Is there life after law?

[mylittlemonkey]

I currently work for a national law firm but am increasingly getting fed up of the lack of work/ life balance and really cannot see this getting any better no matter which firm or area of law I work in. I am desperate to change the situation as i can see it having a real effect on my health. I have been looking for jobs outside the law but not really coming up with jobs that I would be suitable for without starting At the bottom of another career ladder which would mean a massive drop in salary. Whilst I would not mind starting again we will be paying 2 lots of nursery fees soon when DC number 2 comes along so despite being willing to restart another career I need to be able to afford to.

I would really love to hear from anyone who has moved out of law of into another career and how easy/ difficult they found this and did this mean a big salary drop?

It sounds like you aren't fed up with the LAW, but fed up with the demands of your current workplace. You undoubtedly have a lot of great skills you have built up over the years, and it would be a shame to completely throw all that out the window to start a new career if it isnt the law that you hate.

Is there any other way you can use your existing skills to perhaps service the law industry, or consult, etc.. If at all possible, perhaps you can go down to 3 days per week next year, and spend the other two building up your new business? Perhaps there is something that would make life at law firms better, easier, more efficient - and you can market this to them? Maybe even online from home - but if not, with some face to face thrown in?

I have never worked in law but I've come from a similarly demanding profession. I found it almost impossible with two children and can understand your problem entirely. I agree that you really need to work out if its the profession that you dislike or your working arrangements that are too much. Personally I felt that I did not have the strength of personality that having a responsible profession and a family requires, however I am sure that everyone goes through difficult times like this when it is hard to cope especially when your children are so young.

I had a break and considered changing careers and somehow I felt compelled to have another profession straight away but that was not really the right thing for me. Just recently I've got a part time flexible job that allows me to use my knowledge and experience but I have more of an office/behind the scences role rather than being in the front line of the profession. This is so perfect for me and has allowed me to be better paid and not go through any more training.

What I am trying to say is there are probably lots of options available to you to use your knowledge in law than you think. Starting a new career is quite hard and involves persuading others you are serious about it. You have a good degree and have lots of transferable skills and that is going to be attractive to any employer.

Thank you Sunny and Brilliant for your suggestions and comments.

I have had a number of moments in the past like this and every time I feel more strongly about giving up law. Since I have been back from my maternity leave with my DD I have been increasingly working more an more and am doing nearly half my contracted hours again in overtime that I do not get paid for and am doing either by getting in early or more often by taking work home in the evenings. This has caused me to fin it difficult to sleep and despite medication from he doctors I still have not had a good nights sleep for months.

sunny - I do think there is scope to try and review my current working conditions and get some help from others on my cases but I tend to find that this can often cause greater work as you end up having to check everything they do and worrying they are not doing it correctly and when I have left others to do work mistakes have happened and I then have to spend time correcting these. My firm would neve agree to a 3 day week.

Brilliant - I, like you, would probably find that a behind the scenes role would be better as I really take a lot of stress on my shoulders and find it really difficult to leave it at the work door and so holidays and weekends can often be full of thinking about work issues and even my husband says he sometimes will talk to me and find I don't even register what he says and he knows I am thinking about work.

I will definitely think about ways in which I can use my skills to try and Market them to firms on a self employed basis although I have to say I would be concerned about not having a permanent income or any job security/ benefits.

I would still like to hear from any lawyers who have jumped ship and what other vocations they went to.

IANAL but - Government Legal Service?

It sounds like you are a very conscientious person who likes to do the job properly. One of the reasons I gave up my job was that I couldn't bear to have things done half arsed or loose ends not tied up. I guess now I see maybe this is inevitable sometimes and you need to let others take responsibility for their own mistakes (especially if they are training). Good luck in finding what will work for you

Not a lawyer but a lot of lawyers i know moved out of practice and in house where there is more flexibility.
I know a lawyer who jumped ship (sort of- was voluntary redundancy) and is now a teacher - although the pay is lower , the hours are more suited for family life (she is a single parent) and she doesn't work in london so cost of living/lack of commute are all improved

mylittle you could have a look at more to law which is a website full of experiences of ex-lawyers who did other things.

It does sound like your frustrations are not with the law but rather with the amount of work (same as me). If so, how about: in house; public sector law (GLS/Tresury Solicitor/various regulators); PDL role?

Thanks for all the suggestions! I have had a look at working for government agencies but many of them have a freeze on recruitment so not much luck there. I have looked at teaching and think this would be a good option and chec my local universities job vacancies regularly as the LPC looks ideal but I expect those jobs are hard to come by.

Mini pie - Thanks for the link I will have a good look at this.

I have noted th comments that say its probably my current job and the unsatisfactory hours that are the problem and not the law. I have always experienced that both go hand in hand and if you work in law you are expected to work well beyond your contracted hours. I would be interested to know how many of you only work your contracted hours and if you do unpaid overtime beyond those how many you would do each week on average?

Our in house lawyer has recently come from a big city firm in order to get a better work-life balance.

She works 9-5.30pm 4 days a week which she says is half the hours she was doing in the city!

