Withdrawing from my TC before beginning the SQE

[Stuck.com]

I have a TC offer from a city law firm and I am considering withdrawing from the process before the SQE begins this September.

From my experience working at city law firms as a paralegal and also in-house, the job of a solicitor does appeal. The long hours, stress, non-existent work-life balance, and culture of law firms have put me off the career. The thought of going back to university to study the SQE full-time after graduating from the LLB nearly 10 years ago now does not appeal either. I have a job working in ops within investment banking which surpasses the salary of most city law firm NQs (including the firm I have the TC with), however, it is just a job without real routes for progression. The role provides me with a good work-life balance, mostly no stress, the ability to work mostly remotely, good working culture etc. However, I am finding it difficult to let the TC go due to how hard I had to work for it, also knowing that long-term being a qualified lawyer could open many doors.

Thoughts welcomed.

 

[Jessica Booker]

This is tricky - and I suspect my advice would be no matter who says what in response to your thread, only you will really know what to do.

A couple of points from what you have said though:

You have worked hard for your career to date. There if often too much discourse on the effort needed to put into securing a career in law, but in reality, you will have worked a lot harder for your current career, even if it doesn’t feel that it was as challenging. I suspect also your career will also open many doors too, they just might not be obvious right now. Could you instead try to find what your route to progression could be in this area or at least make one?

I think if you really feel that the hours, stress, and culture of law firms is not for you, this is a pretty big combination of factors. Most lawyers probably put up with one of those factors and don’t have an issue with the others.

I think you need to think about what you are going to get from the job apart from the longer term “door opening” opportunities. Think about the more short term benefits. What is the job going to give you on a Monday morning in December when you’d prefer to be staying at home and working remotely, but instead you have to haul yourself into the office for 8.00am for a call with Hong Kong, knowing that you’ll also be staying late as you also have a call with a US client at 8.00pm. Is there enough in the actual job to keep you happy/motivated when the things you don’t like are going to bring your energy levels down?

I also think you need to think about whether a different type of law firm might be better suited to you, if it’s about hours/culture, although it sounds like you’ll need to take a significant pay cut if that’s the change in direction. It sounds like you will effectively already be out of pocket for 4-5 years, so could you really afford for this to be more?

This might sound weird coming from a TCLA staff member that mostly encourages people to pursue the career, but too many people jump on the treadmill of pursuing a career in commercial law, and then really struggle to stop. They focus far too much of how much of a journey it has been to get there, or how people will perceive them as a failure for changing their mind. If the outcome is not going to make them happy, I don’t understand why people double down at that point. Why are you choosing something that will make you unhappy just because of perception, whether that be yours or someone else’s?