Career Clinic: What should I avoid when changing careers into law?

Not thinking it through!

This is such a wide question it’s almost impossible to know where to start. Firstly, the legal profession is so diverse that careers in different bits of it can barely be discussed as a single option. Are you thinking of working in a City practice, a high street criminal defence outfit, the public sector, an in-house role, dealing with private clients? You can work out for yourself which of these are the most lucrative, the most challenging in terms of work-life balance, easiest to get into, and which chime most with your personal interests. So do the research and think about it.

Secondly, ignore media portrayals of life in the legal profession and borrow a few textbooks on the type of law that interests you most to learn a bit about it. A lot of legal work is repetitive and process-driven and while interesting things to work on do come along, a lot of it isn’t. Paula Radcliffe is an excellent runner because she combines talent with lots and lots of practice and graft, law is the same. If you want to be an outstanding lawyer you will need to meet the intellectual challenge but also be able to buckle down and do the work as well. You will not be advising on large M&A deals without learning the ropes in data rooms and seminars first or sitting in meetings for hours taking notes. You won’t be defending in murder trials without dealing with Monday morning cell clearouts and bail hearings for a few years. However obvious that seems, the law seems to attract a lot of people who swagger into day 1 of a TC assuming that they are somehow special and will immediately be recognised as that.

Thirdly, consider what your alternatives are. If you were considering giving up an offer of a playing contract with a Premiership football team or a career as a rock star to go into law I’d stop and reconsider. Compare what you would be doing on a daily basis if you worked elsewhere with an informed guess at what a legal career might involve instead.

Lastly, take advice with a pinch of salt. Most lawyers will be quite negative and disillusioned about law, taking the advantages for granted and being only too aware of the downsides. It never surprises me how lawyers will moan about the daily grind to other lawyers but would never dream of changing careers. Yet those same people will often walk into family or social gatherings and happily milk the respect and status afforded to them by others who consider them successful. People like to moan about their jobs just as they do with the weather, taxes, the cost of petrol or anything else that fills a conversational void. I dabbled in IT consultancy and politics before becoming a lawyer; it’s not for everyone but I have made a good living, good friends and enjoy coming in to work most days.

Young Fogey -09 May 2011 | 09:09

Don't do it

Young Fogey

"It never surprises me how lawyers will moan about the daily grind to other lawyers but would never dream of changing careers. Yet those same people will often walk into family or social gatherings and happily milk the respect and status afforded to them by others who consider them successful."

They milk it because they are so unhappy with their job they have to grab whatever upside there is.

The reason lawyers are so down on their job is because of the gap between the reality of working as a lawyer and the image of law. Law is in most cases a boring job.

Magic Circle Associate -10 May 2011 | 19:21

It has to be for you....

... and you have to find your place.

I did the GDL and the LPC as a mature student and thoroughly enjoyed both. I found the law stimulating and had a appetite to do more. I also found that my mind was wired the right way for legal thought. It struck me that the law is similar to complex mathematics - your mind is either wired to think that way or it is not. I topped out at maths after A-levels... but think I have a good feel for law.

I was in the minority on both counts. I reckon AT LEAST 80% of people on the LPC had no genuine interest in the law... and at least 50% struggled with thinking like a lawyer. Many if not most appeared to be there through momentum, or because they could not think of anything better to do for a career.

Same goes for trainees and junior associates...although those who don't enjoy law probably self-select out before partnership comes along.

Anyway, I chose contentious work because i) I like the law; and ii) I like advising clients, rather than fiddling with precedents. My idea of hell... and I did my time during training... is practice areas such as banking, M&A etc. Some may like the buzz of the deal (although in reality they will not be 'advising' clients until much later in their career).

But that is me. As Young Fogey says, the law is a broad church and you have to find your place. But before that, you should really decide whether i) you like the law; and ii) whether you really have the aptitude for it.

It is personal. And the Magic Circle sounds pretty close to the 5th Circle of Hell for people who do not like what they are doing.

Life is too short.

One of the minority -10 May 2011 | 20:56

What do you really want?

Career choice is an individual thing related to your values, motivations, needs etc.

The context of my views are as a non-lawyer who both helps lawyers leave the law but also excel within it.

