Need to find another job paying £50k a year

[Griselt]

I'm a personal injury solicitor. Due to various changes many of us are losing our jobs - I am safe for the moment but realistically I have 12-18 months max left. Our firm only offers min statutory redundancy which obviously won't go far. So I need to find an alternative asap.

To support my family I need to earn £50k. I've done the same area of law for nearly 20 years so agencies have already told me there is no chance of being hired in another legal specialist (which is what I expected). They have suggested other jobs in personal injury but the field is collapsing and another job doing the same is surely just delaying the inevitable.

Agencies don't seem to consider my skills are transferable. In my current role I also do a lot of training (write and deliver my own material), circulate updates on latest legal developments, and I led on all our GDPR work so I've got some involvement and interest in compliance, risk etc.

But I'm really struggling. Agencies just see 'injury lawyer' and pigeon hole me. I've looked into govt legal service but I believe they tend to recruit people less qualified than me.

Any ideas for other roles I can pursue? I actually don't mind what I do, it just needs to earn me at least £50k a year...AIBU to think that's achievable?

Not sure the pay structure but what about NHS? A lot of Trusts have their own in house legal teams and am sure between the personal injury and GDPR your skills would be ideal

Police? If you've done GDPR this is massive within forces. Police hold shit loads of data, way more than NHS, and it is a seriously complicated field. I've seen several ads for in house legal. I have a feeling the pay might be a bit crap compared to private though.

Have you savings? Could you afford to take a slightly lower position in a different field and work your way back up?

It's good that you're taking a proactive stance, but have you also double checked your though processes about having to earn 50k in a new career right off the bat? Are there options for a mortgage break, living off savings, etc, while you retrain? Hopefully you'll find something you can move straight into, but it's worth weighing up what the plan b would be. Is 50k genuinely the minimum you can afford and not have your house repossessed, or is there some short term wiggle room?

Compliance Officers/Managers - most of theses seem to have a law background and in finance/insurance are paid very well. Good overlap with privacy/GDPR and sometimes combined.
Over next 1.5 year, volunteer for every compliance type project in your organisation (offer to project manage), start industry networking/join associations/attend conferences/subscribe to relevant journals. Reach out to new (and old) contacts for advice, guidance and mentorship. All this is much easier to do when employed (you’d think more time would be better....but doesn’t seem to work that way).
You have some notice- use it well.

Commercial litigator here. I have to say that I can’t see my team hiring a personal injury lawyer - no matter how unfair, the perception is that it’s not real litigation. Whereabouts in the country are you located and what sort of firm are you working for now? Is it a BLM/Keoghs/Kennedys type or much smaller? You might consider going to a smaller regional firm who might be more open to to taking you on without direct experience. Alternatively PSL roles or practice management/BD roles? I know lots of ex practitioners who go into those.

OP whereabouts are you based?

If in London, once the FCA begins to regulate CMCs there will be a change in supervisory processes which could create a need jobs either in-house at CMCs or even at the regulator itself

Your compliance experience will come in handy for supervisory work - not just CMCs but think about the SRA, Law Soc, in house at a financial services company?

I know someone who got out a few years ago. She moved into private client. In your place I would either try to move into a more managerial role or gain additional qualifications to move into a different area of law.

GDPR projects will continue long after 25 May 2018. Can you reshape your CV to highlight some of these additional skills and experience you've gained then use portals like CW jobs Indeed.com etc and cut through some of the crap these agencies come out with. You have great skills but it's lazy thinking on their part to not bother going beyond the immediate and giving you some options.

Meanwhile could you do any conversion training to turn your legal expertise to a different field. How about employment law?

Try reading the posts @guavaf1sh

She works for the insurers defending against spurious claims.

There’s always someone who takes pleasure in being unpleasant.

If you're on LinkedIn, why not write a piece about how GDPR applies in law firms, or something similar? If you're not, then join LinkedIn and write something about (etc)? Big up the regulatory and management parts of your CV. Many law firms seem to be hiring middle and back office staff at the moment - three colleagues in the last year have left my (big 4) employer to join law firms as ops managers, change programme managers, etc. Good luck!

