To be a teacher who is now looking for a career as a barrister or a solicitor

[Amammai]

I’m posting from a point of the complete unknown.

Would a move from being a primary school teacher (18 years experience) to a solicitor or barrister be a completely ridiculous move?

An Instagram recruitment post from the CPS caught my eye and I’m now down a rabbit hole of research. Something about these roles has really caught my interest and I think this could be a potential career pathway for me.

There are many aspects of teaching I still love but after 18 years, I am questioning how much more I can give to the role.

So, has anyone trained as a solicitor or barrister at a ‘later point’ (I’m 40!) Would the move from teaching be doable? Am I kidding myself I could actually do it??

I am currently retraining at the grand old age of 48 after a 20 year career in a totally different field.

I have found my age to be nothing but an advantage. The recruiters were delighted to have an older person apply and my life experience is a huge benefit.

I am retraining with NHS talking therapies as a Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner. There are roles all over the country and you get fully paid for post graduate level training. The pay is terrible but I’ve wanted to retrain for so so so long and I really love it. There are lots of ex-teachers in my role! You can find the job vacancies on NHS jobs.

you are definitely not too old and it’s not too late!

I have worked as both a solicitor and a barrister. Both jobs are stressful with long hours. Litigation had absolutely insane hours. It is not glamorous in real life - there can be an enormous amount of very boring monotonous prep. Even KCs have told me that their hours are awful - working to the early hours or going to bed at midnight and starting at 6am and that includes weekends, statutory holidays etc The pressure for fees in firms is unrelenting and getting a position in chambers is tough. I trained in my early twenties and it was tough. My heart would sink at the thought of doing it at 40.

Do it!

I’ve just done it the opposite way to you! I’m 39 and I’ve just retrained as a teacher after working my entire career as a solicitor. Teaching is definitely more exhausting!! When I did my training contract there were so many “older” women and men graduating alongside me, and they all found work. You only regret what you don’t do, and all that. Good luck!

I don't know why posters are giving you shit for saying solicitor or barrister, the initial route is the same and many graduates don't have the full answers or change their mind at dome point in their course..are you telling me no promising medical student ever hesitated between 2 medical areas or roles? It's very common.
Also a solicitor can go on to be a barrister later. Op is researching, what do you think this thread is?!

Now, back to the main issue, I think you would be bonkers to pursue law let alone CPS. I know lawyers who gone into teaching to slow down but not the opposite.
At least volunteer or take a job in a crim law office before jumping ship.
Social work as a retrain would make more sense but that is so hard and frustrating field to be in so the lesser evil would be civil service.

I had a career change and retrained as a Vet. Best thing I ever did. My mix of skills from
doing vastly different careers has really helped shaped my second career. We work for many years and I think it’s good to switch it up. Can you speak to CPS recruitment maybe go in and see the job first hand?

Recommend all three of The Secret Barrister books, they give a good insight in to working in the criminal justice field.

I think you probably have the picture by now but just to add for most solicitors it's not a 'family friendly' career. You can make compromises once you're qualified & well established but well over 50% of the intake of trainee solicitors is women but as you move higher up it's predominantly male. Successful female parters will have husbands doing everything at home/for the kids.

I worked with someone who did law as a second career. She was super but she just couldn't get over the culture. Do chargeable client work all day, do lots of business development (networking, events, dinners) and also make sure you do all your ongoing training. Then as a junior it's up to your boss what work you get & you could get all the good stuff on high rates (easier to make target) or you could get other work which pays the firm less but on the same fees target.

A lot of it is about if your face fits/if you're someone senior's preferred person to work with.

Clients pay law firms a lot of money - who can blame them for expecting quick service plus litigation has deadlines which need to be met or there are huge implications for the client and the firm.

Also to add re the CPS I've worked with 2 people recently who moved from CPS and I wouldn't wish their experiences on my worst enemy. Both will need a lot of support for an ongoing period of time as they had awful workloads and just couldn't possibly get their work done in the time but more relevant is that both were just treated utterly horrendously.

Why don't you take some time to look at the bigger wider world of work rather than just looking at another traditional profession.

I retrained as a barrister and am in my first year of practice at 39.

As others have said, the problem is not the academics; they are time-consuming and potentially expensive (depending on scholarships), but are compatible with full-time jobs. The challenge is securing pupillage.

Being an older pupil has been challenging. I've had to juggle my caring responsibilities with the demands of training, but I don't think it's especially different from any other professional field. I have also found my chambers and supervisors to be extremely supportive. I think the Bar has been working hard to shake off its conservative image!

The biggest challenge has been adjusting to being the most junior and least competent person in any room. I was senior and respected in my previous career and it has come as quite an assault on my sense of self to start again in my middle age.

However, as a PP has said: there are 30 years of work ahead of us (if we're lucky) so plenty of time to make a change. I seem to be making it work...

It’s actually far easier to become a solicitor now IMO than when I started almost 20 years ago!

If you have a degree, you can go straight to SQE. You can do it in six months if you do it full time - but it’s notoriously brutal, and has a low pass rate (which statistically significantly declines after age 30).

You then don’t need a training contract now either - you just need to do two years of qualifying work, and that can be paralegal work so you are still earning. My friends firm shifted their business model so they now don’t offer training contracts - they hire paralegals, and if after six months they pass probation, their SQE is paid and they’re moved to a 4 days in, one day study contract (and paid the full 5 days per week).

I am currently trying to recruit a 0-4PQE lawyer, and the majority of CVs I see are from people who only really have six months experience in our specific field, and never had their own caseload in that time - they consider sitting in meetings relevant experience. Which it is, but not enough to justify their salary expectations of £60-£75k! So it does prove to me that it is relatively easy to qualify now.

https://www.sra.org.uk/become-solicitor/sqe/

You could also try taking a mock bar aptitude test to see if you are intelligent enough, but I’d probably have to say training as a barrister post 40 is not really likely to be a viable option for a wide range of reasons. Although I do know one person who managed it in her late 30s, who was an academic working in universities prior to that!

