I'm about to qualify as a lawyer in a London city law firm and I'm trying to decide whether I should change to consulting and what roles I could apply for. I'm in my late twenties and converted to law after a degree in Computer Science and having worked in industry. I enjoyed the academic study of law but have found the work as a solicitor to be largely mindless (and hence tedious) paper pushing. I'm a confident and driven person, very comfortable when public speaking and entrepreneurial. 1) What sort of roles would allow me to progress as a consultant quickly - I'm very anxious that I don't change career to simply be back at the bottom of a profession after 9 years of experience.2) Should I qualify into Law (probably as a tax/finance lawyer) and then move into consulting later or move immediately on qualification?Thanks

John, I am considering a similar route as you (but qualify in 1 year) and would appreciate it you would forward on any useful advice which comes your way. Cheers

Pals,All of the half-witted, poorly thought-through and downright ludicrous propositions I've heard here (And any ardant visitor will now there's plenty of it coming from the ACN posse) this takes the proverbial Micheal.Why on earth would one want to forgo a lucrative profession like law and enter a change management, business transformation, IT implementation, project management, SAP, SI, process development, process optimisation, IT strategy free for all orgi with the ACN gang.Either the women are really ugly in law or ....?

My advice would be to fix the problem with what you have at the moment. The grass is not always greener.As a consultant, you're not going to be swanning around giving your opinion on various things and avoiding paperwork. Far from it! But, law is a good robust subject so you'll be well respected as a consultant. You may have to convince people you can think flexibly however... from experience, legal people seem to have their heads explode if you ask them to do anything that involves even the tiniest bit of uncertainty or 'fudging'.Good luck!

As has been said, law can be boring - but so is consulting at a lower level. Instead of administering data rooms or whatever tedium your role brings you (?) you will be instead be completing Powerpoint slides. And Excel spreadsheets of course - another thing that appears to make many lawyers' heads explode!I'm not sure you will be able to find an entry point that gives you sufficient credit for your skills and experience.Look before you leap. Don't rashly give up a proper profession for something rather more nebulous (and generally less lucrative) - you could reflect on how the transition you mention is even possible when it certainly wouldn't be in the other direction...

Fair play to you John; you were thinking Ally McBeal or LA Law awaited you in the legal profession, and of course the reality is often a beasting which would make a year 1 analyst at an MC go pale. I take it you are not at a Magic Circle firm then? You have time to post this so you can't be.I don't blame you; if the cretins which pass for our legal recruiting team are any indication I fear for the industry as a whole. And the prospects aren't THAT stellar. More likely you will wind up on residential conveyancing or the personal injury conveyor belt, fast track, multi-track, fat a5s track with all the spirit and prospects of a tin of beans at Tesco on coupon day. Yes I am having a bad day and yes I am beginning to rant.Qualify as a lawyer so at least you will have gained something useful from the whole experience, and then look to make a move - not into MC necessarily, but how about an in-house role with a bank, which could be a stepping stone into PE/VC (they hire a lot of lawyers and its an established career route), a hedge fund, etc. What area of law are you going to specialise in? I take it you in your final seat so you should have an idea.

Hi All,I used to work for a top consultancy, I did my pGDL and then moved into law, and I can honestly tell you consulting is not what it is made out to be.If however you feel you want to go into consulting, I would say with your level of qualification only the following companies would be able to pay the salary you would demand/expect Bain, Mckensy and BCG.There is no way after spending £8k on pGDL + 11K on LPC, 2 years of training contract. you would want to work as a PMO, or under a consultant who came out of uni 2 years ago with a history degree.just my thoughts.