Corporate law jobs, compatible with a life

[CakeAndCoffee3pm]

I work in the City and have a toddler. I'm finding it horribly hard since having my son and I miss out on lots. I don't want a career change completely, but I don't want late nights anymore, anyone manage to find 9-5 jobs in London in corporate law? I

The in house jobs these days seem to come with long hours too. PSL jobs seem to need 15 years of experience. Any websites or recruiters that someone can recommend?

I looked at civil service but honestly the pay cut would be insane.

I don't want to be a SAHM but I do enjoy time with my son!!!

There re in house jobs with economic regulators that will pay more than the CS but nowhere near private practice. That work/life balance does come at a price.

In my experience, no, which is why I left. The 9-5, for the salary you want, just doesn’t exist. It pays as well as it does because it comes at a cost to work/life balance.

Possible if you move to being a PSL but otherwise not really. I was a corporate lawyer for 20 odd years (3 kids) then moved in house - hours generally better but stress levels still pretty high (and pay is much worse)

Unfortunately not. The world of work is designed to keep you from becoming a parent, let alone being a parent. Being a SAHM is virtually impossible for many now. The whole "I don't need a man" and "I don't want to be financially dependent on a man" comes at a price. The irony of both of those quotes being that you're still financially dependent on someone, ie your boss, which more often than not, is a man.

No. This job does not exist. Corporate law is up or out. It pays you so you turn up and do the hours. If you don’t want the hours then the job is not for you.

If the OP genuinely worked in corporate law she would know this and wouldn’t be asking randomers on Mumsnet for advice.

I work in a professional industry and Mumsnet is probably the very last place I would come to for advice specific to my career.

I'm asking here because 1) I've exhausted all advice I could get from people I know in real life and I thought maybe there's something I'm missing and 2) it's a helpful site for mums and this has been a problem since I became a mum. I genuinely don't know what to do. I've already left a US law firm for a UK one to get away from billing 2000+ hours about 4 years ago but it's still too much with a toddler.

Recruiters are all showing me jobs that will realistically require 50 hours a week at least.

You need a firm with a large corporate department so more colleagues to spread the load out. Also depends on your level. Make it to partner and horrific hours become less or if not less you can at least manage your own time so home for bedtime and log on against afterwards.

I know someone who became a PSL after 8 years. What’s your PQE?

Do you need to be in London? You could consider a move to a regional office of one of the big city firms maybe? The hours are still long but culture can be better and it's much more common to work a 4-day week (for example)

I moved from being a fee earner to a PSL at 15 years PQE but I know people who made the move with far fewer years of PQE. It’s worth exploring because I don’t earn much less than in my old job (but did have to move to a magic circle firm to achieve this). It is a genuinely 9-5 role though, so well worth a bit of a pay cut (to me anyway!).

Honestly, I've not found any legal jobs that go with having a toddler unless I wanna be a crap mum. The only people I know who do have a legal career and kids are in private client, have a stay at home husband or a nanny. I tried 4 firms after my daughter eas born and these weren't even London firms.

Regional firm (could move just outside London eg Guildford) - much better quality of life even in corporate but salary won’t stack up to London unfortunately

Local government law? The pay cut is the trade off for sensible and often flexible hours.

Sadly there’s no easy way. I managed to get a part time gig for a few years with first and second, but then some of the people who made it work for me left and the firm put the hours targets up, so it wasn’t really possible any more (I found the idea that I could only see my kids at either end of the day and make target if I logged on and worked late every working night quite bleak tbh). I took a break and i am currently a SAHM, so not sure what I will do when I go back in a year or so (I am rather loving being at home). Part time is great in some ways, but four days is never four days and three days makes it harder to achieve targets even pro rata because you still have to do the non billable stuff in your week. It’s a bummer. I’d go part time and have another child and mat leave if you want 2, then leave for CS or similar. Or go PSL now. Or try to find somewhere with a big legal department. Good luck!

Have you considered working in-house for a law firm? There are business services roles for lawyers (e.g. governance, business acceptance, risk, technology etc.) that offer a much better balance than fee earning. These roles are usually flexible on areas of specialism and prior experience.

I've known a few women who sucessfully switched to regulators/quangos/Civil Service in search of a better work life balance. One who did so recently had nothing like 15 years experience. Just hated the long hour culture and relentless pressure of an international law firm.

How senior are you? How good are you?
FlexLegal or Keystone might be options.

In house, definitely. Obviously not all in house roles are equal but generally the hours and expectations are quite different.

I have worked my way up in the civil service albeit not in the UK. I am good at my job and mostly manage a team and review their work. I wouldn't say it was 9-5 strictly but I have a lot of flexibility and can work at home several days a week. I am quite well paid for my specialist skills. I worked in another government body though and the amount of work was just endless snd stress-filled with people working all hours and not that well paid. So not all civil service jobs are equal. I started out with only about five years private practice experience.

Have you considered Governance, Risk & Assurance type roles, or CoSec in house type roles?

Have you considered going part time?

If you dropped to 3 days, your take home would be a lot more that 3/5 of your current salary (because of tax) and you would have 2 full days with your son.

Agree with pp - look at in house roles at city trade bodies such as UK Finance, the ABI, and representative orgs like TheCityUK or try legal teams at the big banks and FTSE 100 firms - they’re far more flexible nowadays and shorter days.

The only way you’re doing 9-5 as a lawyer is if you do resi conveyancing at a high street firm!!

Go in house. I used to work in private practice and they wanted blood. A much better life/ work environment. I’ve seen many female lawyers come back from mat leave expected to put their weekly chargeable hours into 3 or 4 days, good luck op!