We’ve recently had a question into ten-percent asking us about returning to the profession. Quite a popular request!
The query was from a solicitor who qualified in 1999, worked for one year as a solicitor (so 1 year PQE) before leaving the profession for the next 20 years. In that time the person has been working on something completely unconnected to law and wonders what chance they have of a return to practice.
What Chances Are There?
The quick answer if you don’t have time to read the full article, is that there are always chances of returning and also age should not be an issue necessarily. Time and effort are required!
Refresher Courses
Refresher courses are no good at actually getting somebody through the door and back into their career in most circumstances.
Obviously a Certificate in Wills & Probate Practice is going to be useful if you have nothing on your CV other than personal injury say, as at least something to demonstrate an interest. However this is not the key to getting a foot in the door. Most recruiters look for work experience rather than certificates.
Work Experience, Work Experience, Work Experience
To paraphrase a politician at some point in time, there is only one solution to this issue. The key to getting a foot in the door is to get recent practical experience on your CV. You need to be contacting firms directly to ask for work experience. We often get incredulous looks when we talk about work experience for somebody who may be in their 40s or 50s but the same applies exactly to a university leaver aged 23 as it does to somebody in their 50s who has been out of the profession for 20+ years.
Whilst you have the benefit of your qualification you do not have recent experience and therefore your chances of getting a paid job are very limited in most firms. However it may benefit both parties for you to join a firm for a few hours a day as a qualified solicitor and help out with junior tasks whilst getting back into the swing of things. Work experience only needs to be a couple of months at most – once added to your CV this will change everything usually.
Apply for Jobs that don’t Exist
This may sound slightly nuts, but you can also apply for jobs that don’t exist, simply by offering your services as a qualified solicitor to work in a practice. This might attract some of the smaller firms in particular, so for example if you see a small firm on the high street that does conveyancing and you fancy having a go with it you could offer them your services as a qualified solicitor, but say that you don’t necessarily expect remuneration to start off with. You would welcome a trial or work experience and then look to get paid once you have experience the practice values.
Network
The other way back in is to network and one of the easiest and fastest ways of doing this is to get onto LinkedIn and start contacting potential firms in your area to offer your services as a solicitor with a practising certificate. Start posting things, write articles, connect to friends. Put a note on to say that you are looking for a firm to take you on.
Practising Certificate & Consultancy
Getting your practising certificate renewed initially is very useful. It’s one thing approaching a firm and asking for work and they ask if you have a practising certificate (very often the first question). If you don’t then obviously you’re on the back foot before you start. If you have one actually in place, then you are a practising solicitor again.
Furthermore, the more practising certificates you hold over a period of time the more recent experience you have whether or not you are in work. One other option as a final piece of advice would be to contact firms to ask if you can register yourself with them as a consultant and get paid on the basis of a percentage split for work. Whilst you probably don’t want to be doing this, particularly if you don’t have much experience or have been out of the profession for a very long time because you are going to need lots of supervision, it will at least get your name onto The Law Society website.
In summary yes it’s perfectly possible to get back in but it all depends on how much work you’re prepared to put in and how much time you are prepared to invest.
