Any Professional Support Lawyers out there?

[MtnBikeChick]

I am interested to hear of any working mum City lawyers out there who have moved into a PSL role. I have recently been approached about several PSL roles in my practice area (not at my current firm). I am looking for a change and have slowly been considering the possibility of looking for an in-house position. I haven't really considered a PSL role as I was worried it would essentially be like entering a career cul-de-sac, but I am unhappy in my fee earning role (I am in corporate at a magic circle firm, and I find the unpredictability, long hours and culture stressful). I have always enjoyed the times in my career when I have been working on a piece of research or disseminating new pieces of law and regulation and I am starting to think that a PSL position may be a good option for me. I would be really interested to hear from anyone who has experience moving into a PSL role from a fee earning role, and how you like it. Thanks so much!

I do it and have done so for 10 years.

It is entering a career cul de sac - no doubt about it, although I am aware of lawyers who have moved from a PSL role back into practice.

Before accepting any such role, you need to work out what is actually expected from you and what you would be doing.

PSL roles vary hugely. My job requires high level supervision of quite senior lawyers and peer reviewing partner work, I also provide a sounding board for junior assistants and deal with their queries. I do draft our team precedents and a lot of the team marketing material but could not do a job that required only this. However, I am aware of many PSL roles that centre entirely on this kind of routine work.

I have found that firms are not always very clear on what they want or expect from PSLs so it is a good idea to get a written job spec drawn up.

Happy to answer any qus you might have.

Should have added, I do like my job very much but you have to be prepared for how the rest of your team will regard you. There is a definite loss of status and PSLs are somewhere below trainee.

Thanks goosey I really appreciate the insight. The roles I am considering are not at my current firm. I think moving into a PSL role in my current team could be very difficult. I had one colleague do it a few years ago and he simply couldn't extract himself from client work. He ended up doing 40% client work and could never really do his PSL role properly.

Agreed. I tried moving from my fee earning role at a magic circle firm to a PSL role and it did not work at all. I then moved to a silver circle firm and I must say I am very happy there. I do however know a number of people who have not enjoyed being a PSL and who have, in particular, found the loss of status hard to get used to. Doesn't bother me at all and I must say my quality of life is great compared to many of my colleagues. I finish at 5.00pm and I work at home 2 days a week.

I'm at a big regional firm - haven't done it personally but know of a couple of people who have. Not at magic circle firms but Top 30 regional firms. One did it for about 2 years, decided it wasn't for her but then spent the next 18mths looking to get back into a fee earning position. She did, but it was quite a slog. Another friend is a PSL (partner level) at another top regional firm and as others have said, finds that she is expected to do almost everything that isn't straightforward fee earning - precedents / updates / supervision / business development etc. My sister (no children yet) does Corporate Insolvency in a magic circle firm and I have no idea how she's going to be able to do that role with the limits children impose, unless she has a completely flexible nanny.

I'm a PSL at a firm just outside the magic circle. I trained and qualified at the same firm, and did several years' fee-earning before taking maternity leave. And I came back from maternity leave to do this role on a 3 days a week basis.

I love it. There is still a huge amount of variety in the work that I do - templates/checklists/practice notes, gathering togetehr precedents, keeping abreast of legal developments, helping with queries, giving my opinion as a specialist on client stuff etc, but I am also involved in writing and delivering internal and client training, writing articles and briefings, external profile raising work for the group and lots of other business development initiatives.

I can dictate my own working hours far more than when I was fee-earning, and I keep the work that I do on my non-working days to an absolute minimum (unfortunately, I cannot escape doing some things on my non-working days).

I don't ever want to go back into fee-earning, but if I had to, then I would (a) try and get one more day a week's work at my current firm, so that I did 3 days as a PSL and one day as a fee-earner; (b) get involved in more client facing things like an increased presence at talks and seminars, so that I could sell myself more on the basis of client contacts, (c) increase my profile in journals and publications by writing for them, again, to make my name betetr known.

I've ben doing this role for 3 years now, and am pg again. I know that I will come back to work after maternity leave (when pg with DD, I couldn't imagine how I would ever be able to do my old fee-earning job and have a resemblance of predictable home and family life).

I do still work late on occaion, but I always know in advance when that will be so I can make arrangements with our nanny to work late or for family to step ion. Eg I attend seminars, and present at client talks, and these are always set up in advance. I have never been asked on the day itself to work late at the last minute. I work for a very understanding and decent Partner, which obviously helps.