Why do people quit City law?

People quit stable, well-paying jobs with large commercial law firms for a variety of reasons. In this newsletter, I give an insight into why I personally quit the City, and I provide some links to resources and interviews where you can hear about others' experiences.

But first...

1. HUGE SERIES OF FREE LAW CAREER WEBINARS

For the first time ever, we've managed to schedule our full series of free Autumn employability webinars in advance!

This year we'll be covering a few brand new topics, including private equity, legal industry trends, and how to successfully navigate a corporate environment, as well as our traditional sessions on commercial awareness, application writing, interview preparation, psychometric tests, the role of lawyers, and networking.

We'll also be presenting alongside some excellent speakers, including Hannah Salton (ex-Magic Circle recruiter), Peter Watson(ex-stock broker), Luke Mitchinson (ex-Magic Circle/elite US lawyer turned recruiter), Robert Hanna (top LinkedIn voice and leading legal community builder), TikTok sensation That Corporate Lawyer (Henry Nelson-Case), and more.

All events are capped at 500 people, with access granted on a first-come-first-served basis, so register now for any events that particularly interest you (and please help to spread the word!).

Learn more about - and register to attend - specific events via this link.

2. CALLING ALL UNIVERSITY SOCIETY EXECS

Last year, we worked with dozens of leading law and commercial awareness-related societies from a broad range of UK and European universities.

Their members benefitted from access to a comprehensive range of free expert-led resources and career support, including best-selling books, critically-acclaimed courses, and more.

We're now looking to set up our 2024/25 society partnerships, so if you're on an exec committee, please email us via [email protected] (or DM Jake Schogger ) so that we can send over the details of what we're offering.

If you know someone else who's on an exec, please tag them in this post to help spread the word!

Why I left the City

I left the City for two key reasons.?

Firstly, I wanted more control over my time. By “control”, I don’t mean that I wanted to work fewer hours. Instead, I mean that I wanted more oversight over what work was potentially coming my way (rather than having to drop everything at a moment’s notice), plus the ability to turn work down.

Why?

So that it would be easier to plan my social/family life and to properly commit to non-work-related events and responsibilities.

I probably work far more hours on average now - as a self-employed business owner - than I did in the City, but I have ultimate control over those hours, which makes a huge difference to me.

Note that my son was born towards the end of my training contract, which I think fed into this desire; things may have been different had I started working in the City in my early 20s, before having children.

Secondly, I wanted to be able to see the direct impact that my personal contributions were having, which I found difficult when working on huge legal matters with dozens of other advisers.

For some, “impact” means working on multimillion pound, high-profile, headline-grabbing projects, which is a totally reasonable interpretation. But for me, I cared less about the prestige.

Instead, I now find myself really enjoying working with founders of small, early-stage businesses, where my advice has a real perceivable impact on those businesses.

It doesn’t matter to me that most people haven’t heard of those businesses (for now!), or that the monetary sums involved are comparatively small.

Of course, money and job security are also important considerations.

But for me, it was worth sacrificing some of my income and accepting lower levels of job security to have the career I wanted. It’s simply a matter of personal preference.

For deeper insights into what these alternative careers can involve, and how law students and lawyers tend to develop the skills needed to succeed, check out our Alternative careers in and outside of law course and this blog post.

In this course, ex-City lawyers discuss their journeys into law, what they liked about being a lawyer, why they left the City, what they're doing now, and how their legal training helped in a non-legal context. This includes individuals who now work in journalism, operations, legal tech, crypto, entrepreneurship, property, recruitment, start-ups, and more.

The course also includes an 8-part animated video series covering dozens of non-legal careers that require many of the skills and attributes often developed by law students and lawyers. This includes a range of creative, commercial, education, operations, politics, and start-up roles, as well as roles related to law that don't actually involve practising law.

In each video, we explain what the career can involve, and how aspects of the roles correspond with the tasks often carried out in the context of legal education and legal practice.

As a reminder,?Commercial Law Academy?offers 23 in-depth courses, covering: insights into legal careers, firm profiles and interview insights, expert advice on writing applications and tackling psychometric tests, dozens of example (verified) successful cover letters and applications, resources to help you prepare for interviews and internships, example interview case studies, M&A and private equity, practical content to help you understand and confidently discuss commercial concepts and current affairs, plus tips on how to network, negotiate, deliver presentations and write professionally. Check out this?animated explainer video?for more information.