In a nutshell- I have almost 17 yrs pqe in employment law, trained in a regional/high st firm, moved to a west end firm upon qualification then a year later to a small commercial firm in the City for 6 yrs until I was made redundant (upon the firm closure) whilst on maternity leave. I then joined a new specialist employment practice - again v small firm and went on to have 2 more kids and for 6 years worked part time - 3 days a week only. We lost work and I took voluntary redundancy earlier this year and took a part time role as a lawyer in a local authority. At first I hated it - so much bureaucracy, lack of admin support- total culture shock, most of the work is litigious and colleagues are ok but it feels a bit blah, like i've given up on my career or gone backwards or back in time plus due to ET deadlines etc it can be quite stressful BUT the defined benefit pension is v attractive. My old firm have offered me my old job back as things have picked up but I really don't know what to do. Although I loved my old firm and the ppl I worked with are friends-I didn't have a pay rise in 8 years and have a very very tiny pension - lots of flexibility, school hours, low stress, good holidays (same as in LA) but no bonus or any financial benefits. Overall I'm v disillusioned with the Law in general and quite demotivated. I was offered 3 other roles earlier this year but they weren't right for a number of reasons - although all offered me part time working. My 3 kids are 4, 6 and 10 and DH works from home and does more than his fair share, plus I have support for holidays etc. BUT i'm at a cross roads - do I stay at the LA for the pension (plan would be to stay for 2 yrs to allow the DB pension to vest, put a whole years salary in and buy some more years to get around 5-6k pension per yr for life) and then leave BUT recruiters have said it will be really difficult to move from local gov back to private practice if i stay in LA for more than a year. Salary at both is pretty much the same - if i go back to PP i may have more options in terms of where I move to in future - in house would be great but almost impossible to get due to high competition and v few roles.
Has anyone done anything similar?
What other options might be open for me if I were to stay at the LA and leave in a couple of years workwise?
What would you do in my situation?? Really really confused and stressed - its keeping me up at night - help!