To look for a new job (lawyer)

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I am 45 years old and have 15 years of experience practising law in private practice, government, and in-house.

My feedback and appraisals are always great, but I still have the lowest possible job title for a lawyer in my organisation.

I was finally supposed to get a promotion a year ago, but they changed the global policy so that it's no longer possible to receive a promotion in role. The work I do is far beyond my title - I have personally led a project involving loads of direct engagement with a regulator, with stellar results.

There are no real opportunities for me in my organisation.

On the other hand, my manager is nice. Most of my colleagues are nice. I can now do the job fairly easily. I get to WFH most of the time and I have great flexibility to cart my 9 year old around to her activities. The pay is very decent.

I guess I am just worried about getting older and being in a dead end role. And I feel that I have let myself down by accepting these job titles that don't seem to fit my capabilities or level of responsibility.

Can you say a bit more about your specialism, current role, salary requirements?

I had the beginnings of a good career until I had my kids. I had to resign that post when I had my first and couldn't devote as much time to work as before. And I didn't want to. My kids were way more interesting.

I did some fairly crummy jobs for years because they fitted around my life and my children. You seem to have that flexibility in a job which has good pay and nice colleagues.

Be careful what you wish for.

@Birdist I am in an odd situation where I am only US qualified. I worked in magic circle, then doing enforcement with a UK regulator, and now I am with a huge bank advising on a very niche regulatory area.

Edit: I am the only person in EMEA doing my role and my manager basically just defers to me in these jurisdictions. The local team also just comes straight to me with any issues or questions.

I currently make around £100k.

@SpanThatWorld yeah, I am a bit worried that I would be shooting myself in the foot given that I seem to have a decent situation. It's about pride and preserving future options if I ever have to leave this place.

Can you get qualifications for UK? Sorry if I've misunderstood what you mean by US qualified. As a PP has said be careful what you wish for, wfh, flexibility with your daughter is what many people dream of.

Have you raised all this with your manager?

I left private practice around a decade ago and would find it very hard to go back to that way of living, especially with kids. I also think that private practice is especially hard at our age unless you're a partner or a PSL- it's not clear to me from your post that you'd be able to go straight in as a partner but you will know this better than me. Would PSL be of interest? Better pay than you currently have and reasonable work-life balance (although I suspect you'd need to give up the WFH- most firms are back to 4 days in the office now). Not much in the way of prospects but perhaps that would matter less if you were being sufficiently recognised.

Back to the regulator? Keep your good work/life balance and maybe better prospects but no pay rise I assume?

From one lawyer to another I'd say stick with it through the years you need to cart your kid around - it's never a dead-end role as long as you're still working, and the carting around years won't last much longer.

Your career is not like an escalator - it's more like a fire escape, with flat bits in between the "shooting up" bits. You're in a flat bit right now, and since the pay, flexibility and people are all fine, I honestly would stick with it while your kids are still needing you to be flexible.

When your DD is older, then you'll be able to make a decision to lean in if you want to and maybe taking the QLTT if it helps. I can imagine taking your in-house and regulatory enforcement experience into private practice, back to the regulator, or even into one of the big 4 that might have a relevant practice area. You could even look more widely and go and work for an organisation that sets policy in your area of expertise, or teaching.

I would keep the flexibility while your daughter is still young!

But is there any opportunity to do additional freelance work in your speciality on a part time basis? Could you look at starting to build a side-hustle consultancy business up which you could then fly with when your daughter has become more independent?

@Mayyouleave I am looking into it and will probably do it, but they have introduced a terrible
test that is similar to the bar exam that I had to pass in the US (the SQE). It will take several months of study and I am worried about spending thousands on the test only to fail.

I do think it would potentially open up a greater number of opportunities.

Stay while you need the lack of stress and flexibility. Give it 3 more years.

@Birdist I have raised it with my manager and he claims to be supportive, but there hasn't been much to show for it.

Unfortunately, with my pathetically low job title there is literally no chance I could go into a firm as partner. The title doesn't reflect my capability or responsibilities, but there's nothing I can do about that.

The regulator won't pay as much as I get now, but I sometimes toy with the idea of returning.

And PSL really isn't of interest, though I appreciate that it's a reasonable suggestion.

You have identified that there are limited opportunities available!

I think you could do a lot worse than your current job. It seems well enough paid with a lot of flexibility and automony.

Im pretty sure that a qualified and experienced lawyer would pass the SQE without too much trouble.

I would however stay put. What other job were you thinking of where you can walk straight in and earn six figures?

FWIW I don't think the qualification point is necessarily a barrier to anything. Plenty of lawyers working in good firms in London who are qualified in a different jurisdiction- they flag it in correspondence and presumably need to square everything with their firm's governance in terms of being supervised by someone qualified but it happens all the time.

Have you spoken to a rec con about other in-house roles?

If you're only US qualified you can't practice as a solicitor anywhere in the UK. I think your choices are to take the exams to qualify in E&W (or Scotland if you're based there) or to stay where you are on great money. If you decide to re-qualify many more doors may be open to you, but probably only if your skill and knowledge set is in demand.

I would have thought that if you have a unique specialism and are very experienced in that area then your job title shouldn't matter that much? If I were you I'd stick it out for a couple more years whilst you are still at the ferrying around stage, then if possible could you move into a more consultancy-style role where job title doesn't matter so much?