AIBU to change career and retrain as a solicitor?

[Breathedeeper]

For context I am a single mum with a toddler in my late 30s.

I’ve spent the vast majority of my working life in kitchens and bakeries, but since the birth of my daughter I’ve been having doubts about this profession. 4am starts, or working lates, plus weekends, all on low pay - it’s looking like a crazy idea which suited a younger me but no longer makes sense.

Recently I had a meeting with the solicitor handling my divorce. While law is not something I ever considered as a career, it now seems like a better option for me. I think I would enjoy learning a new profession. I’ve some money squirrelled away which I could use to go back to uni.

I’d really appreciate some advice from lawyers, what are the pros and cons? My other option is to set up my own bakery, perhaps below a flat in which my daughter and I could live. I like this idea but it feels risky, and while I’d have a certain degree of control over when I needed to work, it would still involve long hours. It would feel like something that was my life, rather than a means of supporting my life. Which is not a bad thing, if it worked out.

Being a solicitor strikes me as a steady bet that would give me a regular, decent income, plus paid holidays, and once my daughter starts primary school the hours might work better. I envisage being able to drop her off at school, head into work, then there are after school clubs or her auntie could collect her. There must be a way to do it, how do other people juggle it? Is working from home a possibility in this career?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

What kind of area do you live in? Close to a big city?

A friend of mine in their mid 30s is currently doing a part time law degree (6 years) and then will have to find a law firm to take them on as a trainee, which I’m not sure how long that takes. I think they’re a bit mad.

You may want to browse the Mature Study and Retraining board, here:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/mature_students

I'm a solicitor and whilst I'm now well established in my career, it has been a long slog. In your position I'd pursue the bakery plan.

It’s very competitive. Beware of outdated advice, it’s recently changed how to qualify. New route to be a solicitor is to pass SQE1 and SQE2 exams plus 2 years qualifying work experience. Pass rates for SQE around 50% mark - SQE 1 is legal knowledge, SQE2 is skills based advocacy, interviewing etc.
You don’t actually need a law degree or law conversion to be a solicitor now but in reality most firms will insist on it and I can’t see how you can pass SQE1 without. Exam fees alone for SQE are £5000.
Some firms are recruiting via solicitor apprenticeships - so work and train on the job over 6 years but very few places and competition is fierce.

Do you have the necessary qualifications to be accepted on a course like this ?

Im a former barrister so slightly different. To train from scratch if you don't have a degree is three year undergraduate plus post graduate plus training contract. When you are senior you can achieve flexibility but most solicitors in the first few years work very long hours to get established and not on brilliant pay unless you're at a law magic circle firm working 18 hour days.

Can you afford to support yourself for potentially 4 years?

The other option is to look at degree apprenticeships which do a degree over longer with working alongside. I know someone who recently started one in law and has such great experience compared to her peers.

Good luck!

While law is not something I ever considered as a career, it now seems like a better option for me. I think I would enjoy learning a new profession.

Why do you think this? Because your solicitor impressed you, seemed confident, seemed happy? You say you would enjoy learning, but would you enjoy practicing? Would you enjoy being a trainee, will you be able to find a firm in your local area to take you on? I’ve always been under the impression that trainees work long hours.

I think it’s a massive leap to say you’ve never even considered law but now want to use your savings to become a solicitor while being a single parent. I also think the bakery idea is risky. People will often come to support a new local business but when they need to save their pennies for house deposit etc. things like a weekend trip to the bakery would be first to go.

I am very risk-averse personally and not motivated to take big chances, I would try get a public sector/civil service job that gave me flexibility to juggle childcare and parental responsibilities, and I’d make a few cakes etc. on the side to sell locally (birthdays, anniversaries etc.).

If you would be working while studying you'll probably need to be part time so as pp said that would 6 years and then you would have to do a diploma I think and then the traineeship so you would be looking at 10 years to become newly qualified and you would have to compete with other NQs for the job and you'd be earning crumbs for a more than full time work week until you could move up the ladder.

The firm I work at wouldn't discriminate on age but you would be expected to be available at odd hours as a trainee for networking events etc and being unable to attend these would reduce your chance of being kept on after training - a traineeship doesn't guarantee a job after. So it's little things like that you'll need to consider.

Have you considered a paralegal career? That can give you access to similar income to a newly qualified solicitor in a much shorter time frame. That will give you a taste of the legal profession while giving you skills you can transfer to other office jobs. Have a look for legal secretary jobs as an in. I'm sure your bakery job has some skills that could transfer to that.

Some unis (ex polys) have very low entry requirements for law, even offering foundation degrees. The providers offering the postgraduate courses will accept 2.2. They will happily take your money but chances of actually going on to qualify are slim.

I've just been reading in the news today that this is one of the first jobs that AI will "take" and law is not being recommended as a degree at the moment. Not trying to scaremonger, just sharing what I read in case it helps you make a decision.

My partner did the SQE when our first was very young. He was very lucky to get a paralegal position at the same time for a firm that he’d worked with in his previous, industry-adjacent role (he wanted to go into a specific area of law). He studied incredibly hard and passed and was offered a job. It’s worked for him but it was very hard with just one small baby. A woman in his office is doing the same thing. She has two small children and has just failed her exams so hasn’t been offered a position. It’s not to be undertaken lightly, if partner hadn’t passed he probably wouldn’t have had the funds or bandwidth to try again.

