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?

Not just AI taking up junior jobs. So many things (probate, POA, wills etc) have been made so people can do it themselves online if straightforward so only complex cases need a solicitor.

Big firms will use unqualified in-house legal teams with a qualified boss.
If you want a job so you can be home with the children work in a care home doing night shifts and weekends - hourly rate is low but increased by long hours and unsocial hours payments. Could reach your desired 50k

OP you haven't said what your prior work experience is.

I would say that any job that is client facing, which includes law - is not going to give you the flexibility you say you need for your DC, at least not at entry / junior level. Have you ever worked in a client facing environment?

Just echoing what others have said - it's a big risk that may not pay off. My friend left her well laid job to retrain in family law, in her forties. The workload took her by surprise (and this is someone highly intelligent and motivated who is used to working incredibly hard in her career). It exhausted her, and she couldn't find any trainee positions - they all went to younger candidates. She's now dropped out of it and admits she's burnt out. Of course everyone is different but that seems a cautionary tale.

Paid not laid!

The money will be decent but it's not flexible until you get quite senior. I think you're very naive if you think you can do any professional job without relying on "formal childcare".

Even if you're senior, a lot of time it's not the kind of job you can just forget about at 5pm whether you're full time or part time.

I know a few lawyers who have left the profession in their 30s and 40s or when they had primary school aged children as it's a difficult work life balance and not worth the money.

My neighbour has, family law, finishes at 3 usually to to pick up (he does drop off though) she has a few babysitters including grandparents in case she needs to work later, I’ve covered a couple of sick days for her when she had court.

Did any of the solicitors you know in Camp A walk into a £50k senior position in their 30's and just skip over all the years of wildly inflexible junior level grunt work? Because that seems to be what you're expecting to be able to do.

You've romanticised this career path somewhat.

Solicitor here with a young child. I do have colleagues who trained in their 30s and they are doing great. Age is not a problem to the law firms (it may be for you personally when you are being told to work late by a 25 year old associate who gives fuck all about family life).

Law is notoriously inflexible in the first 10 years or so. You're not leaving at 5pm, let alone doing any school runs. You are at the beck and call of clients 100% of the time.

Family law is horrible, I worked in it for 6 months. You are dealing with extremely upset and unreasonable people. How would you feel helping an emotionally abusive man using you to continue to badger their kids' mum. Or a psychotic woman using access to the child as a means to get revenge on the ex who cheated on her. Even the nice ones are horrible to their solicitor because they need someone to moan at.

No one uses a family law solicitor unless things have gone really bad.

On the thinking of another poster, don’t dismiss care, specifically special needs working age adult care. My friend runs a specialist service and the staff are treated very well, he’s flexible and on occasion carers can bring dc with them. Not £50k but not so far off with all paid training so no costs - he wants me to work for him and he’s disappointed (I don’t need to work tbh)

You need to do the SQE only. CILEX route uncertain given the recent Mazar ruling and better to qualify as a solicitor.

Its unlikely you’ll get the flexibility you want at a junior level.

I really wouldn't recommend this, it's a massive slog to get to the level where you can get flexible working (and by that I mean working four days a week). It took me until 12 years qualified, so 14 years in the professon. It's very competitive to get a training contract anywhere and for many years you will be junior and so at the demand of the seniors. That being said I'm a city lawyer working in finance so that may be colouring my judgement somewhat!

You actually can, and that's exactly what I did a few months ago with the SRA when I had my own paralegal experience accepted. This was experience gained abroad within an in-house role and more than a few years ago. I just needed a solicitor of England and Wales to confirm I had indeed completed said work. It's far more accessible than the TC, however the exams themselves still leave a lot to be desired with such a low pass-rate.

Generally in law, flexibility comes with seniority. I don't think you're going to be able to find a training contract where the hours are flexible. It's sadly just the reality of it. Also, courts generally have lots of 4pm deadlines so not ideal with drop offs. I would make sure you avoid anything to do with courts if you want flexibility. Conveyancing might be better but very dull and not well paid. If you're very smart you could go into something like tax or pensions that are academic without crazy deadlines, but when I say smart, I mean it. I couldn't hack it with my 2.1 from Oxford. There would be lots of routes with flexibility if you were a qualified lawyer with years of experience.

Consider training in Wills and probate. Look at STEP. No need to be a solicitor and much easier to set up on your own and work flexible hours.

I’ve got the unicorn job (well not job I work for myself) but I’ve been qualified since 1999. Concur with everyone else your plan is massively unrealistic. I actually left law for 7 years to be a sahm while my kids were pre school as it was utterly family unfriendly.

Worked for myself flexibly since youngest went to school. Earn more than DH who is a partner in a firm now, But I’m not representative.

It sounds like a supermarket job would be less stressful!

I’m a little bit older than you but also have two DC around your DC’s age. I have worked in law firms for almost my entire working life (currently SAHM as DP’s job is well paid and very demanding - he’s a lawyer) and I would not do it. Out of London (and assuming outside other major cities?), the salary isn’t going to be great and even if you do a GDL you are going to need a training contract which is likely to be very demanding in your time (and pay poorly).