Hopefully Guava has gone off with a after failing to RTFT

medical malpractice is a rapidly expanding field; look at organisations tht provide defence for practitioners (doctors, nurses, midwives, optometrists, physios, dentists etc) - or their regulatory bodies. Your experience should be relevant

Maybe a good idea to post a statement of affairs on moneysaving expert to get advice on how to live on less than £50k. This would take some of the pressure off you to find something at that level straight away. They're good at coming up with options you might not have thought of.

I think you need to take a long hard look at how you present your CV. I agree I would skip agencies who are largely unable to cope with sector moves and apply off your own back.

Once your CV is as good as you can get it you should post it on Linked-in where people will be searching for the term GDPR. Also keep an active search on Linked-in jobs.

You are looking at this wrong ie in terms of your past not your future and what you have to offer. You need to be much more positive.

GPR is red hot at the moment and I definitely suggest you focus on that. Start your CV with something like "GDPR lawyer practitioner with experience leading move to GDPR compliance" and write it from that point of view.

All your transferable skills in leading teams, self starting, high level of organisation, project management, client facing skills etc are what people will want and will focus on.

Drop in that you were based in the litigation department and they will like that even more as everyone is scared of being sued/enforcement action.

Step back hugely on your PI experience. if you need to talk about it at interview then say you began in PI and have increasingly moved into management roles and having been through the GDPR experience leading it for your firm you want to refocus in this area. Keep emphasising that you have done this for real and for a law firm no less, who can't afford to get it wrong.

Most people are coming into it from some other area so you are not alone in this, but what you have to sell is that you have done this for real.

Put in what you did (either in your cover letter or your CV) eg experience in identifying and classifying information held, drafting/approving contacts with clients, managing returns, identifying discrepancies and how you dealt with those. You want people to look at it and think, this person really knows the detail.

I guarantee someone will eat your arm off. Don't underestimate either how many law firms need GDPR support so keep an eye out in the legal press too.

Am I the only one who is really pleased that this field is collapsing? I hate the UK's recently adoption of a litigious culture like the US where people think they can blame and claim for anything and everything.

This isn't meant to sound like a dig and I hope you manage to get something else lined up.

I am a lawyer in a FTSE 100. Agree GDPR / privacy is a big opportunity, loads more jobs in the market than people with deep experience. Also agree re general compliance, loads of jobs in this field and they pay what you need. Where are you in the country?

Recruiters are often lazy and cba if there isn’t something obvious to do with you, don’t let them grind you down

Exactly what Trilogy said. People are setting themselves up as GDPR experts with far less experience than you have. You could easily get contracting work at a far higher rate.

Trilogy’s advice is good and would work for an in house move too

How about health and safety inspector/advisor? You’d have to drop salary for a couple of years but £50k is doable.

I'm a H&S Inspector, on £37k. Civil service rules mean I won't see a payrise for many years, so don't bank on earning top dollar in this job.

Haven't read the whole thread so apologies if this has been suggested but could you go in-house? All big firms have legal departments and compliance departments. In my firm senior legal and compliance roles earn from 50k to 80k.

I'd not mention personal injury on your CV if you can get away with it, as people have a negative knee-jerk reaction to it (as you have seen from this thread!)

Ask around! the more senior you get in your career, the more likely you are to obtain a job through networking rather than responding to job ads.

You're much more likely to get headhunted with a good linkedin profile with searchable keywords so update that and be active on it - post articles etc.

BC

Have you tried speaking to the SBA? I don't know a huge amount about them, but I believe that part of their remit is to help solicitors retrain in other areas (both within the law and outside it). They can also help financially, if you need it and fall within their earnings requirements (not as straightforward as a simple financial cut-off - they take into account where you live and your family make-up too). May be worth investigating. www.sba.org.uk/

Don’t rule out clinical negligence defence OP - I transferred to NHS in-house after about ten years doing a mix of plaintiff work/defence work in employers liability and motor insurance, I had no clinical negligence experience at all but your defence skills are transferable. But I agree with others that GDPR is a fantastic selling point for you and I would probably focus on a job in that area as that type of knowledge and experience is currently in demand. Good luck

@Wobbleheady

How malicious of you. There are thousands of people working in this industry and will all be out of a job.

Op have you got any experience that might translate into fraud work?

I have sent you a private message op.