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.

I’m just leaving being a solicitor (not family but high street type). It was rewarding when I was in my 20s and 30s but these days I just find it very stressful, with so much bureaucracy and regulation, and you’re always afraid of making a career ending mistake. I was able to work flexibly as systems for wfh had vastly improved after Covid, but that still didn’t stop the 3am fears of things I hadn’t got done, especially with peri menopause and kids to balance. There are better ways to make money. None of my old law school friends are still solicitors and I won’t be recommending it to my kids!

I’ve been a solicitor for 25 years and I wouldn’t go into it now. The pay is worse than most people think outside the City, especially for the hours worked. The firms that pay well have huge expectations of their trainees. After-school clubs won’t even begin to cut it. I waited to TTC until my career was established and I could work more “flexibly” - ha ha. Still needed a FT nanny though.

And AI is a HUGE issue for lawyers, especially at the junior end. The firms I instruct have cut their trainee intake in response to AI, some by half - frankly, it drafts better than the average trainee. I admire your enthusiasm but studying law is not the answer here.

This - it honestly can take years to qualify.

Not to mention the actual pressures of the job if you manage to finally get there. It’s not easy by any means.

That said, I know someone early 50s who has managed to go through the process and qualify. Her children were young adults though.

You certainly wouldn’t be qualified by the time your child starts school!

Have you actually looked into the process? It’s really hard. It will take you even longer with a young child.

OP there’s some great advice here already so will try not to repeat it. If you’re really interested in law I would say you absolutely need to narrow down what area you are interested in and then get some work shadowing/work experience in that area. There’s everything from commercial law in big firms (broadly, well paid but long hours and little flexibility) to local and central Government law, to family (think divorces, wills etc.), criminal, employment…the list goes on and each area couldn’t be more different with different working environments. You really need to have a good idea about what the work will involve, working conditions, pay, before you embark on time-consuming and likely expensive training. What I would say is that being a solicitor can be really interesting, intellectually challenging and well-paid, but can also be “boring” to a lot of people (attention to detail is critical in most roles).

Depends what kind of law but honestly I can’t imagine balancing training/studying/qualifying with children and childcare. We have a couple of solicitor apprentices which is another route to qualification, but they still have pretty long days and study most spare hours.

Like most professions, if you’re highly paid you’re probably selling part of your soul or at least all of your spare time. Even if you’re not actually working it’s very difficult to switch off from your cases and the fear of getting things wrong.

If I could pick I’d open the bakery. At least there’s cake and friendly faces. 😊

My DH worked in a silver circle firm in London for 10 years.

There is no way he could have done it as a single parent. I was a SAHM to manage everything else. He only saw our kids on the weekends.

He left home between 6/7 am and if he was home before 9pm it was a surprise. It was not exceptional to get in at midnight, shower, bed and up again at 6 to go back. As a genuine example, he was told to keep an eye on his emails and make sure he was available to respond when I was induced with our second child.

The stress was incredible. The money was great…. But it didn’t make it worth it long term. He got out.

Change career by all means (I did at 50) - but a solicitor!!??

@ThatShyRoseViper have you considered becoming a legal auditor? It would doubtless mean a pay cut for you but there’s very little stress.

I’m a solicitor 25 years PQE. 20 years private practice now local government.
Local govt legal offers flexibility, my team are mainly wfh and do have flexibility eg school runs. I also don’t bill in 6 min units. The pay is dire, the salary quoted above for NQ is more than very senior lawyers on. My teen at McDonalds was on more than they pay the paralegals. So there’s a massive recruitment annd retention issue.

I'm a solicitor in a now senior position, although not working in the UK.

It took me years to qualify and my pay is fine now, but certainly not big money - £80k pa at 25years PQE.

I like my work and have a good work/life balance but wouldn't want to be working in the UK. It was bad 25 years ago and doesn't sound like it has improved

A specialist paralegal can definitely earn on a par with an NQ but it takes time. Better to earn while you go though in your posi. And I think you are looking at big city solicitors who pay competitively putting up the average.

Are you not giving pay increases to your paralegals? Are they not contributing to your business success?

The below fits my experience of the industry.

https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Salaries/nq-solicitor-salary-SRCHKO0,12.htm

Meant to quote above.

Don’t do it OP. I can’t think of any area apart from possibly Private Client that might be compatible with being a single parent.

I’ve been a solicitor for 35 years, so consider myself to be pretty fluent in legal salaries and differentials.

Average NQ salaries in London are £100k+ (the magic circle and US firms can go up to £180k+). There are no paralegals on anything like that.

Given that a paralegal cannot do any of the regulated work and all their work needs to be supervised by a qualified lawyer, no I do not give them the same pay increments as qualified lawyers, whose salary increases by numbers of years qualified as well as COL. Again, that’s completely normal and industry standard.

Law is not a family friendly career. It’s extremely difficult to get a position and to keep a well paid job invariably involves very long hours. What about something like teaching?

I agree. AI will give you an answer, but only a human can tell you if it’s right.

I second doing an OU degree. The OU is well recognised and generally well thought of by employers.
Have a look at their website, and choose a broad-based degree in an area that interests you.
The advantage of OU is that (to a certain extent) you can mix-and-match modules, tailoring your degree as you go, so it is not as narrow as many traditional career-based degrees.
And of course you can do it flexibly from home while you work.

Be very wary of going into any of the 'traditional' professions: law, accountancy, nursing, teaching, veterinary, etc., because they are such clear and obvious well-defined roles there is a lot of competition, long hours, high expectations of going the extra mile, etc. that are incompatible with being a single parent

Instead, go for a "career" where you don't have a defined path, instead find your own way, and be prepared to job hop over the years.
Perhaps to start out look for something in local government, civil service, NHS admin, HR admin, Finance admin, or go into IT support if you have an affinity for computers.
Look at job boards for any large local companies offering junior 'admin' roles, or any 'training' or apprenticeship role, then work your way up from the inside. Eventually you can end up as a manager.

The way the AI contract review tools work currently is that they can scan and summarise a contract against your preferred positions in seconds and generate a risk report which highlights the clauses which deviate from this and suggested alternative wording. They can do in 5 mins what an experienced lawyer might take 5 hours to do.

So whilst there does still need to be human oversight and input with the existing AI capabilities, a lawyer can be 4 or 5 times as productive as previously, meaning there is a need for fewer lawyers to be employed. And the capability is improving all the time. Hence why many of the bigger law firms are already reducing headcount and offering fewer training contracts.

AI in a nutshell.

Well, that’s not the type of law I did. The job is as much about managing people, teasing out the facts, applying the law to those facts and getting the people to understand it. None of that can be done by AI.

No, no, no, no, no.
Do NOT go into teaching, unless you absolutely adore rude children and abusive bullying management.
And want to spend 50-60 hours a week, including "school holidays", working.

What about a food tech course or something if you have experience working in a kitchen?
You can do all sorts of food related degrees and there's everything from intense marketing/buying careers or food safety advising. Very flexible and broad scope.

Out of interest, are you London based? I think it's like another planet when comparing career progression and salaries...

If your experience is kitchen and bakery would something like environmental health appeal. Would have legal aspects but also use your prior knowledge.
My friend was a unit catering manager for schools - lots of paperwork not much cooking. Was school hours and most hols off. Opportunities to progress into team management.

IF stress/hours are a factor (sounds like they might be?) then I'd recommend against being a lawyer. Many of us work very hard and long hours. My job isn't a 9-5 kind of job and would be extremely hard if I was a single parent (my partner takes care of our kids most of the time).