Career Clinic: Will my experience as a law librarian give me an edge in the job market?

Go for it

As my title states... Go for it!

Your obvious enthusiasm and determination to explore a passion is rather refreshing. Certainly when one considers the number of traineeship-searching graduates who just grumble that the market is highly unfair and that firms somehow owe them something (FYI, I myself am a traineeship-searching graduate in Scotland!).

Law firms take on people regardless of their background or previous study. They appreciate and acknowledge the range and diversity of skills which different people can bring to the table.

So persevere, persevere, persevere. If you have the passion and hunger for it then don't give up and you will break through.

Craig -09 Sep 2010 | 09:47

You need to make the decision!

Undertaking the GDL/LPC whilst having a young family may well prove to be a nightmare to be honest and whilst others will no doubt say "go for it" with rose tinted views, it is you that needs to assess whether you can balance the course and do your family justice - my advice would be exactly the same for a man planning on that endeavour - the courses are extremely time consuming.

However, assuming you want to give it a shot, I would certainly encourage that and perhaps speak to your current firm. If you are well liked they may offer to fund the course on a part-time basis with a view on the longer term. That might be your best option.

My honest assessment, as a father of an eight-month-old is that I have found myself wanting to spend less time at work to get home and play; whether I would have had that option whilst studying intensive courses, I am not so sure. I would personally say it might be a step too far once you have young children and want to spend your time with them but if you are clued up on that issue and determined nonetheless, I would advise you to take the plunge - you only live one! Best of luck!!

ME -09 Sep 2010 | 13:38

Think Carefully

Whilst I applaud your enthusiasm, I suggest you think carefully before taking such a step. I have 10+ yrs pqe and two children, and have decided that a client-facing role in the law is no longer sustainable. As a result, I am currently looking for a support role that will allow me to work fixed hours.

I agree with the poster above that once you have children you want to spend less time in the office, not more. Unfortunately client demands mean that is rarely possible. Although I went back to work full-time after my first child, I found I couldn't keep the show on the road after the second, even with domestic help, and reduced to four days. It is virtually impossible to move to a new fee-earning job at another firm unless it is on a full-time basis. You will therefore need to be prepared to work full-time - firms are forced to accommodate flexible arrangements from full-time staff that subsequently have children but generally don't offer them to new recruits.

Studying whilst having small children is likely to be very hard - I find on average I have less than 20 minutes of free time a day. Also, once qualified, as already noted, the job is very demanding, particularly in the early years post-qualification when you are seeking to impress. It will only work if your husband is able to share pretty much equally the childcare responsibilities (as mine has done).

However, I am of course speaking of my experience in a City firm and in smaller firms things are definitely different. I do not wish to dampen your enthusiasm, but give you a realistic view of what it's like from the inside.

City Litigator -09 Sep 2010 | 16:38

Yes, it will give you an edge.

Hi

I can't comment on the children decision, but, coming from a law librarian background in a top 50 firm, my experience is that it does give you an edge in the job market when you switch to becoming a solicitor.

The fact that I had worked in a law firm and spent a lot of time assisting solicitors with legal research meant that I could draw on my experience at interview. Additionally, as a trainee, my legal research skills and the attention to detail I had learned as a librarian were invaluable.

Don't worry about not having a law degree - my degree was not in law and I found that law firms appreciated the breadth of experience that I could bring to the role. Further, you will find that academic law has little to do with the actual practice of law.

My advice is to go for it. Not least because you'll never have to update a looseleaf again.

(Obviously subject to the childcare decision and the poster above has some good advice there - definitely speak to your current firm.)

SD -09 Sep 2010 | 16:45

If you're committed, do it

You'll probably get plenty of advice on experience/background, but I just wanted to offer some encouragement on the training-with-kids point.

I've just qualified as a NQ at a regional firm having started the GDL at age 30, at that time a single mother of young children (they were 2 and 4 then). I would say that it IS very hard work, but it is eminently do-able if you are motivated and prepared to make the sacrifices required (social life) to get the study done and, later, put in the hours on your TC if you train at a Magic Circle/City firm.

I chose to train at my regional firm as with my children so young I knew I did not want a job where I was expected to be at my desk till late at night. If you are planning children, I'd give real thought to that. From the point of view of prestige and status, I would have liked to train at a big name firm and I did get TC offers in the City, but a brief consideration of the reality of not seeing my kids Mon-Fri meant I was more than happy to accept a TC offer at a less prestigious firm on a lot less money.

