To consider retraining as a solicitor with young children?

[Retrainingideas]

Currently have 2 DC under 5. I’m a SAHM for now, but would like to go back to work once the children are a little older.

However, due to DH’s job, chances are that I’m always going to need to be fairly flexible in terms of WFH/school drop offs and pick ups etc. I wouldn’t want to be reliant on formal childcare and don’t have much help in terms of family locally.

I like the idea of family law (sorting out divorces etc) and also employment law. Are these particularly competitive areas? Likely to be fairly flexible/inflexible?

Are law firms open to taking on those only starting their careers mid 30s?

i’d be looking to work out of London, so not at any big city firms.

I’d also ideally be earning £50k+ and not working 5 days per week. Is this possible in this career? If not, any other areas of law I could look at that would be more flexible?

If you want a decent salary and more flexibility, you should look at procurement, project management, contract management. DH works in procurement (he’s a senior manager now and earns well), it is a lot more flexible and less competitive. He started out as an assistant procurement officer in DWP (salary was equivalent of about £26k full time now) he has progressed over the last 15 years and now works 4 days a week and earns £75k a year and has a lot of flexibility. He got his CIPS through work, I don’t think he could have worked part time to start with, but probably could have done after a year or so as it’s not a formal training contract like law.

I was/am considering this OP.
The main sticking points I have found are:
Qualifications cost substantial time and money to obtain.
Most lawyer / solicitor vacancies advertised (on Indeed, for example) are in-office, full time.
I’m older than you but have a young child and, like you, little flexibility currently in terms of before and after school (eg, drop offs and pick ups).

Don’t do it OP, as well as the workload while studying, which however smart you are, is still huge and intense (It was difficult to manage as a young single student), training contracts are extremely difficult to get. In my class at uni only a handful of people got them, and you’ll have no chance against a younger person who can work full time and has no family commitments. The older students in my class all had children that were teens or adults.

God no just don’t.

I’m a solicitor with a fairly “unicorn poo” role, I work entirely from home, have a lot of flexibility and have a high salary. But I’m in my late 40s and have been doing this for 20 years which is how (with a bit of luck & risk taking) I ended up here.

There are perhaps 2-3 other lawyers doing a similar role in my specialism, even though there are lots of lawyers practicing it (ie most have a traditional 3 days a week in the office, long hours kind of job).

Law, especially at the junior end, is inherently not flexible. It is also expensive to qualify unless you get a training contract with a firm
that will pay for it (and those firms will be the least flexible as your fellow trainees will
mostly be early 20s with no kids).

50K part time would take many years to achieve outside of London (and you may never get there). Stats here: https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/career-advice/becoming-a-solicitor/how-much-do-solicitors-earn#:~:text=Trainee%20solicitors,Associate%20solicitor%20%E2%80%93%20%C2%A365%2C000

Sorry OP but I wouldn’t recommend it.

Don't.
I was retraining as a solicitor when I had my daughter (now 3). I've worked in several law firms in south east and they are generally unwilling to let you work part time, dont give time off easily (partners get preference) and if you do get part time they want you there 8am-7pm. And the pay is just above minimum wage for a paralegal.
I stopped looking for a training contract after working at 4 different firms in the south east and realising unless I could compete with new graduates working 60hr weeks I wouldn't get anywhere.

If you're willing to put the work in, you may make partner in 5-10 years with earnings of above 45k. Junior lawyers in Sussex earn 30-35k. Paralegals 25-27k.

I should also add that when my DDs were young DH took a step back in his career to be there for them (drop off, pick up, tea times) as there was no way I could do it with the hours I was expected in the office.

I know some that work on a flexible basis.

There might also be paralegal positions that are a route in.

I’m sure it is competitive, though.

AI is sucking up junior inexperienced sols jobs

Your age isn’t a barrier at all, even for training contracts where it can be considered a bonus. Your family are sadly the problem. Those in a position to offer training contracts want 12-16 hour days regularly from their trainees for not much more than minimum wage. Having children and the inevitable emergencies won’t endear you to most law firms sadly. The type of firms who would accept the kinds of hours you need to work around your family are smaller firms and rarely have training contracts available. it’s not impossible but it will be extremely difficult if you can’t commit to the required hours in the early days

I am another one who would like to know where camp A trained/now work! I have some flexibility now, but I am 14 years qualified and have worked for the same firm throughout. And that flexibility means leaving at 5 to collect my children from wrap around, there is no way I could do school drop off and pick up every day and keep my job. And I work most evenings which is an absolute killer.

I cannot see how you could have the flexibility you want on a training contract.

I left law when had dc as although I was allowed to reduce hours (it’s easier to do this than start parttime) I was then constantly overlooked for promotion and any performance related pay as being parttime made me lack commitment apparently. As soon as I had children I had a job not a career.
Anything that requires court attendance requires travel to out of way courts, sitting round all day and very unpredictable - often having prepare at short notice. Family law also includes domestic violence so may be emergency applications.
You can go a paralegal / legal exec route without a degree which is much cheaper. Mediator is an option
Or complaints work eg at a council or civil service type job would be more flexible and the pay wouldn’t be vastly different than a junior solicitor in those fields and at least you would have a public sector pension.
Law firms generally don’t pay overtime and will overwork you.

I am a solicitor (no longer practising), as is my husband, his sister and her husband. i now work in a related field so meet a lot of law students/lawyers.

Your plan is very unrealistic for so many reasons. The academic part is the least of your worries - securing a training contract as an older woman wanting flexible hours to be home for your kids is wildly unrealistic. I meet young people who have been focused on legal careers since their early teens, building their ‘CV’ with extra curricular activities, willing to work all the hours. Also - AI. It is not a sensible move imo.

