Lawyer wanting to retrain

[Herewegoagain84]

Hello - I’m wondering if anyone has advice for careers after law. I have been a solicitor in the city for almost 10 years, and frankly I’ve had enough. On top of that, I’ve got a child with a long term medical condition that just isn’t conducive with the job (regular unplanned hospital visits / childcare issues due to specialist care needed etc / general emotional toll etc). I’m sick of drifting and want to start again. I could perhaps retrain entirely but I’m also thinking about what jobs are out there that I have transferable skills for already? Not sure where to start - any advice welcome!

No advice, just to offer an understanding.

I always thought I would go back to my corporate career (not law) after I had my son, but he had complex needs so anything more than a few days low responsibility is not really practical. Instead I’m hoping to satisfy myself with a MA (in an unrelated field to work) and then possibly in the future look to teach in a FE college.

I think your skills probably transfer more than you think: even without further training you would probably find roles in like local government/civil service (especially things like procurement and energy). Some of these roles are flexible or part time, and offer stability. I work in local government and we have employed a Planning Officer, Environmental Officer, and an Architect, who all retrained as adults from other jobs (2 accountants and a teacher I believe). I also spoke to an ecologist a few months ago who had previously been a bank manager but went back to Uni to study ecology in their 50s.

@LittleMissPreppy thank you for your message and understanding - very helpful!

The one thing you don’t mention is what you would like to do. What are you drawn to? Do you have any artistic / creative / entrepreneurial leanings? Or do you just want uncomplicated steady employment? Do you need to earn at least as much as in your current profession?

I imagine if you re-did all the personality tests you probably took 12/15 years ago you’d find you’ve changed a lot. Is it worth doing them again just as a prompt for further thought?

Could you do locum work, or work as an independent consultant in your field? Offer training to others perhaps in your area of expertise, contact unis to do training days?