Sorry OP, but better to dash your dreams now before you waste a lot of time and money. SQE isn't just about being academic, it is utterly brutal and gruelling beyond belief. My two trainees (one of whom is in her 40s retraining, but no kids) are, frankly, burnt out and they are both bright, extremely capable and have been paralegalling for years. They have zero life - they work, they study and they sleep. Weekdays and weekends. I'm now in house and you'll often find life far more flexible there as you don't have external clients, much litigation, and work can be more easily covered by/shared with colleagues. Not possible in private practice where you have your own cases and your clients cannot be expected to wait for you to get back into the office. Also for sheer emotional toll - Family Law, really?

I run a law firm. DH runs a different law firm. Both DC want to become lawyers and are at various stages in their training so I know a lot about qualifying as a solicitor (both in my day and now).

Do you have the fees to pay for two years of law school and then the SQE fees. It will come to circa £30k. You can only borrow £12k as a masters loan (and only some conversion courses make you eligible for the masters loan anyway). The rest you'll need to stump up yourself.

You will not be offering any real advantage in being older IMO. On the contrary you are likely to have far less flexibility. Are you able to relocate across to the other side of the country for a training contract or to attend the specific law school that your firm requires in the event that you manage to get a training contract? Is there even a law school close to you?

Not only are you competing against your own academic cohort but you are also facing competition from all of the applicants who have been trying for a couple of years to get a role unsuccessfully. Do you have top A level grades and a high 2.1 as a minimum in your degree. Many law firms won't accept applications from anyone with less than AAB (some won't accept applications from anyone with less than AAA).

Are you good at passing critical analysis tests and situation judgment tests (both of which are required to even get an interview for an internship at most firms). Often the process is tailored application, critical analysis exam, situation judgment exam, online interview, in person assessment centre, two week vacation scheme and then if you get through all of that you get an interview for a training contract. Its gruelling. Are you good at exams in general, SQE1 is a difficult and intensive exam sat on set dates each year and has a fairly low pass rate (under 50%). Many law firms won't allow SQE resits. If your firm does permit resits then you are paying an extra £3k every time you sit it and you can only sit it three times and then you are out for good. In that situation you will have wasted c£30k and will never qualify.

Are you able to start work early and leave work late with no notice? Are you able to spend nights away if necessary. There is absolutely no way that you are going to be able to do all school runs. It's just not feasible even when you're quite senior. You will need extra childcare help.

Personally I think you'd be crazy. Practically all firms are reducing the number of trainees they recruit due to the impact of AI on the profession. My old firm is a very well known international firm. In my old office (they have many offices worldwide) they generally take 12 trainees. This year they are taking 2.

I think anyone thinking about law needs to think very, very carefully. That's the case whether they are 18 or a mature student.

Some large banks, insurers etc offer schemes for women wanting to return to corporate work following a career break - I’d suggest you research this, as it could be a decent route in to well paid work.

I agree with the majority though about flexibility needing to be earned. You’ll also likely find that you’re being managed by parents of young children who are juggling and using wrap around care themselves. It can be quite jarring as a line manager when you’re managing somebody who wants flexibility so they can prioritise their partner’s job or picking up their DCs, when you yourself are using childcare and negotiating trade-offs to make two careers (your own and partners) work.

There are jobs that are flexible but being a solicitor is not one of them! People do work part time but typically that might be four days a week.

You can’t really expect to be finishing at 3 pm or even 5 pm when everyone else is doing a much longer day.

I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news but it is not the career you are after if you want flexibility. My husband works for a firm outside London (albeit a very successful one) an his hours are ridiculous. It’s hugely competitive and there are plenty of lawyers willing to give 12/15 hour days. On top of this I don’t know what you know about the new SQE exam framework but it is highly rigorous and very demanding to revise for. My husband did it as a full time student before we had children and granted he did very well but he worked all hours just to do the training.

I’ve got a fairly flexible job now as a non-fee earning lawyer (I’m not client-facing). When I say fairly flexible I mean that I work 4 days a week and can log off at 5 - not that I can jog off for school pick up every day with no wraparound childcare in place. I don’t personally know any solicitor - in-house or private practice - who can do that. They may exist but I don’t know them.

My role would be considered to be flexible by the vast majority of solicitors (although not flexible enough for you I think). But I did 11 years of absolutely brutal working hours first. The hours were particularly savage at the junior end but became more stressful as I got more senior. All nighters. Weekends. Holidays.

A common mistake people make on entering the profession, by the way, is to think that smaller firms or certain areas of law equal less stress and lower demands. That’s not necessarily the case by any means. Criminal lawyers, for example, are incredibly overworked and underpaid. Family law can also be beyond stressful.

Law is also being hit hard by AI especially at the junior end - it’s not a career path to be considering right now unless you are very bright and very committed.

I not a solicitor but I work in the property department in a solicitors and it’s pretty miserable and I get the impression they’re all somewhat similar. Many of my solicitor and paralegal colleagues are working until 10pm or in bed doing work, and generally just working whenever they can.