Lawyer resigning without a job to go to

[cpbp]

Greetings all!

I suppose I must be barking to contemplate this but I don't like my job anymore- am bored out of my brains and have had to put up with a lot of *p from my boss, especially over the last year.

I hate every day now- not enough work to do. Only upside- apart from the pay of course, are the lovely people I work with (boss excluded of course!)

I can't really bear the idea of continuing to work whilst looking for something else as each day is confidence sapping to a greater or lesser degree. We could manage finacially for up to 6 months without my salary.

Would I be dreadfully selfish/mad to resign now?

Anyone else in a similiar position?

Thanks very much.

Mrs bored, bored, bored!

who knows - depends on your age, employability, etc. i know several 40+ highly experienced lawyers who were made redundant in London a couple of years ago and are still looking for work. However if you are miserable it might be easier to boost your mood and find a new job if you leave your current one. Good luck either way.

I feel you pain cpbp (I must add I am not a lawyer though currently studying for LLM at the moment specialising in resources).

I am in Australia and work in the mining industry in a legalistic environment and hate my current job with a passion as there is a dearth of work to do and CEO is a nutjob. So desperate to quit but the only roles around at the moment are a step backwards, and the mortgage we have means that I just can't quit at the moment. On the upside no one seems to care about my lack of work and I spend my free time either looking at the interweb or doing research for assignments

If I had the funds I would quit tomorrow despite the 6 figure salary.

It's always easier to find work when you're in work, so your prospects of finding a new job are better if you stay.

Also, 6 months is not long at all. Obviously it partially depends on what type of law you do and where you are but lawyer positions fairly scarce generally as far as I know, in which case I would say leaving yourself only 6 months to find something when you do not have the extra help of being in a job already might be a problem, or might lead to you take a job you otherwise wouldn't.

If you can afford to leave then leave.

I have always done this and have never had a problem finding other jobs. More often than not people admire me for taking time out to reassess my path. It is also far easier to arrange interviews without the pressure of getting the time off work. You are also available to start immediately which gives you an advantage over many other candidates.

We are recruiting in some areas of law and some offices but not all. Is it your firm which is quiet or are you in a type of law affected by the recession?

Has your firm had redundancies? As an employer you do wonder why such a candidate was selected. As flowery has said, you're in a stronger position while you're still employed.

If you do just leave then I think you need a plan B in case there really are no jobs at all. LLM? Another child? So that in a few years time the departure can look like part of a considered career strategy.