Any solicitors? Going back to practising law- is it possible?

[gigg]

I qualified as a solicitor about 4-5 years ago and did about a year in practice. Due to personal circumstances I left my job and had to find a new one and the job I ended up in was still in the legal industry but not in practice. My current job is in policy and lately I've been thinking about going back to being a practising solicitor. I've tried applying for a couple of solicitor jobs, however because I've only had one year in practice and now haven't worked as a solicitor for a few years I'm not even getting any interviews.

Has anyone gotten their foot back in the legal door? Will I need to start back in a Paralegal role? I'm worried that if I do I'll get stuck and won't be able to progress. I'm in a reasonably senior role now and I'm willing to take a bit of a cut but only if it will actually lead somewhere!

What did you practice in? What sort of policy do you do - is there an overlap with legal jobs - would be the case if eg you were doing financial services

I practised law in the Civil Service - still do, in a different department. Same general subject area (crime) but now I'm on the policy side. There are no opportunities for secondment to the legal team through my department unfortunately, or that would've been my first port of call.

Sorry, that was a bit unclear - I meant that I still work in the Civil Service, but in policy, not legal practice.

Are you still on the Roll with the Law Society? If not, it may be worth speaking to them and finding out what you'd have to do to be re-admitted.

Do not take a paralegal role whatever you do.

@thanksjaneshusbandatcaresouth I'm also not inclined to take one, do you think it'd just mean getting stuck at that level?

The re-admitting part is easy enough, the difficulty is in finding an employer who'd be willing to take me on as a solicitor.

I mean exactly that.

Don’t even think about it (no man would)

You have a job. Keep applying. Do some pro bono. Whatever.

I did - went back in after over a decade. Don’t want to say too much as possibly outing

Sounds like the obvious people to speak to would be the CPS

Would give my right nipple to work for the civil service even in policy. I hate private practice - Slave to clients and billing