Recently, I've been reading about how people in the legal profession who themselves are highly talented and competent professionals are leaving their roles as lawyers, whether trainees, NQs or more senior.
Here are just a handful of folks who have left practice over the last few years or so:
Jaysen Sutton - left his training contract at a London-based US law firm to create The Corporate Law Academy, which has supported dozens of aspiring lawyers in earning TCs and gaining employment in corporate law firms.
Eloise Skinner - left her tax associate role at a US firm to become a successful author and entrepreneur, and has been giving back to her communities in abundance.
Eve Cornwell - qualified at the Magic Circle firm she trained at, and then left 4 months into her NQ role to join her firm's legal tech practice.
Claire Williamson - left her role as a property litigation solicitor at a Magic Circle firm to retrain as a resilience coach, and is one of the directors of the resilience and mental health training company Leading Minds.
Leah Steele - left practice after 8 years post-qualified experience (PQE) as a solicitor and retrained as a burnout and resilience coach. Her company Searching for Serenity provides lawyers and firms with training around burnout, imposter syndrome, stress and resilience.
On the face of it, it seems a chilling indictment on the state of the profession right now, including the demands on its junior members. But with there being so many talented lawyers and professionals leaving (not just the 5 above), it means questions are being asked about what the profession, its members and employers can do to retain these talented individuals for as long as they can and for as long as the individuals want to.
But I think the first question the profession and its members need to ask themselves is "what are we doing wrong?"
Here are a few things that I've noticed that could be contributing to an exodus of talented professionals and lawyers from full-time legal practice.
We were sold the dream, but with no real awareness of the less rosy picture
As young as 15 or so, when we come to think about A levels or apprenticeships or future careers, we were sold a rosy picture of what it would be like to work as a lawyer. Some of us even cite legal dramas like Suits, The Good Wife, or How to Get Away with Murder as being reasons why we wanted to start working towards a career in law because we were fascinated by what we saw.
Law is of course a highly desirable profession/industry to be seen to be working in, and the training and advancement in knowledge and skills that you can get from studying and practicing are highly desirable again, particularly to employers whoever they are (lawyers or otherwise). And every firm/company wants to attract the next generation of lawyers and industry leaders for themselves and to represent them well, and so that their direct competitors don't take them on instead.
But let's be honest, no one will be so open about the less rosy picture of a career in law, will they? It might reflect badly on the firm, the individuals who share the less rosy picture, and the supervisors responsible for creating a less than stellar environment for the employees who then go on to talk about the less rosy picture.
Some of these things might include:
Long hours, sometimes late into the night
Poor work-life balance/integration due to client and employer demands
A culture and mentality of "always-on"
Not enough support for lawyers in high-traffic practice areas
Not enough support for lawyers to manage expectations of themselves, their employer or their clients
Not enough support for diverse lawyers from different backgrounds or circumstances who may have their own challenges to deal with, along with the challenges of the profession
Poor mental health due to the stresses and demands of the profession
Disrupted patterns of eating, sleeping and exercise
This means that aspiring lawyers will probably be trying to enter the profession without the full picture of what it is truly like to work full time in legal practice. Then when they realise its not all sunshine and rainbows, and when the non-stop long hours or overbearing clients or overbearing managers get too much for them, they'll be gone and will take with them burnout, exhaustion, PTSD, and resentment that they weren't made fully aware of the whole picture when they started their journey.
Lacking in purpose where they were
We are a privileged species to be able to give real thought to what our purpose in life is, especially considering where we came from. Our very early ancestors' purpose was, quite simply, survival in a harsh world. Our purpose was to not get eaten by a sabre-toothed tiger, whilst also being able to eat and find some sort of safety for us and our tribes.
But in the age we live in now, we have so much information and opportunity around us that we can give real thought to what we want to do with our lives.
I enjoy Mark Manson's work and what he says about purpose is really interesting. When people ask "what is my purpose in life", what they're actually asking is "What can I do with my time on this earth that is important?"
Other variations on this could be:
What is the best thing that I can give to this world?
How am I going to save the world? - ok you can't fix all the world's problems, but you can at least contribute to making a difference!
The only person who can answer that question is you, and being able to ask yourself that question shows an incredible amount of self-awareness.
Perhaps people who leave the profession feel that their roles weren't fulfilling their purpose in life or their career and so they looked elsewhere to see what they could do or where they could go to find that fulfilment and to find their purpose, and incorporate what fulfils them into what they do for work and to serve people.
Perhaps they couldn't answer the question "are you truly happy here" with a resounding "hell yes!" and so they took their leave to pursue something else.
Stupidly high demands of young lawyers just starting off
The demands of junior lawyers, particularly those entering commercial law in big cities like London, are increasing all the time. Notice how there are firms offering ridiculous sums of money to newly qualified lawyers, sometimes over £100k a year?
On one hand, imagine what you could do with all that money (though in Central London, probably not as much as you might think!). But on the other, what must be the expectations of those young lawyers to warrant paying them so much money per year?
A business needs to bring in clients and bill enough money to continue to pay its staff. That much is obvious. And at big city-based firms that have hundreds of lawyers at different stages of qualification and seniority, the amount that needs to be bought in has to be astronomical in order to pay everyone their respective amounts, regardless of if they're partner or paralegal, business support or in-house maintenance staff.
I've also noticed that we glorify "overworking" too. Talking about how you worked from 7am until 1am the next morning, or something else just as ridiculous, not getting enough sleep, not eating properly, not getting a decent amount of exercise, not investing enough in our families and our personal lives and things that make us truly happy, all of these are used as badges of honour! But it leads to exhaustion, burnout, depression, and losing your happiness and sense of identity.