The GDL and LPC - GDL in particular - are hard if you are also running a family. However, I think for anyone, it's a question of forcing yourself to do the work instead of soing what you want to do (go out drinking/shopping/whatever) and I've found both at law school and during my TC that having kids is a great motivator - they're expensive to run and you need to do your best at work to ensure a job on qualification and hopefully, decent pay.

You do have to make sure you're supported in terms of reliable childcare and a supportive partner, but if those things are in place and you really want to do it, I say definitely go for it. I haven't regretted it for a moment. Well OK, perhaps there were a few moments during my Commercial Property seat, but overall I've felt happy so far and it's great to have the job you want and if you can get one that allows you to leave at 6pm most days, so much the better.

Sophie -10 Sep 2010 | 09:57

I agree with the above poster that your non-law degree is unlikely to be a hindrance. And I would be shocked if your experience as a law librarian did not give you a boost.

But I would be wary about combining study with having young children. I have studied for my GDL and BVC on a part-time basis. On both courses there was at least one mother of an infant and on the GDL, one of my classmates was pregnant and gave birth in the spring of our first year of the course.

All of these women had difficulty keeping up with the work required for the course (and this was study on a part time basis, which most of the rest of us were combining with full time employment). My classmate on the BVC had intended to study the course full-time, but switched to part time at the last minute when her son was born prematurely and needed more care than she had expected. Even months into the course, she told me she found it hard to drag herself away from her son for the 2 evenings a week that we have class. She was also one of the least well-prepared students in the group.

On the GDL, the pregnant woman had to defer her exams (6 week old + three intense exams is a *bad* combination). Either she did not sit or did not pass the summer re-sits and did not rejoin our class for the second year.

The woman with the infant also deferred her second year, because it was more important to her to spend time with her son than to pursue her career (and her husband sounded like he was not helping with the childcare).

If you do decide to combine motherhood and study, make sure that your partner understands what his role will be. If he's not supportive and willing to do what he can to enable you to study, I suspect you will struggle.

Good luck with your decision.

Beth -10 Sep 2010 | 10:07

Leave it

I wouldn't bother unless you need the extra money. All else being equal, I suspect I'd rather be a librarian than a fee-earner.

Having kids is a huge and rewarding commitment. I'd give my best to that, rather than trying to start a career (in a profession which doesn't believe in families) and a family at the same time.

Big Dave -10 Sep 2010 | 16:05

Think it through

Just a point about working in law if you want to have a family. I had my first child during my training contract at a City firm. The firm was great about accommodating my maternity leave, and let me complete my training contract part time, but on qualification I found it impossible to get a job which would not involve me totally neglecting my children. I got the distinct impression that my being a mother made me a fairly unattractive prospect for employers.

In the end I gave up looking for a job which could work for me, and am now a teacher. Although it broke my heart to give up, I am now far happier, and will be eternally thankful to have a job which enables me to see my (now three) children grow up. If you intend to have a family over the next few years think about it very carefully. If I had my time again I would not have studied law at all, because it is not a family friendly profession. Good luck.

Angela -10 Sep 2010 | 17:54

Anything is possible

I started my distance learning GDL whilst the mum of a four-year old and three months pregnant with my second child. I gave birth in the February, took the exams as scheduled in the June and passed comfortably. Not wanting to make life easy for myself I became pregnant again during the second year of my GDL and gave birth in the May (one week before the exams). I deferred the exams until the August and passed the overall course with a distinction! I went on to complete the LPC over the following two years (no pregnancies this time but had three young kids) and also passed that with distinction. Go for it - you might surprise yourself - I did...!

Trainee mum -11 Sep 2010 | 16:53

First of all...

...almost half the people you seem to want to impress won't have studied law for "most of their academic lives".

But more pressingly, why on earth - given that you spend your (presumably short and well-ordered) days surrounded by harrassed, over-worked and sleep-starved trainees - would you suddenly want to hop over the fence and join them? It's like that bit in Watership Down where the rabbits get to the weird warren where everyone seems to be happy, but it's only because they're being farmed for slaughter.

US Associate -15 Sep 2010 | 09:56

Think carefully!

There are some supremely tough women out there who combine motherhood and a high level career - trainee mum, I salute you! Some even achieve partnership, but they didn't get there by working part time.

