Family Lawyers who Changed their Area of Law Practice - How? Why? Junior Family Lawyer Looking for Advice
Hi everyone,
I am a junior lawyer (2025 call) who has worked exclusively in family law since leaving law school. I like it sometimes, but the more I get into the work, dealing with unreasonable clients, chasing people for financial disclosure, and especially dealing with OC who will straight up send letters demanding things from my clients that aren't even aligned with the law or enforceable in a court. I even find the whole system broken and unreasonable most of the time, super inefficient and senseless in so many of the family law rules and processes.
I keep getting this nagging feeling that I don't want to spend my entire time as a lawyer only knowing what one area of law is like as a practice. I yearn for some exposure in other areas. I know dabbling is not a good idea, but if I wanted to get a sense of other areas of practice, how could I go about this? Coffee chats? Shadowing?
I keep thinking about employment law and especially human rights cases, even tribunal work. I have no idea what this area is truly like day to day. Heck, it could be even worse than family law for all I know. I totally submit to the fact that I am junior and naive and just trying to figure things out. I want to see what else is out there but I have no idea how to get a sense of that.
Has anyone in family law changed their area of practice? How did you make the change and why? If you were a solo family lawyer and made the switch to solo practice in another area, which one did you switch to and how did you learn and become competent in this area?
I do eventually want to go solo and do my own thing. I am wondering if employment law is an option for that. I think I enjoy less litigation overall, but I don't mind mediation and arbitration. I know I could go into those fields in family law, but I don't know if I like this area in general enough to stay.
Thanks in advance for any advice for this lost junior lawyer lol