Retraining as a solicitor at 33

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Any solicitors about? Particularly those who’ve trained a bit later in life?

I’m a humanities graduate student researching (broadly speaking) the museum sector. Since the advent of brexit and covid, i’ve become fascinated by the rapid legislative changes affecting this field and am stating to feel like I’d be more useful on that side of things. I’m having second thoughts about my PhD and am considering jumping ship to law (which has always interested me but which I’ve always ruled out as too expensive/competitive). I’m a funded PhD student and I also work, so I could theoretically coast along for a few years, but realistically there’s no work in humanities academia and my priorities are turning more towards the ‘decent career progression’ direction.

In terms of interest, I’d like to focus on either the art and specie or heritage sectors, so have researched firms accordingly. I do a lot of work with the IAL and have a few contacts there, and have also set up an informational meeting with a partner specialising in heritage-related issues at my local large regional practice.

My question is, do I have any chance of a training contract? I know the SQE is about to cock the whole system up, but is there anything else obvious I should be aware of at this stage?

(P.s. I’m not expecting a good work-life balance - my background is in academia and publishing, the twin pillars of all-encompassing yet low paid hours . The different is that as a solicitor I imagine i’ll get paid in a manner commensurate with my efforts!)

I'm not a solicitors but know a few who trained in their 30s inc my sister so good luck and go for it

Do the firms you are interested in recruit in advance? When I went to law school (to do the 2 years; what was then known as CPE and LPC) a lot of students had training contracts already with their fees paid by their law firm. If you did it that way, at least you’d know in advance that you had a training contract to go to once you’d finished the law school part.

I am very out of date though, I was at law school in 2000

Where are you based?

Training contracts can be very hard to get. I am not sure how the SQE changes things but you have to find 2 years work experience (not sure with what sort of organisations) and have to take the SQE Part 1 and 2.

If you have aiming for legal work within a narrow sector (museum, art or heritage), the number of jobs in those sectors are very limited. You can probably count them on one hand. You should try and work at a law firm which services organisations in these sectors and then angle for a job in-house at one of these organisations when it comes up. You need to do your research.

I won't encourage my own children to become a solicitor. To become a solicitor hoping to specialise in such a narrow field is looking for a needle in a haystack.

Become a solicitor if that is what you want to be but be prepared to be flexible as to what you want to do afterwards. The practice of law is very different from academia. Try to get some work experience in a law firm.

I requalifed in my 30s. It's doable but you're making it harder if you're being very specific about a niche sector. I agree with @blueshoes. I definitely recommend work experience. It was also one of the hardest things I've done in my life (not the qualifications but doing it part time, with a young family and a full time job, along with the uncertainty of whether there was a job to make it worthwhile at the end). No regrets at all though.

What hours do you work now and what are you expecting to earn as a solicitor? Not all law is long hours but the part that isn't usually isn't paid particularly well. 'Long hours' is a very relative term.

However, I'd be perfectly happy for my kids to go into law. I've done a lot of things - bring a solicitor isn't a bad job!

Thanks so much for responding, it’s helpful to hear realistic perspectives.

@blueshoes in terms of specialisation, i’m not so much set on one sector as i feel like it’s a ‘hook’ for me to hang my transferable skills on and get a foot in the door, if that makes sense? I’m in the southwest and am specifically looking at a firm with a six-seat TC in order to try and make sure I don’t pigeonhole myself. My aim is to get onto as many open day/work experience events etc as I can so i can have a decent idea of the cultures of the various firms in my city.

@Normaigai I’m pretty much wedded to my laptop; I currently work most evenings as well as some weekends (editing = lots of immovable deadlines and impatient clients) and earn about 15k in a good year in my 20s i didn’t mind the trade off as I was able to travel and work from anywhere in the world, but nowadays i’m going to work my arse off i quite fancy getting paid properly for it

I did a masters degree when dc was a baby, so I’m reasonably confident in my ability to juggle retraining with family etc. I feel like i’m in a better position to make a realistic and pragmatic decision to retrain having already had a varied career - all jobs have their bad and good bits.

You sound like you have a good idea of what you are getting yourself into. A masters with a baby is good preparation if you plan to study full time. The courses are intensive but not academically challenging.

I wouldn't restrict yourself to a six- seat training contract. They're rare now as it means you're of limited use to the firm as you don't have long enough to learn the basics and the trainee doesn't learn enough to know what the job really is. Four seats is better in my opinion.

