Lawyer looking for career change..

[Tinykins]

Or even a sideways step. I live in a small town in a rural area, and there are no jobs for solicitors in my town (solicitors have been let go in both the firms) and in the neighbouring larger towns there is not much work going either.I really wold like to go back to work, and dont feel that just because I am trained to be a solicitor that that is all I can do. In fact I would quite enjoy a change. I dont want to retrain as something completely different, just to use my transferable skills in a different job..Can anyone help me figure out what that might be or have any suggestions?

I'm a solicitor in small town, working part time.

Maybe approach firms and see if any part time options - that may be more attractive to a firm rather than paying a full time salary.

Local authority legal department.

Look into teaching law at local college - studying law still seems over popular despite lack of training contracts.

What work did you specialise in?

DixieChick75 - Thanks, I think the local firms are a dead end at the moment so I may try the Local Auth or teaching thing. I specialised in Defence PI Litigation when I worked in the city, then when I got married and moved to small town, it was a little bit of everything. So, I feel quite underqualified to practise a lot of areas becuase I only got a small amount of experience in a short space of time before I left the workplace to become SAHM. The only area I feel I knew really well was the defence work and i loved that.

The career options near and around my town are fairly limited so not sure which way to go.

Legal publishing/writing, project management in something relevant, lawyer for police (friend of mine left private practice to do this and loved it). Good luck - sounds tricky! Look where in house lawyers might be needed - I nearly got a job with Ecotricity some time ago, for instance, with no real background in what the role involved (drafting contracts for sale and purchase of land for turbines - hmm ... not exactly inspiring!) Have you thought about buying a franchise for something that interests you? never done it myself but thought it could be an interesting venture - see workingmums.co.uk

im in exactly the same situation - i only want to return part time and there is such a shortage of jobs that having been out of the market for 3 years i dont think i stand a chance.

I have considered teaching or private tution but i have no teaching experience/qualifications.

Ive looked at CPS but they dont seem to have any vacancies.

if you want to chat
rachmcgrath @ virgin media . com

I'm Head of Legal in an LA, about to return part time. LAs are quite family friendly places to work (9-5 hours usually and flexible working policies) and we employ a considerable number of part time staff if you don't want to work full time. There is a shortage of LA trained lawyers so we frequently recruit from outside the sector. Good luck!

isthatporridge - do the LA's recruit directly through the departments or through agencies?

Directly (Gazette) usually although if we were looking for a locum I'd go to an agency if I couldn't find anyone that we had used before. Why don't you contact your LA and ask if you can shadow someone for a day? That might give you a foot in the door for any work that comes up?

Isthatporride Rachmac and Zoonose - Some good suggestions there, I shall look into those, thank you.