Are there any solicitors with DC around who can tell me about their experience?

[Erin1216]

Hi - I am nearly 30 and have a background in teaching. I just had a year 'out' because one of my children has been seriously ill, but I am now thinking about returning to work. I would like a career change from teaching. I almost studied law at undergrad and now I am considering going back to university to do a conversion course (we can fund this).

I just wondered if there are any solicitors on here willing to share how they manage this with children? Were you able to access part-time or flexible working arrangements? Do you feel that it is working for you? Would there be any potential issues getting a training contract afterwards as a career changer?

Honestly, so many people tried to put me off teaching when I was younger and I sort of wish I had listened to them, so please let me have your honest opinion!

Thanks!

If you PM me I’m happy to chat :)

I'm a solicitor with around 8 years of experience and have a young child. There are a lot of solicitors who would try to put you off a change to law. I think it can work ok with a family but there are a lot of caveats to that.

It is common to work 4 days at my firm but difficult to do less than that. The 4 days are quite long days and you sometimes have to work a bit on your days off.

The real difficulty for you is likely to be getting a training contract and then getting through it. It is very competitive, particularly at the moment as some training contracts have been delayed due to covid. Law is more accepting of career changers than it used to be but there is an expectation, at my firm at least, that they bring something to the table from their previous experience so in some ways the bar is higher.

I haven't come across a trainee working part time before and you have very little control over your workload while you are training - if you're in a transactional seat at a medium / large firm you might be asked to work late into the night with no notice, for example. Most trainees are able to do this as they are young and don't have family commitments.

Whether law is sustainable with a family long term very much depends on the area you work in and your firm. Generally, law is starting to wake up to the fact that a lot of lawyers are women who will leave the profession if they can't work flexibly but there's a way to go and this tends to apply more to experienced solicitors than trainees / newly qualifieds. I wouldn't personally try to work in litigation or transactional work at a large firm with a young family but plenty of people do (usually using nannies for childcare).

That said, I find my work interesting most of the time, I work hard but not crazy hours, I have plenty of family time and I am paid very well with the potential to be paid extremely well in future if I go for partnership. It has taken a long time to get there though, I have chosen my speciality carefully and there were times earlier in my career where I was really stressed by work and working very long and unpredictable hours.

If you want to work at a larger firm it would be better for you to try to get the training contract before doing the conversion course as they would probably fund it for you plus you'd be guaranteed a job afterwards. The conversion course isn't much use on its own if you don't go on to qualify as a solicitor.

Yep I would say more emphatically don’t do the conversion course or LPC without a training contract. Not only will it mean you miss out on the funding but doing these courses without a place when a lot of the students have a TC can be a bit isolating/ stressful I think (from friends, not personal experience) but also you’ll know whether you are likely to get a TC before you set out on spending a couple of years and a lot of money on training.

Area of law and type of firm is crucial to your experience. I know of one older trainee who did get through training with children - but older children that could be with nanny/ babysitter if she needed to be late.

I spent the first 6m of my TC working til 10/11pm every night and eating at my desk, going home to sleep and do laundry at the weekend. That wouldn’t have worked with my kids at home now. As you get more senior you get more autonomy and control over your schedule/ who you work with (I avoid the partner known for instructing you at 7pm in the evening). But it’s tough.

Part time working or working set hours is uncommon in my area (litigation). But training at a big firm helps give you exposure to a number of different areas and it might be tough for a few years but you could find an area that works for you. Having said that, being the older TC might again be tough when most of them are 22-25. I was a few years older than my intake, although I trained in a place that took fewer trainees and I was the mother hen of the gang.

There are easier ways to make money, although it is a comfortable living. What’s your end game?

Do you know any lawyers who can give you a mock interview?