want?

As others have said I would strongly recommend staying in teaching and finding a better way. Independent school? Far less to deal with in terms of behavioural issues, often no sats, more varied curriculum, even longer holidays..

The job market for lawyers - of just about any type - is dire. It's the reason why I have never used my Law degree.

It's one of the most oversubscribed fields there is.

I know the OP has now decided law isn't for her but I am confused about the comment upthread that some parts of the country are crying out for lawyers. I simply don't believe that is the case I'm afraid. There are law graduates desperate for training contracts and it has ever been the case that you have to relocate to wherever the Training Contract is. Its like medicine in that respect. I would like to know where this part of the country is which is crying out for lawyers since I know a number of excellent paralegals who would be up there (or down there) in a flash.

We are all scrabbling around trying to make money. Most firms are worried about recession and Brexit and laying people off. If there's a place of wonder where lawyers are sought after then it would be good to know where that is.