solicitors and barristers, and even trainees, please tell me about your work/home balance..

[fairylights]

A bit of background first (please bear with me!): having worked in various roles doing advice and advocacy work for the last few years I am now doing the Graduate Diploma in Law part time, with the long term intention on becoming a solicitor (I think). I am coming towards the end of my first year, so have another year to go, then the LPC, again probably 2 years PT.
I have one ds who is 17 mo and would dearly love to have a couple more dc, and my plan (very much subject to change!) has been to do all the academic bit whilst my dc are young and then head out into the real world and training contracts/work when they start in school. Obviously, this will mean spreading my course over quite a long time, but I am able to stop and start it (within reason) which is handy as my last pg involved a lot of time in hospital, and obviously it would be nice to have some time at home with any little newborn.
However, I am currently grappling with whether this is a reasonable/logical plan - will the start of my career be fraught with really long hours? Will I ever get to see my kids? What childcare do you have? How do you cope with the holidays? Do you ENJOY what you do?!
The reason I am also asking barristers this Q is that my department have suggested I try a mini-pupillage with a local chambers in the summer. I had never considered becoming a barrister and imagine it being very competitive, hard work and long hours. However, the fact that they have suggested this to me has started me wondering..
As I am currently an SAHM I can't imagine the other extreme at all and would just like to hear what your life looks like if you are a solicitor/barrister/trainee. Thanks!
p.s. I would hope to go into immigration/family law, certainly what used to be termed "legal aid" law, rather than any high flying stuff involving business/litigation!! ( no offence to those of you who are doing that though, respect to you )

and thanks for those articles lilymaid, interesting reading..

totally agree that it is going to depend almost entirely on the kind of law you end up doing and the type of environment you end up doing it in!

i've workedin the civil service - which was fantastic for parents; you could chose when you worked, so long as you worked the 'core hours' of between 10 - 4 - and i've been a barrister, which was not too bad as once you are senior enough you can pick and chose to some degree (unless as others have said you are doing work which demands urgent response like crime/immigration).

BUT my plan was to always have fridays off (clerks absolutely fine about this) and in reality this happened once every ten weeks. Cases were always getting adjourned and relisted. And there is nothing you can do about this but suck it up.

i think the thing to do is get the best training you can, get the best firm/chambers you can and give it a go... if it doesn't work out in private practice, there seem to be loads of opportunities as a government lawyer or with local authorities etc.

i think it is a great career for interesting, varied work and the potential to be well paid.

I am a solicitor and have only worked in the high street practices. My experience is as follows:-

1. Firm I left to go on maternity leave refused to let me return on a part time basis even though there was another lady working part time doing exactly the same job. I took them to a Tribunal and they settled out of Court.

1. Got another job in another high street firm part time. They always moaned when someone had to take a call or deal with a client because I wasn't there and they were NEVER sympathetic if DS was ill even though I would say that I had to go and pick him up from nursery but would be back in the afternoon (I worked mornings) to catch up on any work I missed.

I think I agree with what some other posters say that you need to be completely dedicated to the job (regardless of your child care issues) and work full time. Part time does not work ime.

Fairylights,

No-one seems to have mentioned in-house work. You usually have to qualify first but if you can mke it through your training contract and chose to go in-house it can be a great work life balance.

I am a qualified solicitor and I worked for a magic circle law firm for 5 years before I had my DD. After a year off I found a job as a general commercial solicitor in a local company. I work steady hours, 8.30 - 5pm, 5 days a week. I have stayed late (past 5.15pm) 3 nights in the 8 months I have worked here. I collect my DD from nursery every day and we have time together every morning and every evening.

I LOVE my work life balance. I may not earn what I did in the City but my boss respects my "life choice" of being a working mum and he is very good at understanding if I have to rush home to attend to a sick child or I am 10 minutes late because sometimes things take longer that I hoped. There are 4 working mums in my office (all qualified solicitors) and we try and help each other out as much as we can.

I would really recommend looking at the in-house option as I never took it seriously but it works for so many mothers.

Good luck.

This is very interesting. Can you tell us a bit more about the in-house option please Saladsucks. Is it something one could potentially do straight after qualification or would it be necessary to be a few years later down the track? Also where would these sorts of jobs be advertised?

Sorry - I haven't been on mumsnet for a week or so!

We have a new qualified solicitor in our department, so you certainly could do it straight from qualification. I guess that jobs are not quite as easy to come by at NQ level, the usual time to move is between 2 and 7 years. That said, a good agency will have jobs and clients who want NQs to come in house.

I guess they would be advertised in the usual, Lawyer, Legal Week and Law Society Gazette. I found this job by calling an agency about another position and the agent said to me "I've got just the thing for you..."

Barrister for 13 years daughter is 2 its working great husband and i both self employed i pick and choose cases i want to do