Hello

I am a solicitor in-house. Depending in what area of law you qualify into you can absolutely achieve a good balance. Corporate is a no no - but that's where the money is. I work n financial regulation and I work 4 days a week one of which is from home. I start at 9:00/9:30 and finish at 5:30. My line manager doesn't believer in working late and at weekends. One of my colleagues trained at the bank and stayed after qualifying and she has the same hours but works 5 days. I would say that it's not at all impossible - but you have to give up on something .. pay! I am happy with my situation and my 3 year old daughter sees a lot of me. He dad is a corporate lawyer and he still manages to come home everyday for bath and bed time - even if he has to work more later on. It depends where you end up and what it is you are looking for.

Good luck!

Agree with all of the above, best to find something in your current field that does give more flexibility. There's certainly no point staying in a job where you don't feel valued, as eventually that is not a very secure income either. This could get from bad to worse. Of course it could get better too (who knows, your boss may unexpectedly leave next month! It does happen). Better to take the initiative though, and start looking around. Have a chat with Capability Jane and Time Wise Jobs about your options. Think about what sort of flex you need. 4 days a week and 1 day from home? Would something with less commuting time solve all your problems? Working from home 2 mornings? Starting late 2 mornings? Usually if you accept a full-time job, but you know there is flexibility in it, you can make it work AND earn enough. Much harder if you accept a part-time job. Consider also that a a full-time nanny is just for now. Once they are all in school it changes. After school nannies do exist (although are harder to find and may be lesser quality) but especially as your husband is more flexible that may not be an issue. An au-pair may be an option when they are older, or a holiday au-pair if you are struggling covering the holidays. And after age 7 it's more important you have someone who actually knows how to help them with homework. I run a free website helping mothers find work life balance or return to work. Have a look at the pages on flex work to find some organisations that could help you: http://www.mumandcareer.co.uk/flexible-working/ In the IT sector they are desperate for more women, AND working from home and not having a fixed starting time is just normal in many companies in the tech sector. Perhaps your background could give you a good entry there?

It's a really tough decision to make! To add to what others have already said, I am a solicitor and worked in the City (private practice, corporate) for over ten years. After maternity leave for our eldest child, I moved in house.
Generally, private practice particularly in the City is a tough slog. You have to get through law school (expensive, if you don't have a training contract sponsor), secure a training contract which I believe these days can be like gold dust, do 2 years of training when you will be at the beck and call of anyone and everyone and then gain a position on qualification. As both a junior, and senior, lawyer in private practice I regularly worked until the early hours of the morning which just wasn't sustainable post-children.
However, as others have said, that is very much the world of "City law". There are other options out there such as paralegal work (though depending on the firm you may find that it isn't very interesting... a lot of proof reading etc).
If you are keen to explore the legal world though, then with children I would suggest you look at in-house options. It is no guarantee of a better work life balance but it does at least have more potential. Increasingly, the bigger companies offer their own training contracts (although there are fewer of them) which could be a nice and interesting angle. Also, I'm not 100% sure but I think the Government Legal Service now also takes on trainees which could be something to explore. For the latter, although the people I know there still work hard there is a lot more flexibility, scope for home working and part time etc (probably not as a trainee, but later on).
Good luck!

Hi
I am a full time working Mum in a different field but still sales and adore my job, get paid well and have an amazing work/life balance. If you would like to chat let me know.

I am not a lawyer but am/was in a similar position to you and faced a similar dilemma of looking for something else. It wasn't easy. Someone suggested finding a part time role with a similar skillset requirement to your existing capabilities but as someone who has tried that, I have yet to hear of anyone who has managed to find a part time job. If you're in an existing role, it's easier to move to part time than find part time from scratch. It's all full time or nothing.
In my case, the choice was to quit to be a SAHM or stay working 5 days, long hours etc. I've made the decision to stay in work, because I like working and don't want to give up completely but would give my right arm for something 3 days a week, or even 4.
I see my DC for about 15 minutes a day. Well paid as it is, you massively miss out on time with the DC. The point I'm making is that really, if your experience is anything like mine, your options are to put up and shut up, while missing out on your children, or quitting everything you've worked for and becoming a SAHM. The situation for many mums -and generally it is mums - in well paid careers (where it still makes financial sense to work ) is pretty grim and options are quite limited.

I have to agree with the above statements.
My husband and I both worked for a US firm, and when we were ten years qualified I finally quit the law after having our second child and he went on to become a partner. I didn't even seriously ask the firm if I could work part time as I knew it was not a serious proposal and would not work. Having the clients we had were like having a baby - they needed you 24/7. The only difference is that babies have to sleep - eventually! I loved my work but it did not fit with having a family.
When I went back to work full time after baby no 1, my toddler came to see the nanny as his main parent and even had her Polish accent.
The possibilities of part time work in law: a niche area such as Employment Law supporting on transactions is possible to do three days a week (as an experienced lawyer). Or the PSL roles already mentioned - not as fun as working on deals. Or possibly helping with business development.

You poor thing having to make this decision.
I have no experience of the law but after reading all these posts I am feeling very grateful for my 3 day a week, reasonabley-paid job.
Sounds like you would really like to spend some time with your children and, from what people are saying, going down the city route with more training would not achieve this. Could you take the two years off and spend it with your kids instead, then think about going back to what you're doing now, or maybe something totally different. If you're salesy then there must be lots of options open. You don't sound very happy and I would hate you to regret not spending enough time with your kids.
I really hope you decide on something that makes you happy. Good luck.

