Quitting my Law Training Contract during my First Seat - Help!

It is never nice to be in a situation like this. But I think you have to take a long term view. Look at this with a 10year or 20year horizon, not a 2year horizon.

The key question is do you want to qualify as a solicitor or not. I doubt any other firm will take you on if you quit a TC mid-way through.

If you do want to qualify as a solicitor, then I think you should slug it out. The reality is that 6months or even 2years is not a long period of time in the scheme of your overall career. It wouldn't be the end of the world to keep your head down, do a half-arsed job and move to a different firm or a different area of law or in-house after you have qualified.

You should also remember that different seats can be very different for all sorts of reasons. It is entirely possible that you might enjoy your next seat more than this one.

It is also worth remembering that you can absolutely come across unfriendly, nasty, stressed people who treat trainees badly in firms like Pinsents or Addleshaws or Slaughters. A lot of first seat trainees can get culture shock when they start proper work for the first time, I certainly suffered from that as a first seat trainee, but people do often adapt after a few months.

There is a lot of luck depending on which department you get and who is working in that department at that particular point in time. I felt badly treated in my first seat (a London firm similar to those) but ended up enjoying it and staying for a few years post-qualification, though in a different department !

That said - if you have decided that you are sure you no longer want to become a solicitor (whether at this firm or any other firm) - then I would ask why you are doing a TC in the first place, in which case there could be a benefit in starting your new career path sooner rather than sticking it out for no reason. Just make sure you check your contract to see if leaving the TC means you need to pay back things like LPC fees.

Just to add a bit of balance to this thread, I am a senior associate in an international city firm and genuinely enjoy my job.

I get to work with a range of different clients, so I get to know lots of different businesses. Most of it is on significant strategic transactions that are key milestones for these companies.

I get the responsibility of running transactions often worth hundreds of millions of pounds, as well as the responsibility of mentoring/developing junior associates and trainees. Or I might be helping growing companies raise finance so that they can grow their business and employ lots more people. That's a clear social good.

It is true that a large proportion of junior lawyers move on from their jobs. There are a number of reasons for this I think:
- It is very difficult to know as a graduate what job is right for you - lots of people decide they want to change career after their first job. This is true no matter what job you pick.
- City law is very demanding. The hours can be long - as they are for all professions in the city.
- Lots of people just fall into law because it is a safe, prestigious and well paid option, without really knowing whether it is right for them.
- People's lifestyles change as they get older. Lots of people are game for the pay, training and prestige that city law offers in their twenties, but decide they want a bit of a change as their life situation changes (e.g. if they have kids).

Just to add a bit of balance to this thread, I am a senior associate in an international city firm and genuinely enjoy my job.

I get to work with a range of different clients, so I get to know lots of different businesses. Most of it is on significant strategic transactions that are key milestones for these companies.

I get the responsibility of running transactions often worth hundreds of millions of pounds, as well as the responsibility of mentoring/developing junior associates and trainees. Or I might be helping growing companies raise finance so that they can grow their business and employ lots more people. That's a clear social good.

I recognise some of the criticisms raised in this thread. But not all of them. I would also argue that a lot of people who complain about life at MC / US firms can have a much better work-life balance and a lot more responsibility by moving to a "top 50" firm or "top 100 firm" - where they will get paid slightly less but still get paid extremely well and will still have good quality work.

If you work at a "mega-firm" and hate it - for heaven's sake, move to a different firm !!!! Why would you insist on working only at 5 law firms when there are probably a hundred major international law firms in the UK?

It is true that a large proportion of junior lawyers move on from their jobs. There are a number of reasons for this I think:
- It is very difficult to know as a graduate what job is right for you - lots of people decide they want to change career after their first job. This is true no matter what job you pick.
- City law is very demanding. The hours can be long - as they are for all professions in the city.
- Lots of people just fall into law because it is a safe, prestigious and well paid option, without really knowing whether it is right for them.
- People's lifestyles change as they get older. Lots of people are game for the pay, training and prestige that city law offers in their twenties, but decide they want a bit of a change as their life situation changes (e.g. if they have kids).

How do you handle the hours? I'm just leaving work on the back of my third post-midnight finish in a row this week. Haven't seen my partner, hardly slept, living off crisps, walking into walls because of tiredness. Doesn't happen all the time but probably one week out of every four or five are like this for me.

To be honest I find the work mostly interesting, but the pressure and timing demands are outrageous at times.

I arrive at 9:30am and leave work most days either around 6pm. A few days a week I might work until 7-8pm. I usually take a proper lunch break.