Why don't you train to do paralegal conveyancing not in the know but imagine much easier to train up in and get work.

I'd recommend completing a degree with the OU and the considering your options when this is done. I'm just finishing my degree - started when the children were small and now they don't need me around I'm applying for training opportunities that I wouldn't have even considered when they were small and needed me, but as I (in the next few months) have that degree, then doors and opportunities have opened.

I really… no. The amount of negotiation, fine print and face to face discussion that’s needed for my partner’s field means AI would not be appropriate at all. Perhaps for creating template documents or something but they already do that.

There will be many situations like your partner's where negotiation is necessary. However, surely there will be many others which involve consultations about questions that can be easily be answered by an AI model.
I can't see how job opportunities won't be reduced 🤷🏻‍♀️

BTW, I'm not fearful of AI at all and see it as a tool that helps most professionals become more productive. The future evolution of an industry is just something to keep in mind before embarking on a tough degree.

Blimey, @Whyx I don’t pay my paralegals anything like my NQ solicitors nor do I know anywhere who does! The NQs are probably on nearly double what the paralegals are and of course once qualified the salary goes up by more than the COL every year whereas the PL’s will stay roughly the same.

@Breathedeeper there are many many different types of law and whether you can work flexibly or from home depends on what area you choose to focus on. If you were doing conveyancing or private client there would be more flexibility. If you are doing criminal law you will have to be on call in evenings and weekends and will be mostly court or office based. Divorce work or any form of litigation will also be mostly court or office based. Corporate work/M and A etc will be very high pressured with long hours and unmovable deadlines and very unlikely to be fully WFH.

Local government legal is low paid but may be more open to none traditional backgrounds. Hard to recruit areas like childcare law, adult social care have paralegals on just over min wage but there may be opportunities to progress and be funded to train.

I'm an expert on nothing, but here's my take.

Where I live, bakeries and cafes are doing a roaring trade the last few years, and a few new ones have sprung up. There are far, far more people now in my area working from home than there were ten years ago, and I expect there is a connection. Also, there are a significant chunk of retired people with a high disposable income.

Also, have heard that others say there are far too many law graduates for the jobs available, and that AI will likely reduce need for workers more. I am also aware that a lot of these professional careers pay less in real terms than in decades past!

I am a writer (honestly, you wouldn't tell from the way I write posts) and am currently doing a proof-reading/editing course so I will be able edit my own work to save money. The colleges try to convince you that that you can still make money doing this work, but I suspect that the advances in software will make actually getting proof reading/editing gigs far more competitive than 10-15 years ago!

All the best

More on salaries. The published tables have paralegals on £20-40k outside London, trainee solicitors are on around £50k and NQs are £65-85k outside London.

AI is not where it currently needs to be to eliminate all human review but it is improving rapidly and there are fewer roles for juniors than there were and opportunities will continue to decline as the AI improves and more things are automated over time.

Cilex (legal executive) or licensed conveyancer are other options to explore.
Check local council for school attendance legal assistant roles - it’s admin grade that doesn’t require any legal qualifications but may lead to other opportunities.

As a solicitor, yes, it's a good career, but only now about 10 years in that I finally am starting to have some flexibility and steady hours (and I'm still working most evenings and weekends). The first 7-8 years as a trainee and then as an associate are very, very long hours and zero flexibility. Everything is client led. If client wants something at 5pm, you stay and do it. There is no walking out the door and doing it later.

It's also VERY hierarchical, which will be a challenge for someone older. You will have a 30 year old make you miss school runs and bedtime so you can spell check some documents.

Solicitor here. Started at 6am this morning, networking until 8pm tonight. I’ll probably work Sunday…and spend most of Saturday working out what I can retrain in or pivot to that will make me less miserable while still paying the mortgage.

Firms and clients want us to do more for less and all the while the SRA is breathing down our necks threatening horrific regulatory sanctions for the most minor breaches of the hundreds of rules and processes we have to follow. A bad year or two of billing could see you managed out through no fault of your own.

Everyone I know is looking for a way to get out or work less so they have some downtime to recuperate.

Get a nice, steady admin job, become a legal secretary if you must, but be realistic: being a solicitor is an absolute grind, to get there and even more so once you’re in the job.

They're very different paths although the bakery idea is clearly one that follows the skills you already have. Are they really your only 2 options?

I think if you're after a more family-friendly career, law is not it!

Working for yourself as a single parent with limited childcare support is hard, but you have the benefit of being able to do drop-off and pick up and no one threatening to fire you if your child is off school sick. But you need wherever your working base is to be close to your child's school as, if you have to spend an hour travelling back and forth, then you only get 4 working hours per day.

Personally, I'd look into retraining as a project manager or, if you have the skills, cybersecurity.

I've worked in a support role for 5 law firms. I'm now senior at what I do. I wouldn't be a solicitor for a million pounds. Certainly not for a law firm anyway. In-house is different.

The pressure to endlessly be developing business and bringing in work, but not being given the time to do so. The very long hours. The pressure to be so exacting in your client work. Recording your entire day in 6 minute increments. The threat of AI, which is replacing junior roles now, but who knows how long until more senior roles are impacted.

The pay is nothing to write home about, unless you work for a Magic Circle firm. I earn more than a salaried partner in my support role.

There are MUCH nicer ways to earn a living.