Lawyers who have changed career...

[LoveInASnowyClimate]

...what did you do as your new job? I am wondering how law will work with a small child after maternity leave, but have no idea what I might wish to do instead. What did you do? Thanks.

A friend of mine went into legal proofreading which she does from home. Not as well paid as being a barrister but good money for freelance work. Normal proofreaders aren't much use because you need to understand the finer points of law. She works for one of those big legal publishers.

Oooh, I would enjoy that. Interesting, thanks so much!

ooh, that sounds interesting. I'm thinking of a change too.
Did family law for over 10 years. Have had the past 5 years as a career break due to DH's work/DC and am now thinking of returning to work. Not sure I want to go into family though. Have just started a distance learning course in Employment practice and have been thinking of perhaps trying to get a job doing employment in a HR department. Something like that would be easier to fit in around the kids. So difficult knowing what to do.

I was a solicitor for 25 years ( Criminal Defence) and am now a manager at a charity for the elderly. I changed career because after moving into lecturing the new job did not develop as I'd envisaged, due to funding being put into level 2 qualifications and not development courses for graduates. I came to my present employer just to help out on a temporary basis and ended up retraining. Obviously I'm pretty good at dealing with tendering and contracts, employment matters etc. It doesn't pay particularly well but is more rewarding and on the whole it is 9-5. This move suits me very well at this stage in my life.

I have just given up being a solicitor to run my own business. I now sell 50s style wedding dresses from home (got a home studio and an online shop) plus I have just purchased a blog site which has advertising on it, so will be writing that from next month.

I wanted to be flexible with my hours. I now work probably the same hours, but at odd times when DD is in bed or when DH is around (e.g. I pretty much work all day on Saturdays when brides come to try dresses on). I love it so far - it's great to be able to dictate when I work, and I really love weddings so suits me!

emsyj you weren't a family lawyer were you? That would be too weird. Surely you'd be wanting to advise on pre-nups whilst they were trying their gowns on

I work for myself - can't you just do that? It means you eat what you kill, keep 100% of your charging rate and if you want to earn a lot surely it's easier at £X lawyer rate per hour than [ minimum wage] type rates most other jobs seem to pay.

Haha, no I wasn't a family lawyer!

I would never want to be self-employed as a lawyer - the admin, liability issues, insurance costs and tons of regulation would give me a headache before I even started. Although there are some 'freelancing' type jobs where you can take work as and when - don't know anyone who has ever done it though. Can't imagine the sorts of clients who would want that type of arrangement (nor the type of organisations that offer it) would be very prestigious, but I could be wrong...

Ooooh the idea of being a mediator is really interesting I think - bit like being Judge Judy! (Maybe...)

didn't complete TC so never admitted and probably don't belong here but was long term sick and saw In Her Shoes and started dog walking, which I did for about three years (although I took massive groups to a ten acre field and called it canine rehabilitative psychotherapy or similarly silly names) it was good fun

don't know what to do now, except I know I need daylight and the outside world