Depressed lawyer - what do I do?

TBagpuss

As others have said, burn out is very, very common in City law firms. It doesn't mean you are a failure nor even necessarily that you could not be happy if you remained in Law.

You could think about sideways moves - a member of my extended family moved out of Lodon when they had children, and moved from a Magic Cirle firm to a local one, and changed from dealing with huge commerical clients, to doing conveyancing work. They said it woked really well for them - it was far less pressured (even though conveyancing is quite high pressure!), and dealing with people daily was more interesting then the more commerical focusat the prvious firm.

If you don't yet owna property or have chilren, you are in a good position to be able to take stock and change careers or take a step or two back if you stay in law but change to a diffrent area of speciality.

Think about hat elemnts of the job, and bfoe that, what about studying law, did appel to you, or you found interesting, and start from there. Is there a different careerthat now appeals to you?

If you want, consider taking some time out, and perhaps working as a locum for a short time, while you plan.

In the mean time, yes, absolutely see a doctor - and als, talk to your partner.

You could try the Law SOciety's Pastoral care helpline, too - 020 7320 5795 - I am sure that they will have had others in a simialr position and if nothing else, may be able to reassure you that you are not alone, and possible also suggest things that have been helpful for others in your situation. LawCare may also be helpful https://www.lawcare.org.uk/ (they have a specifc fact shet about moving on from law, it obviously comes up often enough for that to be worth doing, so you may find that they have other useful resoecues as well, or can point you in the right direction.

[Deleted User]

I don't think this needs over analysis .


You are not having one bad day you just don't like the profession you are in. Law is not going to change no matter who / where you work .


You know you have to leave and now you have to plan how to do it.


That's where you efforts need to be, Having a plan is totally liberating because you are taking steps to a better life.

Tammykitty

OP - I work in finance, and was feeling the same as you about my career - I trained in the "big 4" and moved into industry to organisations that were quite demanding, and was at burn out stage.
I moved to the public sector (with a large pay cut) but haven't looked back - the work life balance is so much better.
So take a look and see what jobs might be available for you in other sectors


I know many public sector organisations have in house legal advisors.

TBagpuss

BBH123 wrote: »

I don't think this needs over analysis .


You are not having one bad day you just don't like the profession you are in. Law is not going to change no matter who / where you work .

I don't think this is necessarily true. Law has a huge range of types of work and the experience of someone working in (say) Compnay/Commercial in a City Firm and someone working in (say) Private Client Wills & Probate) in a High Street practice are hugely different, and both will be different again from someone working in-house in a Local Authority, which in turn will be different to someone working in-house in Industry.

Of course if OP decides that they want out of the profession altogether then that is absolutely their choice, but it sounds from the original post that they have moved from a large city firm to a slightly smaller city firm, rather than looking at whether there are other legal jobs ouside the bubble that is the city.

I know that City jobs can be seen as the 'best' becuase they pay so well, but they are not for eveyone, and thre are lots of pother legal jobs where you can have a totally diferent experience, it's worth considering those possibilities as well as thinking bout a total change to a completely new career, unless of course there is something that you desperately want to do. If you are running fromrathe than running to, it's worth stopping and thinking about what specifcally you are running from, and whether it is "Law in any shape whatsoever" or whether its "City Law where I work 12 hour days and never meet anyone except other lawyers and the odd Banker"

Crazy_Jamie

BBH123 wrote: »

You are not having one bad day you just don't like the profession you are in. Law is not going to change no matter who / where you work .

I'm really just repeating what has been said above, but this isn't correct. The day to day life of a solicitor varies significantly depending on the area of law that they practise, and where they practise it. Working in the City is notorious for requiring solicitors to trade quality of life and work/life balance for remuneration. It may be that the OP is done with law and needs a different focus entirely, but equally it is perfectly possible for the OP to find a role elsewhere with an entirely different professional lifestyle.

Woolco

I have not read the post. You know how you come on and read mince. This is one of these.

Barny1979

Woolco wrote: »

I have not read the post. You know how you come on and read mince. This is one of these.

What the flip?