You very true. Dh is a lawyer and tbh he earn more in tesco until recently. He has two years working full time unpaid at the beginning....

Maybe change schools? Private schools? Teach abroad if feasible

I want to say go for it! I want the dream to become a reality. I really do.

My experience is I was still young at 40. Fit and vital. It really did start to go downhill at about 42/43. I got battered by significant health issues. And it was being at the top of the pay scale in teaching that has meant I have been able to keep working by going part time and still earning a decent wage. I am also able to coach and consult in my subject area.

By starting at the bottom you are compromising on some options you have got by being at the top of something.

@Quella gives good advice - if you think you want to do criminal law then read The Secret Barrister books as they give fantastic insight. Both solicitors and barristers doing criminal work work incredibly hard for incredibly poor pay. As a rough guide you may get about £45 for a procedural Crown Court hearing as a self employed barrister, plus travel expenses. That’s maybe 15 minutes to an hour actually in court, but not including the time it’s taken you to read the papers, chase down the missing paperwork, travel to court, wait to be called, be put off until the afternoon list…; you then pay your clerks, chambers and the tax man. And that rate hasn’t risen much, if at all, in over 20 years. Criminal justice is woefully underfunded and always has been, because who thinks they will need a functioning court system?

The CPS roles are not self-employed though so you get salary, holiday etc. There may be some support there for the vocational training, although it sounds like they are expecting you to turn up with the academic qualifications which as other posters have pointed out are expensive.

If you want to be there then do it, but go in with your eyes wide open - the system is poorly funded and creaking, held together by exploitation of the goodwill and professionalism of those who work in it.

It sounds like you could do with a change, I'd look into civil service jobs or LA jobs and see if anything takes your fancy though. Often you can work term time, there are education related roles in some departments or plenty of transferable skills you could use to a variety of jobs.

What subject is your degree in OP? You could look at training as a patent attorney (if science-based) or a trademark attorney (otherwise). A different area of law, but you can train on the job and the pay can be excellent after a few years at the right firm (~100k shortly after qualification).

Crime does not pay well

Good advice all round!!

My cousin retrained in his 30s (corporate law) and is doing extremely well. A friend qualified as a solicitor early 40s after working in the CPS for years. If it's CPS specifically you're interested in, you could look for a policy or generalist position while you convert, rather than teaching for some experience of the organisation.

Thank you! The first few years of teaching are so tough! I can vividly remember thinking I would never get through it.

Thank you, that is really useful to know. I think getting some sort of experience in the CPS might be a good first step.

My degree is in Primary Ed so I would probably need another qualification on top I am guessing. But these are two more areas I can look into and hadn’t thought about before so thank you for sharing.

Thanks, I have looked at this as a possibility before and have a colleague who made a successful leap from teaching to a civil servant role.

I was just about to say the same thing.
I am a solicitor but would not want any of my DCs to enter the legal profession .
When I qualified many years ago TC were easier to secure. Nowadays, it is difficult to secure a TC and they are generally badly paid
( with the exception of commercial/corporate law) Too many people are studying law as there are many private organisations running academic/ professional law courses.
The professional courses are very expensive which is something one should bear in mind.
The bar is even worse. Securing a pupillage is extremely difficult and even if you manage to qualify as a barrister it can be difficult to secure clients. Barristers are self employed and many do not earn well
Many lawyers have left the legal profession i
One should only enter the legal profession if one has a passion for law

Yabu

Not at all- I became a solicitor as a second career, and a lot of people I studied with were teachers who have gone onto have interesting careers in law now. I work for govt in the legal assistance sector (legal aid) and it's very common here for people to have come to law later- and have fantastic careers.

I started a fair bit younger than you- but studied and work with people who came to the law in their thirties, forties and even fifties. A lecturer of mine was a head teacher until she was 45 when she was admitted as a lawyer- she's now 65 having had a very interesting and successful 20 year career in law.

Personally I don't regret it for a second, I was a bit aimless and regretful before and now I love my work and find it fulfilling. A huge juggle with family- but who can say otherwise really!

In fact, I would suggest (previous civil servant retraining in something a bit bonkers), have a look at career paths in the CPS and government legal depts if you haven't already. It could be that there are some potential areas of interest or further study without needing to qualify. Sorry if that's come up, I haven't read all answers!

You are not being in the slightest bit unreasonable. I requalified as a barrister because I was dying of boredom in my previous career and it has been brilliant. Tough, but worthwhile and endlessly fascinating. (I don't do crime though).

In the CPS and in the Government Legal Department there is a lot of overlap between solicitors and barristers. In private practice, generally less so but it very much depends on the area of law.

You will need to do a law conversion. You can do this part time. Then solicitor qualifications or barrister qualifications - the sol quals can be gained while doing the work, but it takes longer.
Some of the schemes will pay your study fees (which are a lot) and the Inns of Court offer scholarships to prospective barristers. It is competitive - it took me three rounds of application to get a pupillage (one when I was on the law conversion, one on the Bar course, and one the following year).

I don't know how much the CPS pays but I do know that it and GLD try to be family friendly. With solicitors' firms it depends hugely on the firm and the area of law. As a barrister, I've found having a partner who takes equal responsibility and using nannies/nanny shares/mothers helps has made it much easier. With school age children, quite a few women I know work pretty much term time only but obviously that effects earnings and career development and with the better paid areas of law, where there is more paperwork and an emphasis on drafting etc, that isn't necessarily possible (because sols value continuity) but equally, paperwork is more manageable around children.