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Getting out of Law - our experiences from career coaching

Career coaching is a fairly integral part of our business and something we have been doing since 2001. Quite a few of the people who come to see us are solicitors who have completed betweeen 3 and 5 years post-qualification and disillusioned. One of the most popular queries is: "surely there is something more to life than this?".

Getting out of the legal profession is similarly a very popular topic that we spend some time advising on. If you are considering this yourself, please bear in mind the following quick advice.

Lawyers tend to fall into two categories.

1. Those who think they want to leave the legal profession but actually have problems in their workplace.
2. Those who have no problems with the work place but actually thoroughly dislike law and the legal profession.

It is important to differentiate between the two situations if you are considering your own position. Highly paid London solicitors often want to leave their jobs because although they are very well paid they work long hours or there is a partner causing problems at work or systematically bullying staff. Lowly paid high street solicitors often want to leave the profession because they are badly paid. High street solicitors want more money, commercial solicitors want more time.

http://www.lawcare.org/ have a good list on their site of alternative jobs and professions lawyers have gone into that may be of interest. Some solicitors feel trapped as any advice sought is often met with well-intentioned "are you sure, seems a waste to leave after all that training."

For legal career coaching please visit www.ten-percent.co.uk/career.htm
We have two dates available in the next 4 weeks in central London - 24th May and 1st June.

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

Our Legal Careers Shop has eBooks on CV Writing for Lawyers, Legal Job Interview Guide, Interview Answers for Lawyers, NQ Career Guide, Guide to Finding Work Experience or a Training Contract and the Entrants Guide to the Legal Profession. To visit our Sale/Clearance section please click here.

www.ten-percent.co.uk/careersshop


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