Career Clinic: Is quitting private practice for a goverment legal job worth the gamble?

If you want stagnation, you should definitely give the public sector a try.

Fiddy -14 Nov 2011 | 13:29

To the first poster - why do you say that, do you work for the GLS?

Anonymous -15 Nov 2011 | 09:54

It depends...

I went the other way - I trained sponsored by the GLS and then left a year after qualification for the private sector.

The GLS does offer a wide range of opportunities but things have changed as legal jobs have become more specialised. It used to be routine for civil servants to spend around 3 years in a role and then move on within the same department or elsewhere in the civil service - this gave the chance for progression provided you didn't mind being a specialist Government Lawyer rather than a specialist property or whatever lawyer.

I went from the DTI as a competition specialist to being a Customs prosecutor but decided I wanted more control over the direction of my career. More senior jobs these days tend to get filled by external appointees which is frustrating for existing GLS lawyers as progression is not very transparent.

Being very good at the subject matter of your current role is sometimes a block on getting promoted because you end up being too valuable so you will see those who play the civil service game moving on even if they aren't as good - my former boss at HMCE was a terrible lawyer but a good chap and ended up managing the entire civil litigation function of the Treasury Solicitor's office despite having absolutely no knowledge, experience or understanding of litigation.

Go for it if the job looks interesting but if you aren't willing to put in at least as much time on your internal networking and CV-bolstering as you would have had to do in practice building clients and getting the right partners to be advocates for you to be made up you are likely to stagnate.

That might not be unattractive as I also know several GLS lawyers who realised that they could coast along serenely to retirement and a decent pension without having to worry much about the quality of their work as long as they remained pleasant colleagues. Which can be a nice enough life!

anonymous -15 Nov 2011 | 12:05

Pros and Cons....

I left private practice last year (at 2 years PQE) to take up a role with the GLS.

Like anything, there are pros and cons to doing legal work for the Government, and you should consider each carefully and consider how they apply to you. Above all, you should have an interest in the type of legal issues facing the Government (diverse as they are).

On the positive side, I have found the GLS to be significantly less stressful than private practice, with much better hours and far greater control over your matters and work load more generally. I also find the work to be, on the whole, pretty interesting (providing you have at least a vague interest in public law) and have found that GLS lawyers are given much greater freedom to run matters as they wish wihtout having to check everything with a partner. In my dpeartment, at least, there is a relaxed atmosphere with supportive colleagues. There is, also, plenty of scope to move around departments, with the intranet continually advertising available posts.

There are, however, many negatives to bear in mind. Perhaps most obviously, the money is not comparable to what you can earn in private practice. Although the pension is certainly very good (at the moment anyway), salary progression just does not compare to the lock step model emplloyed by most firms. Similarly, the public sector is under tremedous financial pressure at the moment, and this certainly filters through to the lawyers (it is very "no frills" - forget about any of the hospitality / perks you have have at your firm). Personally, I am also concerned about the prospects for promotions and salary increases. There is also the Orwellian nightmare of bureaucracy to fight through on a daily basis.

Overall, I am glad I made the move and have learnt an awful lot in a short amount of time and consider myself a better lawyer for it. However, it is probably not for everyone and you should try and focus on exactly what is about private practice that you don't like in order to determine whether the GLS would be a good move for you.

Good luck!

Donald Cox -16 Nov 2011 | 15:31

Nothing wrong with being pleasant! Aggressive ambition can be a very unattractive quality...

Anonymous -16 Nov 2011 | 17:16

Thank you

I am the OP - thank you, Donald, and the poster above him for your helpful comments.

I think the thing that would concern me would be the apparent lack of career progression you both refer to. Variety, and the ability to move around - both great.

Food for thought. Thanks again, both.

Anonymous -18 Nov 2011 | 08:13

As other posters say, it depends what you dislike about the private sector and why you think the public sector might give you what you are looking for instead.
If you are in Property in the private sector then you are taking a gamble staying there, in my view.
If you believe the Law Society's Gazette, then there is over capacity in this sector and it is unlikely to improve in the next 3 to 5 years.
This may make it difficult for you to achieve the career progression and variety of work that you would like, and you will not be the only one in tbis position.
My husband is a Chartered Accountant and he made the switch to the public sector 7 years ago and has no regrets whatsoever.
He has 30 days holiday a year plus privilege days and bank holidays, works flexitime and there is a culture that says that staff are entitled to a sensible work life balance. My husband sometimes had to work away from home, sometimes over weekends, but he always got paid in lieu or given the opportunity to take more time off to rest after this.
And as for the pension,it is final salary at the moment and has index linked increases each year when you start to take it; it is much better than what I will get on my personal pension funded entirely by my contributions.
Yes, there are a lot of prejudices about the public sector.
Yes, there are people in the public sector who are coasting to retirement.
However, I've met people in the private sector who are doing the same.
The public sector projects my husband has been involved in have been in the national news and this is likely to be the case if you work for GLS.
At the end of the day it all depends what you went into the Law for and what you want to get out of and put back into it.
Good luck !

high street solicitor -21 Nov 2011 | 13:53

Anon

I am a six years PQE commercial property lawyer who is leaving private practice to join the GLS, having done a secondment there.

As others have said, you do really need to consider the pros and cons of your current role. If money is one of your main motivations, do not move. There is definitely variety in the GLS, and opportunities for career progression, but are you prepared to be stuck in an area for a year or so, which you might not like, e.g. writing legislation?

The culture is completely different, which may or may not be a bad thing, depending on what you like. The main advantage is quality of life. I suggest you try to find out through friends of friends what it is really like before making a big move.

ST -27 Jan 2012 | 10:40

Alternate

Why not try an in-house position?

Anon -06 Mar 2012 | 13:06