TO LEAVE LAW OR NOT TO LEAVE: WHAT ARE THE OPTIONS?
30 April 2009
I am writing this instalment after a week of late nights, missed appointments, cancelled plans and disappointed friends. This seems to be pretty usual for the corporate lawyers I know, and it has made me wonder whether or not it is the area of law, rather than the whole of law that I am not satisfied with. After all, it is hard to unwind and enjoy life outside of work when you are rarely home before 9pm on an evening and then back in the office less than12 hours later.
My thoughts this week have been compounded by the visit of a friend from law school, who works for a small high street firm where the partners come round at 5pm to round up “stragglers” and make them go home, and where lawyers don’t have to worry about recording billable hours. So far, so tempting.
I decide to investigate the possibility of switching careers within the law to see if this would give me the job satisfaction I crave or whether I will reach another dead end, as I have in the corporate world of a City firm.
Along with moving practice areas, I consider the possibility of moving types of firms, from large City to boutique or regional, for example, or even to the high street.
I, along with many of my classmates from law school, was seduced by the glossy brochures, slick-suited recruiters and, of course, fancy freebies which are rolled out at university recruitment fairs by the large law firms. This is before factoring in the maintenance grants and law school fees which are paid out two years before you even have to set foot in the office. I was of course much more tempted by this option than the prospect offered by the high street of paying my own fees and practicing subjects like residential conveyancing and family law. The idea of corporate law seemed much more glamorous, sexier somehow, this notion no doubt fuelled by the representation of lawyers on television and in films (which all lawyers will surely agree is a fallacy).
However, even now, despite the potential for reduced hours and an approach less driven by targets and more by results, the high street doesn’t appeal to me. And friends who work for regional and national firms with corporate departments seem to work long hours with similar work. So perhaps this type of move wouldn’t work for me, although it is definitely worth consideration, particularly for lawyers with regional ties.
My research tells me that it is possible to move from one area of law into another, particularly within the first few years post-qualification. This is easier still if you stay within a similar field. Recently, I have also heard of corporate and banking lawyers moving into insolvency, litigation and even employment law as the work in their respective areas has dried up.
However, for me, my training contract was for deciding which practice area to qualify into. I chose transactional work over the other areas I did seats in, even if it was the lesser of the evils, rather than a department I was particularly passionate about.
This is made all the clearer reading through a series of very dry transactional documents this week, and emphasised by a friend’s justification for having not chosen law as a career: I couldn’t bear reading things I have no interest in.
This is the lightbulb moment for me: I have no interest in my area of law, however it was the best that I encountered. I decide that switching within law will only delay my inevitable decision to leave and that from now onwards, short of a very unlikely about-turn in my thinking, my decision will be to leave and my next question to tackle will be where next?
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