Bored in a legal role. Too much effort / stress / admin / being an invisible thankless superman (that costs too much money). Any ideas for what I could move into without taking a dramatic mega-lol paycut? I feel kind of pot committed with my skill set :/
I looked at air traffic control but the pay drop would be comparatively brutal for the first few years.
(Note some of the below is no doubt stating the obvious/talking about stuff you're probably even more familiar with but is there simply to lay out my pov re: being close to the money/taking on risk.)
Surely air traffic control is going the opposite way - it seems to be the recommended thing for people on here to chance/attempt if they've not got a skillset or much direction in life but want to earn a reasonable wage. High failure rate and a period of training but a well paid job in the end. You might as well say you considered becoming a train driver. Presumably as a solicitor you're already on a reasonable wage.
In general you'll get a shot at getting more money/getting rich by taking on risk and/or getting closer to the money. Getting a skillset that fewer people have can get you a nice, relatively low risk salary though and in some cases isn't to be sniffed at. At the moment you're in an established and somewhat protected profession which has already helped boost your wages - as I'm sure you're aware there are plenty of law grads out there, way more than there are training contracts, you've got through that and got yourself qualified and experienced etc.. which commands a certain amount of pay.
By getting closer to the money I mean you being responsible for generating more revenue - I'm probably stating the obvious by highlighting that barristers are automatically included here by nature of being self employed and having freedom to take on more work etc.. ditto to partners in law firms who have responsibility to bring in new business and indeed earn from those below them who then need to do the work that the partners have generated. Of course there is heavy competition for both, lots of initial competition to even become a barrister and/or lots of hard work/competition over time to become a solicitor that makes it to partner. I guess if this was your goal then your post wouldn't be here.
If you're an employee in some other non-law firm then you're often not going to be close to the money as a lawyer. In a financial company you're likely back office, you're an expense - a useful one or they'd not have you but your main leverage is perhaps that you develop some specific skill set that would be harder to replace much like some IT or operations or finance (accounting) people.
I guess you might find some in house lawyers with corporate finance experience who might be more directly involved in deals in say investment banking or private equity firms etc.. they're certainly closer to the money and can get paid well. Perhaps there is something similar available for someone with a real estate background.
If you don't want to be a salary man and climb the corporate ladder/acquire more skills/experience in order to earn a higher salary etc.. then you might need to take on some risk. Setting up your own firm as a lawyer would perhaps be the obvious and lower risk option here but is also hard work and perhaps another obvious option you'e thought about. Finding a property investor or investors and setting up some sort of business with them might be a higher risk one. Or indeed if you had identified some area that you think could be improved with tech and that you have some expertise over then pairing up with someone with a tech background and launching a start up could be an even riskier but potentially even more lucrative option. There are various events where you can essentially speed date for start up cofounders and indeed various universities will match up say grad students with technical skillsets with potential co-founders too. High risk option but could be an interesting thing to attempt.