Whatt does work most evenings mean? Until what time? I'm asking because I find that people have very different definitions of what 'long hours' is. There are different levels of working hours at different firms and not all of law is insanely long hours, but the long hours are where the real money is.

You'll be paid more that 15k but you may find you top out at 40k max in some areas. Sounds a lot better than where you are at the moment though!

I second what Normaigai said - a 4 seat training contract is plenty seats. If your salary expectations are anything above £15K a year with decent hours, then being a solicitor is not a bad thing. When I said I would not encourage my children, I meant the competitive City and national law firms where IMO law is not growing as fast as a sector and possibly stagnating or shrinking, with intense competition from the US firms. Getting a training contract is difficult, getting a permanent contract on qualification not a certainty and partnership is much more uncertain and difficult to attain. Law schools churn out graduates who spend time in low paid paralegal roles working all hours to try and angle for a training contract.

If you are able to do the SQE and prepared to work in an inhouse legal function in say a charity or government, then the hours are more reasonable but the pay not so great. Like Normaigai says, you are looking at around £40K max which is low by solicitor standards but generally a perfectly decent salary if you like the legal stuff and can read lots of dry information and digest, summarise and write well and succinctly, something the general population, surprisingly or unsurprisingly, tend to shy away from. I assume that as a potential PHD humanities academic you have no problems in that arena.

I know you said you are not fixed on any one sector but if you are interested in the arts, culture and museums, I asked someone who is in the know and this is what they said:

These organisations need lawyers who are generalists.The most useful skills are Commercial/Intellectual Property to review their contracts and art loans. It is more likely you will need to review a lease than do the specialised museum stuff (like Holocaust era theft and repatriations or Elgin Marbles/looted art) which comes up once in a blue blue moon, if at all. Only the biggest museums in London hire an in-house legal counsel and those posts are filled and can be counted on one hand.

The other route into working for a museum is to work for a charity. Some are very well funded like the Welcome Trust or Gates foundation and they will have teams of lawyers. People with that background come with charity governance experience which is useful for museums because that is essentially the legal structure of a museum or art body.

Museums are funded by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) but the people who work there may not even be lawyers. The Arts Council probably do the policy side of things but again there might only be one lawyer in the role.

The upshot is there are routes into your field which do not require you to specialise early on. I personally find law to be enjoyable and relatively well paid if you are fortunate enough to have that skill set and prepared to put in the hours. All of which you have

Perfectly doable I would say. I had a trainee who was in her 40s. From what you've said you might enjoy local or central government more than private practice. Salaries are decent ( and can be very good at the top) and your age will not be a problem. Hours are generally better too, although still not 9-5.

This is all fantastic, I really appreciate it I think that’s a very good point about number of TC seats and it’s definitely something I’ll have to consider carefully. In my city (Bristol), there’s one large firm that does a six-seat TC and the others do four seats. One of the others is almost exclusively public sector-focused so I’ve pretty much ruled that out as I’d rather train somewhere a bit more generalist.

I’m currently hoping that at least a couple of firms will let me come along to an open day in the spring as this will give me a much better idea of where to focus my VS applications.
Does anyone have any major dos/don’t for applications? Anything that would immediately put an applicant on the yes pile or the no pile?

I wonder if there aren’t easier ways to earn more with your skill set than the utter slog of law? I am often 😮 at what other women earn - as a solicitor myself I now see there are easier and less stressful ways to get a higher salary!

Knowing what I do now I would have taken an easier option. Dh and I always say we are 50 years too late to have an easy well paid life in the law! And I have worked in firms of all types and have earned very well but god you earn it both in hours and stress.

Work experience, work experience and more work experience.

Then you’ll have a shot at getting on a vac scheme.

Then once you have a vac scheme or two, you may be able to get a TC (although might have to be a paralegal for a few years first).

You have to show you want to work in law and know what it’s really like (rather than some tv ideal).

Be prepared for interviewers to be traditional and wear a skirt/dress suit rather than trousers. Becoming less of an issue now but I still wouldn’t take the chance. Also, first round interviews are usually done by non-partners so don’t assume it’ll be an old man interviewing you. I once did a recruitment day and one girl dressed up like a stripper - was clearly shocked at the 20 somethings (mostly females) interviewing her.

It was a bit like the X factor auditions - so highly competitive that we used the tiniest of excuses to thin the crowd out (we literally did send half home after each stage).

It’s not an area I’d push my kids into now. Most of my friends have left the law as conditions and pay are going rapidly downhill. Good luck though (sorry that’s a bit negative).