Posted by Elizabeth Duan, director of legal services at Legal Futures Associate DR Solicitors
Duan: Move was empowering
For many people beginning their career in law, the big dream is to become partner at a big City law firm. However, as an increasing number of lawyers become disillusioned with big City firms, a new model is starting to climb the ranks: consulting.
Whether it’s the flexibility, the opportunity to have more control over the work you do or the fact you get more preferential rates, it’s clear legal consulting is growing in popularity.
A recent report from Atlas by Codex Edge found that some 4,000 lawyers now worked in a consulting platform model, while some have even gone as far as suggesting that, by 2026, consultants could make up a third of all lawyers.
It’s something we’re seeing first hand at DR Solicitors, having recently grown our consultant numbers by more than 40% year-on-year, bringing the total number to 26.
Moving from BigLaw to consultancy
The disillusionment of BigLaw is a feeling I’m all too familiar with. After qualifying as a solicitor in 2014, I practised in commercial real estate for a decade. I trained and worked at a few large corporate firms, exposing me to work that was complex and rewarding.
This all helped to show me what it really meant to be a solicitor, and is invaluable experience I’ve carried with me throughout my career.
However, when you’re working in a big firm, you effectively need to be an expert on everything and anything which, despite giving me a depth of experience, meant that I couldn’t really carve out my own niche.
It was during this time that I began to question what exactly I wanted out of my career. I’d always known I wanted to make it to senior associate at a big City firm in order to open up the opportunities for myself thereafter and, between having my two children, I did just that.
However, beyond this, the partner track never particularly appealed to me. The early starts, the late finishes, the ‘always on’ culture and constant targets didn’t seem appealing as it left very little left in the way of family life.
By the end of 2023, I’d made up my mind and decided to leave private practice in search for something different. As I researched alternative careers that I came across a firm called DR Solicitors – a consultancy model.
Admittedly, I’d never heard of such a model before and, having done some more research, it felt too good to be true. Being able to set your hours, how much work you take on, and ultimately build your life around your work, not the other way around, felt like a dream come true.
What sets the DR Solicitors consulting model apart from the other consultancy models is that the consultants are not expected to bring their own work or generate any. The management team at the firm are experts in their niche market and take responsibility for winning the work for the consultants to deliver.
Meeting the DR Solicitors team sealed the deal and, in January 2024, I joined as a consultant.
What makes the consultancy model so good?
As consultants are experienced lawyers, the model gives them the autonomy to work independently, while still tackling interesting and legally complex work. It’s something that immediately struck me.
Suddenly, I could work flexibly, ensuring my work and home life operated together in harmony and not against one another. As a mother, its empowered me to have both a fulfilling career and still be an active and present mother.
As for the work, I was still exposed to work that challenged and pushed me, however I also had the opportunity to focus on areas that interest me, building my own specialisms.
It’s why at DR Solicitors we’ve seen such an increase in our number of consultants, and within this, we’re increasingly bringing across lawyers from some of the biggest firms out there. The Atlas report found that 17% of those who joined a consulting model were hired from a UK top 100 law firm over the last year.
For us, 85% of our team are made up of ex-magic and silver circle and other top-tier law firms. Our other consultants have also often held partner or department-head roles, bringing with them deep sector expertise and experience.
What’s next for the consulting model?
Legal consulting platforms are clearly on the rise, and it’s not hard to see why. Between increased flexibility and more autonomy over your work, lawyers from all sectors are starting to wake up to the benefits.
A renewed focus on work life balance also promises to push more lawyers into consulting. A recent report found that 67% of employees are reassessing how they spend their time.
With big law firms only increasing demands on their solicitors, we’re likely to see more solicitors looking elsewhere to see if they can better balance the demands of being a lawyer with their own hectic lives.
However, more than just an alternative to big law firms, consulting platforms are fulfilling and challenging environments for experienced lawyers to build a long-term career. I’ve felt it first hand and suspect many more will come to similar realisations over the coming years.
Leave a Comment