Basically, women who want to achieve this have to make the same sacrifices male partners make, which involves rarely seeing your kids and sometimes reneging on family holidays etc. The women that succeed are good at compartmentalising and cope with delegating most of the fun stuff (as well as the chores). It can be done, but are you prepared to do it?

Anonymous -15 Sep 2010 | 11:22

It's not all about long hours in the City

I just have to add another post to this because all of the negative comments seem to be from people who imagine that the only career path for a woman is in a firm with a long-hours culture. That is just not the case.

I passed my GDL with a Commendation and LPC with Distinction whilst juggling home life with a two and four-year-old as a single mother. It was hard, but it wasn't THAT hard, for goodness' sake! All you need is a bit of single-minded focus.

As to working life, I'm sure if you have a TC at a magic circle firm then the partners aren't very sympathetic when you need to get home because your child is sick. However, I work at a mid-sized regional firm and it is very accommodating of my occasional domestic issues. I always make up the time later and my work has never suffered - in fact one of my supervisors during my TC (a man with no children) noted in my appraisal that I was more focused and driven than previous trainees who didn't have similar pressures outside of work.

Equally, I have friends based in London who are mothers and who work at smaller, non-City firms, and they also generally manage to get home by 7pm and are also doing well in their careers.

I work full time but have breakfast time with my kids and am home in good time to talk about their days at school, hear their music practice, do homework with them, and put them to bed. You could say it might feel tiring to leave the office and then go straight home to another full-time activity like that, but actually it is a brilliant way to switch off from work once you've left. Children absorb all your attention.

The success or otherwise of being a mother and a lawyer of course depends on the quality of your childcare and the support of your partner (if you have one), but if you have those then there's absolutely no reason why you can't have a decent and satisfying career as a lawyer while you raise a family. I love the fact that my children see me with a proper job, which they've seen me work hard to attain, and which they can see the benefits of. I'd hate to have some "fits around the school day" non-job with no development prospects and I don't think that sets a good example to kids for what they should aspire to either.

It's probably true that for a woman to reach a senior level in a City firm, she's going to have to put in the hours to the detriment of her family life (as it is for a man), but there are other ways of working out there and other types of firms which do accommodate a work-life balance. My boss is an equity partner in my firm and she works a four-day week to have a day at home with her child. And she had the child before being made up to partner, so it is possible.

Go for it, or you'll always wonder what you might have achieved...

Sophie -15 Sep 2010 | 17:08

Research and think through carefully

Career change is a big decision and it is really important to think it through carefully. Your career needs to reflect your values, motivations, needs, wants and also financial security requirements.

A tip - stand in your desired outcome, look back to the present and work out how to get there, moving physically between the two points to work out the steps.

Rachel Brushfield -17 Sep 2010 | 09:33

Good luck!

Hi

I'll be brief. It is wonderful that you are thinking ahead and weighing pros and cons. I would strongly advise that you don't leave your current job until you have got a training contract secure and sponsorship for the CPE and LPC. It will be ruinous otherwise. Don't take a training contract with a magic circle or City firm - the hours are very long and almost impossible to have kids alongside. I know from experience. There is no sympathy for you as a mother - as a trainee in a magic circle firm you are considered a slave who has to be there at all hours. You are cheaper than a paralegal as they don't have to pay you to stay after hours. Regional and smaller firms are much better in terms of work/life balance and you will fit work around your family schedule. When you train, choose seats with more predictable hours such as employment, pensions, tax, real estate (but don't go into real estate financing), construction - the usual suspects. Predictable hours does not mean you will have an easy time only that it is less long than others.

I wish you the best of luck and go for it. Once your kids are grown up, you will regret not giving it a go when you could.

Linda -22 Sep 2010 | 10:58

Thank You everyone!

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to thank you so much for all of your advice regarding my career move. It is so refreshing and incredibly helpful to have so many insights into the profession, and so much honest advice.

I have been mulling over this for months now, and I have decided that I couldn't bear looking back in the future and wondering what would have happened if I did go into law, so I have decided to take the GDL part-time, starting in January 2011. It was an incredibly difficult choice, but I am lucky enough to have the support of a husband and family who are completely behind me. I will take things one step at a time and try and keep to my single minded focus!

You have no idea how much your advice has helped me, how much it has put my anxieties at ease and influenced my decision, all of you. Thank you so very much!

JFR -20 Oct 2010 | 13:40