Ex-Solicitors- what are you doing now?

[Lesty1266]

Has anyone successfully managed to escape law? If so, what are you doing now?
After 13 years, I’ve had enough but I don’t know what to do now. The only thing I’m certain about is I want out of law so don’t want to move in-house or do anything related to law.

Work for myself in law related field really enjoy it earn between £60-100k a year not saying what it is as I got the idea for it on mumsnet and don’t want the competition!

HR consultancy might be worth considering

I left the City and now work in-house for a law firm - the work is very varied and my practice management experience as a fee earner is definitely useful.

There are lots of roles outside fee earning in law firms
(e.g., Risk & Compliance, Business Acceptance/Conflicts Team, Training Lawyers) and these do not always need prior experience in the role as the work is largely skills-based. The work-life balance is much better (at least in my experience)!

Other lawyer friends moved to roles as Knowledge Lawyers, working for charities and regulators, the Government Legal Department, local authorities and the Civil Service.

It’s sad that no one seems to have made a complete change; it’s all ancillary stuff.

i guess it’s hard to start from scratch.

I know 2 FE College Principals, both retired now, started careers as solicitors. Very good Principals too - ran excellent colleges - worked their way up from lecturers

Is it totally sad? I guess some of us were drawn to law because we really did like elements of it
I love the intellectual challenge and problem solving side of it. It plays to my skills. Law feels the right fit for me, I just wasn't happy till I found the right niche

How about the Bar? I’m a barrister and have plenty of former solicitor colleagues. TBH solicitors know more of the genuinely useful stuff about procedure, negotiation, budget prep and so on.

Being self-employed is fantastic for childcare, though my children aren’t little any more (and not so good for all-nighters on deadlined statements of case and the like - but you probably get that sort of stress anyway as a sol).

Following with interest - I’ve tried a couple of the alternatives suggested above but have reached the conclusion that - fundamentally - I don’t want to be providing legal advice any more. Struggling however with finding a different career path at this fairly late stage in proceedings

In exactly same boat.
The problem with the ancillary careers is they all feel a bit of a flop compared to practice, and it’s not as easy at you’d think to change areas.
I hve no idea how to do something completely different when I still need to earn / can’t afford to take loads of time out to retrain.

I have also moved to the Civil Service, but I am not a lawyer. I really enjoy my job, and there are so many opportunities to move around and do different things. I spent a few years as a private client solicitor when I first qualified, then changed to pensions (which I hated just as much) - happy for you to DM me if you want OP.

Local authorities are crying out for lawyers