Advice for a frustrated and confused lawyer!

[morescrummythanyummy]

Hello!

I have a one year old and a four year old and am back at work in a law firm after maternity leave.

I work part time in a job, low six figures, some hybrid working, finish on time but log on in the evenings and frequently work after kids' bedtime. I know that I am quite possibly living the dream on paper, but I hate it and have for a while.

In my 20s I realised that I really didn't like the document work very much (I do corporate/company law advice, so can be heavy on documents to review), but I was brought up in a household that wasn't wealthy and I supposed I was daunted by the idea of changing to something else that was likely to see a significant salary drop before I had a mortgage for a place to live, then I got married, wanted kids and felt I needed to bank the goodwill I have (I am reasonably good at my job - I'll never be partner, but really don't want to be, but no one is going to fire me), rather than start again and defer the decision until I was done with having kids.

Now I am done with being pregnant. What the hell do I do next?

I want to move to a job with more people, fewer documents, more "real world" then reorganising companies on paper. I find reviewing and drafting masses of documents makes me anxious about missing stuff and I really hate living in fear of getting stuff wrong all the time. I have good knowledge of corporate accounting and governance, as well as law. I like people. Before I had babies I started to train as a Pilates teacher, but I realised quite quickly that I really didn't want to do that - I can present at work when I know what I am talking about but I actually really didn't like the "performance" element to teaching.

I am lucky enough to have built up good savings that could support studying or subsidise time out, or a less lucrative job. (My husband likes his job and is secure and similarly paid). In the short term, I'd like something that feels not too pressured, because I do like having time with my kids and if I can't work part time as I do now in a totally different job I would like to leave on time. In the long term, it would be nice to have the option to push on.

Am I better studying or taking a break entirely and then using a returners programme? Going for a grad scheme? Finding a project management job that uses transferable skills? Or will this all be solved by just going in house as a lawyer after all?

Please help!!

Hi OP

i have a similar profile and got round this by moving into compliance - it’s a very hot market right now so easy to jump. I am a nerd though! All the good bits of law, mostly figuring stuff out yourself and you advise your own industry so no pretending to be interested in something your clients do. Plus no BD or time recording. You can use that to move into risk analyst stuff, governance, audit etc.

You could look at specifically at corporate governance with your background and then start looking at co sec roles which would get you out of the legal sector.

if you have done FS or PE in your corporate role then you are laughing for opportunities.

on a slightly similar vein, whenever I have met with notaries I always think they have the easiest job for the sheer amount of 💰 they make.

Sounds like chatting to some recruiters would be a good start?

Project management will be a big salary reduction and I would be cautious about in house - so much pressure on your advice from the business (just sign this off) and limited support or budget to outsource.

@Passanotherjaffacake

Thank you very much for your thoughts, so much appreciated.

Funnily enough, I'd been thinking of Cosec work - I think I would be exempt from all but 2 modules if I wanted to be ICSA qualified (could get a job without it and ask for them to contribute to training). Obvs quite a bit of paperwork at times, but suspect it would be manageable and with scope to take on more if I know board members etc in the right kind of company. I hadn't thought about compliance - have done a bit of FS work, plus listed company work, not much PE (but a bit of training). Might also be a good fit and w/l balance.

I totally know what you mean about in house - I have done a few secondments and they have been a mixed bag. The hardest was a FS one where you'd get leaned on very heavily to sign stuff off that really wasn't appropriate and would then misrepresent your level of sign off to credit committees etc. I didn't really mind the more commercial one, because lots of the time that people sent things to me there wasn't really a big legal angle, people were being conscientious and erring on the side of caution, which comes with much less pressure (and I'd do a bit of proof reading and send it back with a comment or two and a cheery good luck!). Certainly worth picking the position carefully rather than jumping at the first thing.

Anyways, thank you so much for your thoughts. Really helps to know that what I am going through is not particularly unusual - have worked in private practice for some time and you can get a bit institutionalised!! Glad that compliance is going so well for you x

I'm a Chartered CoSec in a relatively low level role, but I read your OP thinking you'd make a great Company Secretary. As a qualified lawyer you wouldn't need to undertake further study with CGI (as the ICSA is now called) in order to be a Company Secretary. Feel free to PM me.

Thanks so much @WeAreTheHeroes

That is good news - I mean, I'd be very happy to study to fill in any gaps, but good to know it isn't a barrier to entry.

I assume there is no real magic to learning to use Blueprint or similar systems? Lots of job specs mention it, but I don't have any difficulty reading share registers or commenting on extracts from registers/blueprint.

I would imagine any company using Blueprint (now rebranded as Diligent Entities) would provide training if you didn't have experience of it. It's based on Access whereas Gems is Windows based.

Lots of CoSec roles are combined with in-house counsel ones. You won't get away from document work though, but it can be very varied.

Thanks. Yes, I wasn't intending to avoid document work altogether. I phrased it a bit strongly in my OP (Thursday was a Bad Day!), but would be nice to have more variety and maybe to avoid some of the "we have decided to reorganise 49 companies in our group. We've been discussing this since February. It's now 2 weeks before our year end cut off. Can we do it now. No one has done any accounts". crap that characterises quite a bit of my work 😁. Also would be really good to just be a bit more plugged in to something a bit wider.

I read your first post and was going to recommend in- house law /co sec work.

I love it, much more interaction for starters

I was in private practice in a role similar to the one you describe. I absolutely hated it. I've moved in house now (to the charity sector so a massive change!) and I love it - I was at the point where I thought being a lawyer was no longer for me but I really enjoy being in house. I work very part time at the moment while my children are so young but feel like there is plenty of scope in the future to progress in different sectors if that's what I want. Highly recommend at least giving it a go - CoSec work was another thing I considered but I don't think I'd find it as interesting as my current role.