I have two friends who were lawyers in the city, but gave up when they had kids. We all live just inside the M25. One now works in a library and the other works in the admin department of a local high school.
Obviously both have had huge salary drops but for them, it's been worth it as their jobs fit around the kids, they don't have to work holidays and the jobs are low stress.

Southern, can I ask, do they find their new jobs interesting do you know?

what's your specialism in law Little Monkey?

Yes, they do. The one working in a school one is involved in pastoral care, the Librarian used to work in divorce law and she finds it much less stressful. But in both cases , their OH's earn enough so they don't have to work, which makes the salary drop less of an issue.

I know several lawyers who have given up practice to teach on the LPC. I think they find the work life balance much better. You have to like teaching though and be reasonably good at it for it to work.

Another ex-lawyer turned librarian (or rather library assistant). Love the job, the pay is very low. Again I can only do this because of DH's job. There are lots of jobs out there you can do and many of them are more interesting than the law, but you will probably have to take a huge drop in salary and to be honest status as well. Also hard to get back in if you leave.

Thanks Southern, that's helpful to know.

Hi mylittlemonkey I more or less wrote your thread about 18months ago www.mumsnet.com/Talk/employment_issues/978257-Career-dilemma-p-t-f-t-city-lawyers-and-other. By complete chance I got called by a rec consultant looking for someone for an in-house job with a litigation background which is quite unusual. I got the job and am still with them although currently on maternity leave with dts. The hours are very good, the benefits are great but the best thing is the working culture. Even though I support a relatively time sensitive and high pressured part of the business the only time I was contacted in the evening was by another office in a different time zone, they apologised for callingme (at 8pm) and said they'd only done it because they could see from the system I was online (i'd been catching up on something). On another occasiion when I was waiting for a US legal guy to send me something to check and nothing had come through by 5pm on friday I asked my line manager what to do and he told me to tell them to have a nice weekend and I'd do it on monday. I generally leave around 5-6pm but there's just a more flexible attitude about it as well as more understanding if you turn up late because for example your school arrangements have gone wrong. I can't recommend finding the right in-house job enough.

My advice would be to broaden any in-house search. I'm not sure what your area is but there may be good companies out there which you might be subconsciously ruling out.

It's really interesting seeing others opinions on this and that others have left law for a better work/ life balance. I am lucky that my DH does have a good job so I can afford to take a salary drop but because our nursery fees will soon be in the region of £1500 a month if I was earning not much more than that I would probably be better quoting work altogether for a few years. I do want to work and find a rewarding job especially after all the money and effort I have put into my career so far.

I have had a look at in house but because my area is criminal there is not really an easy in house position which would relate to my area. It maybe just speaking to a recruitment consultant and having to wait until something comes along.

I do like the idea of civil service if anyone has any experience of working there?

I think the reality probably is that the 'right' well balanced job is very hard to find and those that have them stick with them so even harder to come by.

try the CPS. I was recommended this but the cut in salary btwn that and city law was too high for me.

tiggers thanks very much for your post. I just read through your previous thread (congratulations by the way on your dts ). I'm a city litigator thinking of a move in house but I know how rare litigation-y in house positions are. Also a lot of them are in banks and I suspect the culture could be just as demanding there as in private practice. I wondered if you had any tips? Any recruitment agents who are particularly good for that sort of job?

Have pmd you minipie

I was once told by a recruitment agent (when I expressed a desire to get out of the law) that they often place ex-solicitors in marketing positions. Apparently the skills learned in law firms transfer quite well to marketing... And I think marketing positions (at least in law firms) still pay relatively well.

What about re-training as a barrister? You would still have to put in the hours and there is the pressure that goes with being self-employed, of course, but at least you'd have a bit more flexibility about when and where you work (eg getting home at a reasonable hour to see the dcs and then working in the evenings after the dcs have gone to bed).

Or a Professional Support Lawyer? Although a friend who worked as a PSL told me that she often got phoned/emailed after 5.30 by the fee earners who would spend the work day doing billable hours and then following up with her on the non-billable stuff after hours. I guess the same is probably true of marketing roles in law firms. On the plus side, though, it's often possible to go part time or job share PSL roles.

Also keep an eye on the GLS vacancies website. Though they don't pay as well as law firms. Friends of mine who used to work at the GLS seemed to get a lot of flexibility about PT or job share options and working from home where required.

In-house/GLS/PSL jobs often sell themselves on the basis of their work/life balance. Where I work (in-house) there are lots of ex-solicitors/barristers and everyone (including those in senior positions) is quite open about the fact that they moved in-house in order to leave the office on time in the evenings.

I took a pay cut when I moved but I probably earn the same per hour as I did when I worked in a law firm, considering that I am not expected to start before 9.30am and am expected to leave at 5.30pm sharp (emergencies excepted, of course) and no weekends.

I am so much happier since I moved in-house - great quality of work, reasonable hours and colleagues with real people management skills!

Thanks for your post lukeluke I think I will have a more closer look at in house jobs and see if there is anything that would fit in with my area of law. A lot of posters seem that's the best way to the work/ life balance that I dream of! I really relate to the 'real people with management skills' comment as well!!!

I have been looking on GLS website but with the job freeze on at the moment it's a bit harder to find jobs in that area.

Can I jus ask what area you Specialised in before going in house and how easy you found an in house position?