Smodlet

OP, when you first chose law, what did you think your life might be? Did you think you were going to be Erin Brockovich? Yes, I do know she was not actually a lawyer, thank you; my point is, did you think you were going to change the world?

I picked up a whiff that your relationship might not be in the best place either, perhaps not surprisingly; stress does no relationship any good, as I know from experience.

What do you enjoy doing? I am sorry if this sounds trite but I am minded of John Whaite, the guy who won Bakeoff; he was doing a law degree because he thought it was "expected" when his passion was baking.

We have only one life (unless you firmly believe in reincarnation) Best to get it right first time, no? I second the suggestions to take a sabbatical or quit altogether if that is what seems best to you. Your qualifications and experience will not evaporate. What about travelling? Working with animals or children? Painting or some such? What do you want to do? Or do you just want it all to stop?

You can both afford and deserve a break. I don't claim to know anything about what a lawyer's life is like but do know finally quitting the civil service after nearly 12 years felt like being reborn. Yes, it was a leap but worth it.

Apparently "getting in touch with nature" can heal a great many invisible wounds. It would not work for me but might for you. The world is your oyster; how about going out there and fishing for it?

I wish you peace.

unlikelyheroine

I also trained in the City at a top firm (not Magic Circle but one of the half a dozen firms just below it) and I know exactly how you feel. I moved firms a few times but my mental health really began to suffer after a few years even as I tried to adapt.

As others, particularly Crazy Jamie (great post!) have said, your situation is not unusual and many people who train at big firms have a very similar experience. There is nothing wrong with not being able to deal with most law firm cultures at all, even if you’re a solicitor and it seems like the holy grail to be at a “good” firm — the pressure to generate billable hours when there are few to be had, for example, which you mentioned, is incredibly soul-destroying and probably worse than feeling overloaded, and it happens in so many firms, even smaller ones. So too does the office politics, the weird motivational set-up where you’re really working just to make a small subset of the partners spectacularly rich, and you’re encouraged to compete against colleagues in a less than collegial way if you want your own career to advance... the list goes on.

If you’re finding it difficult to get support for how you feel because people look at the salary and supposed reputation of the firm and its work etc and don’t get what the issue is, I can also relate. It can be hard to explain to others why it really isn’t that great, because the negativity isn’t immediately obvious sometimes, but builds up day-by-day; in part because the structure of these firms demands lots of people at the bottom of the pyramid and a small number at the top, so they’re trying to manage most people out from day one, and in part because it can happen quite insidiously that you find yourself prioritising work over everything else, bit-by-bit.

What’s extremely challenging for a lot of people is it gets no easier to deal with the culture as you get more qualified — whilst you have a better handle on the work, you’re under more and more pressure to justify your existence. In many firms, an average lawyer with a friend who instructs a lot of business to them will make partner over a good technical lawyer who’s a more pleasant person to work with, every day of the week, as that’s the business model.

As others have suggested, rather than retraining completely, I’d encourage you to use your legal training another way before you ditch it completely, because law indeed is so varied and the training and skills you have can be used other ways. A lot of people will say “go in-house”, but this isn’t always easy as good roles are difficult to get, but you have Magic Circle training, which is always going to help. Have a look at the The Lawyer and Legal Week jobs and also at LinkedIn Jobs — I’m not a huge fan of LinkedIn but it seems to pick up quite a few legal roles that don’t get posted other places and it’s where I saw the ad for my current in-house role. Also look at company websites for the sort of sector that you’re interested in on the corporate side and see if they have legal roles open or perhaps something related that you could feasibly throw your CV at — company secretary, compliance etc. Some legal roles will allow you to do more corporate stuff.

I agree that if you want and need time out, then take it — firms make you feel like this is impossible from a career perspective but it isn’t really.

I wish you a lot of luck and happiness and I hope you are in a much better-suited role very soon.

pjcox2005

I won't repeat what others have said, but echo sorting mental health etc first is sensible.


Just touching on the part about pursuing a Masters degree/business school - just think what you are trying to achieve first and likely career. If for example you went into Big 4 accountancy then I'd expect it's little use as they'll provide all required training/qualifications to study and will likely see the experience you already bring with the current career.