Occasionally I will work later than that into the small hours - I am doing cross-border M&A deals after all - sometimes you've got to do the hard slog before a completion. This might happen once every couple of months.

I live in central London 10 minutes walk from work.

A big difference for me is being able to plan evening commitments. Every week I arrange a mid-week date with the girlfriend for a meal or the theatre. Back in the Magic Circle I could only do that at weekends.

I just don't experience the outrageous timing demands any more, my job is perfectly manageable and actually quite fun.

I could get an approx. 10% pay rise by moving back to the Magic Circle. I'm not tempted. There is an extremely narrow band of US firms that might tempt me and offer an extremely good work life balance to salary ratio, e.g. somewhere like Goodwin Procter, but I'd never sell my soul to somewhere like Kirkland.

I think it is generally true that the hours get better as you get more senior, too. As you get more senior you can do things much more quickly. More importantly you start getting a lot more control over your timetable.

Out of curiosity, what type of firm did you move to following the MC? Are you at a boutique firm or a smaller City firm?

Also, do you think 30 is too late to pursue a masters / change careers? I'm likely going to be made up to Senior Associate next year but I'm seriously considering trying something else as I'm miserable and deathly bored every day.

I've since left my big corporate firm to pursue a new career. I don't regret leaving as it has been a tiring 10 months, but I am grateful for the lessons learned.

How do you handle the hours? I'm just leaving work on the back of my third post-midnight finish in a row this week. Haven't seen my partner, hardly slept, living off crisps, walking into walls because of tiredness. Doesn't happen all the time but probably one week out of every four or five are like this for me.

To be honest I find the work mostly interesting, but the pressure and timing demands are outrageous at times.

Hi all, thanks to the original poster and all those who've contributed, feel lot better knowing that I'm not alone. I am also considering leaving, I am near the end of my first seat and just dread going in every day, I've already had stress with HR and eventually moved to a new supervisor because I was being under utilised, but very little improvement (it's a long, irritating story)I am willing to give my next seat a try, but in the event that I still hate it and want to quit, my firm requires you to pay back a percentage of your LPC costs depending on when you quit in your TC (from memory, repayment decreases by 25% per seat you've done out of 4)Is it worth quitting then if I have to repay it? I am honestly still debating whether law is for me, I've just not had enough work to do to determine whether I want to try it out. I am at a good City firm, not magic circle but my department is very clique-y/lots of backstabbing and generally unpleasant so hopefully it's just this department, and given people have said a TC is not really worth much when you're done, is it still worth completing it just to not have to pay back the money? Please help

Hi all, thanks to the original poster and all those who've contributed, feel lot better knowing that I'm not alone. I am also considering leaving, I am near the end of my first seat and just dread going in every day, I've already had stress with HR and eventually moved to a new supervisor because I was being under utilised, but very little improvement (it's a long, irritating story)I am willing to give my next seat a try, but in the event that I still hate it and want to quit, my firm requires you to pay back a percentage of your LPC costs depending on when you quit in your TC (from memory, repayment decreases by 25% per seat you've done out of 4)Is it worth quitting then if I have to repay it? I am honestly still debating whether law is for me, I've just not had enough work to do to determine whether I want to try it out. I am at a good City firm, not magic circle but my department is very clique-y/lots of backstabbing and generally unpleasant so hopefully it's just this department, and given people have said a TC is not really worth much when you're done, is it still worth completing it just to not have to pay back the money? Please help

I have also recently quit my TC. My TC was in quite a specialist firm. It was very commercial, the people were awful and the work was very boring, to the point where I had to pinch myself to try and stay awake in client meetings! I have got a paralegal job now in an area of law I enjoy (personal legal services rather than commercial). The pay is pretty low and I do intend on applying for a training contract within a personal legal services firm when they next open. However, I have always considered a career in teaching. Do you mind me asking what subject you are teaching? Do you have a law undergrad?

You can’t really train to teach law because it’s only taught at A Level.

Interestingly I am going through the exact same experience during my real estate seat in a similar firm. I hate every day and have developed anxiety which I attribute to the job. My stomach drops when I see an email come into my inbox and I feel debilitatingly stressed all the time because no matter what I suggest, someone has something negative to say about it (not in a constructive way). This isn't my first seat of my training contract, and prior to this seat I enjoyed learning, felt confident in my job and got on with my colleagues. I think if I hadn't had this seat I probably wouldn't feel this way about the job, but currently I want nothing more than to hand in my notice and get as far away from the legal industry as possible. I don't blame the people I work with, I think the industry itself has become (or always was) toxic. Would love to hear how things turned out for you/if anything changed your mind, because I need to make a decision soon as I can't press on with this situation much longer.