Hi OP, the route to qualification as a solicitor in England and Wales has been reformed in an attempt to become more accessible, so some of this advice up thread isn't entirely correct. For example, 2 years of paralegal experience is also accepted by the SRA in lieu of the impossibly hard to obtain training contract. Any degree or equivalent is also accepted so a post-conversion won't be necessary in your case. The new requirements are listed on the SRA website.

I'm actually in a similar boat and considering the qualification after taking a break to raise my young kids. I studied and work in law previously, but can't bring myself to start a prep course for the SQE exams. I did work in-house before; and there is a lot more flexibility/ freedom within your role so I know there is another brighter side to being a solicitor. But the idea of a career in law and that kind of commitment still intimidates me... Good luck with your choice!

I'm a commercial litigation solicitor at a fairly big but regional firm in the north. I do have the flexibility that you want and the wage but I have been at the same firm for 20 years since qualification. Trainees don't have flexibility because it's so competitive. I couldn't have done my job as a trainee or as an NQ with small children, school pick-up would be a dream. I can be flexible now because I have an assistant and support staff and obviously a lot of experience so I don't need supervision.

I think you would be mad to do it even if you weren't worried about the long hours, to do it thinking that you will be able to work around school is insane.

Sorry.

As a solicitor myself I have to assume this is a wind-up OP?

You want:

• Part time work
• To not use childcare at all for personal preference reasons, meaning you'll not be able to start work till 9:30am latest and leave by 2:50pm latest each day.
• Have school holidays off?!? If no childcare will be used?
• £50k+ salary

Even outside of law, which is - lets face it - not at all known to be a family friendly industry, you're looking for a unicorn job. I'm sure everyone wants to earn £50k+ for very part time hours.... but that very very very rarely exists especially for a junior to the industry with no prior experience.

I work in-house and mainly from home. Earn well. But still have to work FT, and only able to condense hours to collect kids myself from school once per week. If a deal needs to close that day, I have to try and find alternative pick up plans. I work long hours. I've been doing my job 15yrs+ and only have this amount of flex because I'm now a bit senior. This was not the case at all when I was junior, which typically requires FT, in office, long hours, and lower pay.

Life in law firms is even less flexible.
Most solicitors in region/high st law firms are not earning loads of money at all.

I'm struggling to think of a career that matches your aims less, OP. Long haul airline pilot or infantry squaddie maybe.

In your shoes I'd look at the civil service. They are very open to transferrable skills and genuinely committed to flexible working.

The (new) paralegal route to be accepted by SRA requires training level solicitor to sign off - so you can't just amalgamate previous paralegal roles.

I’m a solicitor with 25 years’ experience and tbh, what you’re looking for is pretty unrealistic.

Most firms have policies where someone has to be caring for your children if you’re WFH, you can’t have them milling around in the background.

If you want the flexibility to do school runs and work in the evenings, then as others have said, you need to put in a few years of hard slog in order to be able to do that.

Law is not family friendly. I have 2 DC and worked PT for years, but even then, evening and weekend working was involved on top of my contracted hours.

I’m now very senior and have the flexibility you’re describing, but it is dictated by workload, deadlines and clients’ needs. I regularly work over my contracted hours, as do lots of solicitor mums that I know.

There is a lot of pressure to hit chargeable time and billing targets. Lots of conveyancing firms still have targets of some description. Conveayancing is very stressful because you’ll have a really high caseload because that’s the only way the firm can make a profit with the fees that they charge.

In terms of salary, it will take you a few years to get to £50k if you’re working at a small practice. If you work for regional firms, it may be quicker but you’ll have to work hard to get there.

Also, training contracts have largely been replaced by the SQE, so look into that. We have a few trainees on the route to qualification that way. They started as paralegals and are now working and doing the SQE, which the firm is paying for. Their salaries are about half what you’re looking for. It will take them a few years to get up to £50k

The SQE means studying on top of working and by all
accounts, it is very intense, and the exams have less than a 50% pass rate.

These trainees are not long out of uni and don’t have the responsibilities that you do, and they’re finding it very tough.

I don’t want to piss on your parade, but law is the last profession I’d look at if I wanted something family friendly.

Sorry OP this is not for you at all. As surprisingly few people have pointed out above, AI is going to eat up thousands of law jobs. The path to qualification is long and expensive. Brilliant graduates are struggling to get jobs now being prepared to work all hours because recruiting is cutting back so much.

I have just successfully done this. The civil service is your friend.
I am an NQ solictor (and middle aged career changer).
I did my SQE, got a training contract in the civil service and gave been retained post qualifiction.
The work is fascinating, work life balance perfect and pay of over 50k (which will go up once I am over a year PQE) for a NQ in GLD.
I started studying for the SQE in October 23, my training contract once my SQE2 results were published and qualified 2 years later.

Oh and I do not live or work in London!

Two years of paralegal experience can get you to qualification, but you’re very much not on an even footing with NQs who have completed training contracts in the eyes of law firms and recruiters. There’s no guarantee you’ll find a solicitor role at that stage - it’s really just moving the bottleneck. The NQ market is terrible even for people who did training contracts.

Solicitor here. Agree with others that it’s very inflexible at the junior end. Not family friendly.

Also, choosing a subject area of law based on how flexible it might be is foolish - what if you end up being completely uninterested in that area yet are forced to work in it? Sounds dire.

I’m not identifying with your logic here op.

I have a 5 year old and a 2 year old. I work in an office (similar role to project management) and my company allows me flexible hours. I work 80% and i finish at 3pm so i am there every day for school pick up.