Calling all lawyer mums out there!

[sunnuva]

Have any of you thought of not going back full time to work, but staying within law - after all, we did spend a lot of time getting our qualifications, and we could really use it?

Would any of you be interested in working on an ad hoc basis, and making some good money doing it? I am planning on setting something up, got the idea, bought the website, am getting the t-shirt......

Any comments, please?

Tell me more! I am a solicitor who recently left my full time job. I am trying to decide what to do next.
I'm not sure I have enough experience though for what you are suggesting - am only 1 year PQE.

Hi,

I am thinking of a way for lawyers to work from home. But for this to work, I will need a few more lawyers. 1 PQE - was it a happy surprise to find yourself pregnant? Congratulations! I am sure that your skills are still very valuable, right?

Do you know of any other stay at home lawyers, mums or dads?

There are plenty of these sorts of businesses out there already, e.g. Keystone. That's not to say there isn't room for another though.

I think the big things you need to address are:
-being London centric; and

• how you make it viable with childcare.

I looked into many of the existing businesses who do this and what I found was, they want to place you at fairly short notice into clients. Which is great, but basically means shelling out for child care year round (if your DC are pre-school) or after school clubs (school age) if you don't have an other half who can step in. And in that case, you might as well just work because the financial implications are crippling. Especially since a lot of women who want to do this type of thing have pre-school DC, which is presicsely why they have recently left PP.

Yes - I'm 9 years PQE in employment law. Previously at a top 20 but not going back as simply can't reconce the hours and travel with DH's work. My DS is only 6 months but when he's a year, I'm thinking of some free lancing

amanda - totally agree. For free- lancing, I need something like piece work rather than a 3 month full-time. placement. Obviously that's easier in some areas of law than others.

When you look at Lawyers on Demand etc, they have profiles of the lawyers they place. There doesn't seem to be any working mothers. Instead it's people presumably unencumbered by child care commitments who want to spend more time on hobbies etched but can still be extremely flexible

My idea is purely centred around being able to be at home with your children. So working around your kids, a couple of hours during the day whilst they nap for example, and perhaps a couple of hours in the evening after the kids bedtimes.

We really do not need to leave our homes and go to an office to look over a contract etc, right?

Just for lawyers, initially...... for stay at home daddy lawyers as well?

Yep, it will have to be piece work, not a placement. Absolutely. And it should be the case that you can decide what to take on, what piece of work you would want to take on.

Very little out there for working mothers, as everything is done during ordinary working hours - more suited for people who want to do a couple of cases and then spend the rest of the year sailing.

I'm wondering how you'd make it work with little scope for client contact (only during nap times or late evening?) and negotiation. Is your plan for lawyers to just look over contracts at a time which suits them but not to actually do the negotiation (as if you were negotiating something you'd need more availability)?

I'm not sure how you can work as a lawyer without childcare. Is that what you meant?

in my view its unachievable. i work from home as a lawyer. i also have f/t child care

you cant just pick up and drop clients around nap times. you cant never have client meetigns. in some practice areas you need to go to court. you have to be available when clients want you to be. and you need oodles of time to develop your practice to get the clients in so that you can work part time.

the sort of piecemeal service your talking about is never going to attract the decent clients. they want to know who they are working with. so it will have to compete on a price basis. shudder

Hey guys....are you still thinking of this? Am 8yr pqe real estate....baby...went part time...redundancy....locum work....you all know the story!!! Can we make this a reality?