Creativity is stymied
One of the things the above people have in common is that they are very creative people. They are happy when they are able to bring their creativity to their work, their employer and their clients.
Creative people are the best versions of themselves and feel very fulfilled and happy when they are able to create things. Different creative people find happiness and fulfilment doing different things like drawing, painting, streamlining, producing, directing, editing, photography, video creation, podcasting, building, and so much more.
When we are discouraged from using our own creative skills and approaches to do our job, or told to deprioritise these skills from the main job of making our employer money, we do start to feel unfulfilled in our role, perhaps even more so if we have been given an indication by our employer or the profession that our creativity is something to be valued and that it will be valued by our employer or the profession. Being told to "put a mask on" or not utilise the skills we have just because they're not seen as "good, traditional skills for the profession" does no favours to our health, wellbeing, fulfilment, happiness or desire to keep doing what we are currently doing for our employer, profession or clients
Priorities and what you want in a career/job changed, and they no longer align with the profession you are in right now
Over time, our priorities and what we want from a career or from life change. This is completely normal in our journey through life.
It could be because of personal life events, or it could be because of the changing world that we live in! For instance, the COVID-19 pandemic has encouraged so many of us to check in with ourselves and what we value in life and in work, and we've seen a huge move towards flexibility in working hours and work locations as being what we are valuing more over things like pay, quality of clients, a swimming pool in the office (!), and other extra things like that.
Let me put it this way.
At the time of writing this today, I'm 32 years old.
I completed the LPC when I was 29.
I started my very first paralegal job when I was 28.
I started my very first paid job (not in law) when I was 24.
My first experience of professional work was a volunteering role I started when I was 23.
I completed my LLB degree when I was 22.
I decided I was going to go to university and study law, and so mapped out my GCSEs and A levels that would give me the best foundation for it, when I was 14............ yep, 14!
At each of these stages, what I wanted from my life and my career was very different to every other stage in my life. And what I'm looking for from my life and career at 32 years old now is starkly different to what I wanted when I was 28 or 24 or 22.
We'll never be the same person today that we were 5, 10 or even 20 years ago because we go through life and gain these experiences that make us think more deeply about what we want that will fulfil us and make us happy.
So what do we think the profession should be doing to retain its young creative lawyers?
Ask for feedback regularly to foster greater employee loyalty and retention
Employees who feel engaged at all times will want to remain because they feel they are being listened to and valued. Asking them for feedback in a way that encourages employees to speak freely, ie not like "Do you have any feedback" which will most likely get a response of "no" but instead framing it like "What do you think?" or "What would be your take" or "What would be your feedback on what we've just done?", means you are showing that you want to hear from them, you truly value their input, and you want to take what they have to say into account. Simple as that!
Greater encouragement of creative lawyers to take advantage of their skills
The profession benefits from creativity, new ways of thinking and new ways of reaching solutions. It needs to be creative and innovative if it is going to continue to allow its members to best serve its clients. Often clients don't care how the work is done; just that it is done. And the traditional ways of approaching a problem or a piece of work might not work for those of us who learn and train differently - remember there are so many different ways of learning (auditory, visual, kinesthetic, and written), regardless of if you are neurodivergent or neurotypical. So employers embracing these novel working practices to benefit more creatively-minded lawyers means the lawyers are more encouraged to use their skills and bring their best.
Prioritise good mental health practices
I've yet to see many private practice firms truly prioritise their staff's good mental health or create a culture of being open about our mental health and any struggles we're having. Thrive Law and Stephenson Law appear to do fairly well here, and I know for a fact that CEL Solicitors does very well here! One or two other firms also say that they offer therapy sessions to incoming trainees. But token gestures to entice staff in are meaningless, and talk is cheap too. Consistent actions will always speak louder than words ever will so if you are serious about prioritising staff mental health in your company, then put your money where your mouth is!
Remember that for every £1 spent on mental health interventions, an employer gets £5 back in reduced absence, presenteeism and employee turnover.
Greater support for "invisible skills" right from the outset
This includes skills like prioritisation, time management, managing expectations of ourselves, our employer and our clients. Some of us may have the chance to gain and develop these in non-legal jobs, or some of us may only get our first chance to develop these skills in our first legal practice role, but the skill level needed in a legal practice job is on the next level given the demands of the profession and clients on the members.
Confidence as an invisible skill and mindset is something that is so important to lawyers, particularly as we have to project that air of absolute and utter competency even if in our minds we're like "I don't have a clue what I'm doing!" (spoiler alert: more lawyers than you think feel this too!). Instead I mean authentic confidence in our abilities and in the advice we give. It is certainly a trainable skill and it can be used in so many other areas of legal practice too.
So whilst these are just a few of the reasons talented people might have for leaving the profession, and a few things that the profession can do to help retain these talented professionals, each of us will have our own reasons for wanting to continue on our legal practice journey or pursue something else, and each of us will have our own opinions as to what the profession can and should do to try to retain us and other talented professionals.
These are my thoughts. Feel free to share yours around your own network and community and friends. Start a conversation, have open and frank discussions, ask deep questions of yourself, and develop greater self-awareness of your motivations and your goals. It can only be positive for you!
Be safe and be well! :)
P
Further reading:
Why I Left Law - by Jaysen Sutton - Jaysen’s Newsletter (substack.com)
Post | LinkedIn (from Leading Minds)
7 Strange Questions That Help You Find Your Life Purpose (markmanson.net)
Poor mental health costs UK employers up to £45 billion a year | Deloitte UK
The entry-level workers earning six-figure salaries - BBC Worklife
Credit: Cover image photo by Leon Seibert on Unsplash