Shifting Practice Areas – is it ever too late?

Joining the legal profession is a marathon: LSATs, applications, first year, summer applications, articling. You’re supposed to know what and where you want to practise midway through first year and try to obtain a position at least by articling within that area of law. Then comes articling and your first year of practice. These are extremely challenging years. The workload is heavy, you’ve not developed any efficiency, and almost nothing you learned in law school has prepared you for real lawyering. It is only when you feel like you can come up for a breath because you no longer feel unqualified, that you can finally ask yourself whether or not you in fact want to practise in this area. And by this time, it might be too late, or so you’ve been told. Nobody wants to hire a 5^th or 6^th year associate with “no experience.”

I articled at an insurance defence firm and was hired back. I loved my firm. I obtained excellent litigation experience and made lifelong friends. As an articling student and then first-year associate, I argued contested motions and had carriage of my own files, which allowed me to develop strong oral and written advocacy skills. When I came up for that breath however, it was clear to me that I did not want to practise insurance law. At all.

I continued to work and wonder about my future. It’s hard to think about shifting practice areas when you’re managing a practice and meeting billable targets. I finally realized that if I was going to make a change, I had to do it then. In law school I had been interested in family and employment law. I started networking; emailing contacts, peers, friends of friends, and sent cold emails to lawyers and firms that piqued my interest. I did not obtain much traction. I was a fifth-year associate with “no experience.” I ultimately responded to an ad in the ORs for a family law position out of town. The principal lawyer was impressed by my litigation experience and was looking for an associate who wasn’t afraid to be in court. After eight months I obtained a position in Toronto where I have remained since.