Legal work can be very repetitive and you rely on others feeding you work until you are senior enough to do what you want. This is not everyone’s cup of tea and delivering billings in six minute units very high pressure. Competition is increasing and doing more marketing and networking is not what many lawyers want to do when they are being forced to. There is also an oversupply of people wanting to enter the profession and the introduction of ABS in October is creating even more change in a profession which is risk averse. Law has a high perceived status if this is important to you but looks more glamorous than it is!

Choosing a career and even more changing career is a huge decision, which needs to be thought through carefully. Make sure you make the right decision to suit you. Choosing the right type of law and firm culture to suit you makes a big difference to fulfilment.

talentliberator -11 May 2011 | 12:32

Case out the joint

Some very thoughtful posts on this one. Without knowing what your reasons are for wanting to change to law it's impossible to give any kind of indication where and what you might wish to avoid. As Young Fogey says, the law is a broad church with a lot of sub-disciplines within it.

Also, your studies will not bear a great deal of relationship to what areas are like in practice. I specialise in Comm. Prop. Nothing I learned at the College of Law really prepared me for it as a practice area. My University degree dealt with the principles and the theory and made the topic feel difficult and boring. In practice the discipline we call Comm. Prop./ Real Estate (which is itself a broad church) is sometimes difficult but almost never boring. However that is my opinion. For all I know you might try Real Property and decide it is tedious.

Have you considered trying to get some work experience in a variety of environments to see if the Law is for you? You'll only know if you like something by giving it a try.

However, you need to be realistic. In work experience placements you will probably be given a lot of rather repetitive chores and may not be given a great deal of explanation as to why they need to be done.

However, if you get lucky and go to the right kind of firm or organisation you might be given the opportunity to "shadow" a solicitor who is willing to take you to meetings or hearings and help you gain an insight into what practice is like.

Why not use connections and see if anyone you know might be able to offer you a break? We've had numerous young people at my firm who are related to clients or where a partner is a school Governor etc. Good luck!

high street solicitor -13 May 2011 | 14:24

Hello there,

'I had always imagined law to be stimulating, interesting, challenging etc'

It is, sometimes. However the bit that most potential law students forget is that it is also a business, and your position within it is not to be erudite, challenged or stimulated, but to make the firm money.

The day-to-day work, particularly at a certain level, is often not terrifically interesting or stimulating. Even some of the sexier areas of law have an associated stack of tedious paperwork, which will probably be given to you. You may well have aced any training course you may have put yourself through, but the reality is that the day job bears no relation to any LPC module. You will then be facing billing and/or hours targets, which will be taken into account if your firm is facing further redundancies. And you may wonder why people are jumpy and anxious...

The first couple of years after qualification are apparently the hardest while you 'settle in' to your role and become a more competent practitioner, rather than a competent student. Being at the bottom of the tree in a recession makes any potential anxiety even worse.

So, shortly after qualification you will be trying to balance 1) trying to do a good piece of work, against 2) the amount of time you can bill for it, against 3) the remainder of your workload as it may be the numbers in the office have been cut, while 4) trying to still remember what your partner/your house/your dog/daylight looks like. And if you can manage that without waking up in the middle of the night with intrusive, mildly panicky thoughts thoughts about the Smith file (or whatever), then you're a better person than I! The occasional small victory is *just about* making it worthwhile. I also have had some lovely clients that it had been a pleasure to see their matter through to conclusion. However I now realise I don't want to do this forever, and have longer term plans that don't involve my current practice. (Or more importantly, I don't want to feel like this forever.)

So if you think that it's all drafting, research, client meetings and terribly highbrow discussions with your colleagues from day one, then you're sadly mistaken. Wouldn't it be lovely, eh?

Having said that, I wouldn't advise you against going into law, nor would I have changed any of my decisions in hindsight. However I would suggest you make a decent evaluation of job prospects in your preferred area and get a real feel for being an assistant solicitor/ILEX before you irretrievably jump ship.

Best of luck with whatever you decide.

Anonymouse -17 May 2011 | 14:25

Lot of sound comments to weigh there.The most important reason I suspect many lawyers get fed up is not so much the type of work they are doing but the length of time you may be expected to spend doing it particularly in corporate or the larger firms.

No matter how much you may like the work, the hours which may be expected can leave very little time for dealing with the basic and necessary mechanics of life, like buying and eating food and washing your clothes, let alone having interests or relationships.

That and the fact the organisations that require that level of commitment are often ruthless in getting rid of people as soon as they don t have that level of work to give them. Sad.

pennyworth -19 May 2011 | 13:08