Ex-Lawyers - what do you now do?

[mynextchapter]

Name changed for this but long-term poster.

If you are an ex lawyer what do you now do for work? Or, if like me, you are considering leaving law, what would you ideally like to do for work instead?

I really don’t want to spend the next 20/30 years in a career that’s no longer serving me. I know so many of us feel the same so would love some inspiration from those who have made the brave leap….or brain storming of ideas with fellow lawyers looking to (or dreaming of) a different career path.

Healthcare assistant in a hospital 😂😂😂 Keep thinking I ought to go back to law but really can't muster the enthusiasm 🙄

@Bobsterbunnytrust your gut!!! 🤣🤣

An ex lawyer I know works as a teacher in his sons’ private school. Another one teaches law at A level at a school.

Public sector governance.

Oh come on, you know you miss billing targets!

Im a lawyer. Some of my colleagues who have left the profession have:

1. one retrained as a therapist and is now a life coach - focusing on lawyers
2. one teaches the lpc at the uni of law
3. stay at home mums
4. set up a yogo studio / yogo teacher (after mat leave)

could you move areas? Or in house (sorry I know that’s always the classic response)?

I moved in-house but finding it so dull I’m considering going back to pp - rose tinted specs tell me it was alright really?!

Had to do a Level 2 apprenticeship and Care Certificate which I found more difficult than the LPC 😂😂😂 I decided against going on to do a nursing degree. Money's dreadful and it's really hard work, nights make me question my life choices, but somehow it's quite enjoyable. They don't expect me to be a brain surgeon 😂

Would you be prepared to share a bit more info @VictoriaandAlbert? I’m still a lawyer but senior leadership role and interested to know what yours involves if you’re able to say any more?

@Iizzyb I supervise a small team that advises on the application of and updating of constitution and general policy across the broad range of the whole organisation as well as updating in line with developments. It is interesting work, not particularly well paid, ⅔ of my London salary from 15 years ago, plus of course the overly inflated (if you listen to general opinion) pension scheme .... which is probably the only reason I stay.

Level of responsibility/pressure as SLT feels as much as in my former career most of the time. I would love to move back into corporate if I am honest, not necessarily corporate law. I'm not a huge fan of the culture where I work, lots of doing as little as possible and/or using HR policy to absolute advantage at every possible turn from people who have worked there for decades and know how to play the system.

My family are full of ex lawyers including my partner. One works in recruitment, one did run a recruitment company which they’ve just shut down as their staff were doing their head in, my partner became an entrepreneur and ran a company for 10 years which he will never do again as having staff did his head in!! Another has become a health coach.

I was almost a lawyer but never finished the solicitors apprenticeship so technically not one. I worked in financial services compliance type role for a long time. I now work with children in a nursery and am assistant manager but PT only.

I left private practice and work 3 days a week for HMCTS as a magistrates' legal adviser. I enjoy it, but it's only just over £50k salary (for full time hours)

Plus a good pension ofc, but no longer final salary

Moved to work for an insurance company.

I loved my clients in private practice but hated the billing pressure - particularly difficult as we were a mainly Legal Aid firm, I am going back many many years as you might guess. Long hours, huge caseloads, poor management and terrible employment practices (yes, from solicitors - who'd have thought it 😀).

It was such a relief to leave, and wow what a shock in my new job, I had a desk where all the drawers had handles, and there weren't holes in the carpet! I could take lunch hours, and a week's holiday didn't mean working late for a fortnight beforehand to get everything up to date. Follow your heart, life is too short to spend working in a job you don't enjoy.

I moved in-house for a few years, then a few years teaching the LPC, then moved to France and was a stay at home mum for a bit, then was self-employed doing a mix of teaching/writing/proofreading, then retrained as an English teacher and now teach English in a French middle school.