My husband is a lawyer and law is not really a profession you go to for work/life balance.
Out of his women lawyer colleagues/friends who had children, most opted to take a step down after children and went into part-time jobs/less demanding jobs (i.e. jobs in various government agencies) - this of course came with a significant pay cut.
So for you, I am not sure it makes any sense to go through a new degree, a training contract, the difficulty of finding an entry level job, etc - only to make probably less money than you are on now.

If you are after work/life balance, then I think your best bet is look for a new job similar to yours (or at least a job where the skills are transferable so you can go in at the same level, like someone mentioned already - business development in a law firm). And just work 4 days a week or have the ability to work from home a couple of afternoons per week.

I'm not a solicitor but am the breadwinner working in the city and my husband in the same situation as yours. I dropped everything for a start up FD position a couple of years ago. I was working crazy, my husband hated the pressure this put on him to earn money (whilst before his salary was a bit like pocket money for him tbh|) and this taught us one thing: our couple works with me as working hard and earn a lot. That's how it should remain.

I cannot think of a job which is less family friendly than being a lawyer.

Ok maybe army officer posted abroad. Prime Minister is probably busy. That's about it. I'd think again if I were you!

Have to agree with everything else everyone has said. My hubby is a lawyer and also a number of my friends are.

The legal profession is such an antiquated one and most definitely not family friendly, to women or men for that matter! Most women I know have left their law firms once they have had children, returned to work and just simply couldn't achieve anything close to a work life balance as its not something that is promoted in most firms. It has even driven my husband mad as he's sick of missing school plays, sports days, holidays etc and really envies his friends in other industries who are able to work flexibly or from home in order to fit in family time when needed.

I don't have any suggestions I'm afraid, but you definitely need to pick an industry that is not law!

Hi

I think all of the above responses are very honest and accurate - law is definitely not an easy option in terms of life/work balance and I have spent a long time trying to work out how to make it work for me!

I am a mum of 3 young children. I qualified 10 years ago at a large City firm and slogged out the long hours for a bit before taking an enforced break from the law to move overseas with my husband's work, where I discovered that working 16 hour days as standard wasn't the only way of living and had a bit of a reality check. Fast forward a couple of years and I found myself back in London with a 1yr old and a husband trying to forge a new career. I approached my old law firm who enthusiastically told me that they would love to hVe me back working part time.... 9days out of 10.

That wasn't for me, so I started looking at the freelance route. I was very junior at this point (about 2yrs PQE), which is really too junior for freelance but I got a lucky break and have freelancing through the freelance arms of a couple of the big city firms for the last 5 years (around two more sets of maternity leave). It has worked well for me, but isn't the Holy Grail. There is no financial security, and I survive on bare bones childcare as a result. You get none of the financial perks of being employed and little career progression. If you want to work part time (I do 3 days a week) then you will also sacrifice quality of work. The viability of it is also hugely practice area dependent.

In a nutshell, freelance can work, but only several years down the line and sacrificing a lot of the "good bits". It is serving a purpose for me at the moment but isn't something I will look to do forever. On the plus side, I have huge flexibility and am about to take all of August and September off to have the summer with my kids and settle them back into school. For me, that more than makes up for the limitations

Most of the replies you've had so far have been in relation to city corporate law so thought I'd widen the pool a bit - although it's not much better news.

I'm a divorce lawyer. In my field it is possible to work alone but you first need to go to law school, get a training contract (against very stiff competition at all levels of firm in London these days), then land a job on qualification, put in 3 years post qualification working at a law firm (crazy hours), build a client followimg and then you can set up alone (subject to getting all the necessary authorisations and insurances). It is a long slog and frankly whilst you'll be your own boss and the pay is good the hours are on a par with if not worse than at a law firm, as you need to be constantly recruiting new clients.

There are now various virtual law firms who you can work for remotely but they usually demand 4 years post qualification experience plus a client following.

I'd rule out solicitor if I were you as whilst it might be possible to achieve the balance you want it's only an option after 7 years or so of very hard work and seriously long hours.

Paralegal would be a better option if time at home is your priority but if your sales job has been well paid it would probably involve a pay cut.

I'm a mum of three and currently working a 3 day week as a professional support lawyer in finance at a city firm.

I've been qualified for 9 years so it's taken several years of working long hours to now get a good work life balance. Generally PSL roles are filled by mid and senior level lawyers and can be in high demand.

However, some of the big firms have very big knowledge management teams so there are some junior professional support/knowledge management roles so this could be an option. You would still need to go through the rigours of the training contract.

Other options could be being paralegal or working in business development in a law firm, both of which could benefit from your previous experience.

All the best and good luck!

Gosh, I can almost hear the hollow laughter from all the solicitor mothers I know. Work life balance is notoriously bad for lawyers, especially at the junior end (and unfortunately I don't think your previous experience would help much in propelling you upwards more quickly). Perhaps better outside the City (maybe), but then your pay may not cover childcare. Law also doesn't lend itself very well to freelancing/self employment.

I suspect there are other jobs where your sales experience would be more valued and which would give you greater flexibility. At least I hope so!