Do You Need a New Job, a New Role or a New Career?

Before you leave law, work out what actually needs to change

Lawyers rarely arrive at career crossroads with a neat diagnosis. More often, they arrive with a feeling: I cannot keep doing this.

That feeling may be entirely justified. It does not, however, tell you what the right solution is.

You may need to leave your employer while continuing similar legal work. You may need a different role that uses your legal experience in a new way. Or you may be ready for a more fundamental change in professional direction. These possibilities can feel very similar: all three may involve exhaustion, frustration, loss of motivation or a growing sense that your work no longer fits. Yet they require different responses.

Changing firms will not resolve a fundamental mismatch with the work itself. Leaving legal practice may be unnecessarily disruptive when the real problem is an unhealthy workplace. Trying to become more resilient will not solve a persistent conflict between your career and your values.

Before deciding what to do, it helps to understand what actually needs to change.

Wanting change does not always mean wanting to leave law

Recent research illustrates why this distinction matters. In LawCare’s 2025 study of legal professionals in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man, 56.2% of respondents could see themselves leaving their current workplace within five years. A smaller—but still significant—32.1% could see themselves leaving the legal sector altogether. In other words, considerably more respondents were questioning their workplace than their profession. 

The same study found that 59.1% of respondents had poor mental wellbeing, while 78.7% regularly worked beyond their contracted hours.

A 2026 American Bar Association study involving approximately 37,000 lawyers across 28 US jurisdictions found that 47.4% were experiencing high burnout. Twenty-seven per cent had considered leaving the profession because of mental health difficulties, burnout or stress.

Canadian research has reported similar concerns. A national study found that 55.9% of participating legal professionals had experienced burnout and more than half had thought about leaving the profession. Workload, long hours, deadlines, billable-hour expectations and difficulty psychologically detaching from work were recurring themes.

The studies used different samples and measures, so their findings cannot be directly compared. Together, they show that distress and career uncertainty are widespread in the legal profession. An earlier global study by the International Bar Association also found that approximately one in three respondents considered their work to have a negative or extremely negative effect on their wellbeing.

The question is not whether the strain is real. It is what the strain is telling you about your particular situation.

Three different levels of career change

One of my clients came to me feeling stuck and increasingly doubtful about her professional direction. By separating what she still valued in legal work from what was no longer serving her, she rebuilt her confidence and moved into a position that suited her strengths much better.

Career dissatisfaction is a symptom. To choose an appropriate response, you need to identify its most likely source.

1. You may need a new workplace

You may still be interested in your work while finding the conditions under which you perform it increasingly difficult.

The problem may be connected to:

• an unsupportive manager or team;
• excessive workloads or unrealistic targets;
• a lack of autonomy;
• bullying or a destructive organizational culture;
• inflexible working arrangements;
• particular clients or expectations of constant availability.

One sign that the workplace may be the central issue is that you still enjoy the substance of your work in better circumstances. You may feel differently when working with a supportive colleague, handling a particular type of matter or operating during a quieter period.

Your dissatisfaction may also have intensified after a change of manager, team, workload or organizational structure.

The 2026 US study found differences in predicted distress and burnout between practice environments. Litigation was associated with greater distress, while lawyers in some in-house, judicial and academic settings reported lower predicted levels. This does not mean that one setting is universally better, but it does suggest that the environment in which legal work takes place can materially affect how it is experienced.

The central question is:

If you could do broadly similar work with a reasonable workload, greater autonomy and supportive leadership, would you still want to do it?

If your honest answer is yes, you may need a different workplace rather than a different profession.

2. You may need a new role

Sometimes the workplace is only part of the problem. The deeper mismatch lies in what you spend your days doing.

Legal job titles can conceal very different combinations of activities. One lawyer may spend much of the day analysing complex questions and developing strategy. Another may be occupied primarily with document management, urgent correspondence, business development or recording billable time.

You may need a new role if:

• the central tasks of your position consistently drain you;
• the same dissatisfaction has followed you across different workplaces;
• you remain interested in law or legal institutions, but not in your current form of practice;
• you are repeatedly drawn towards different kinds of activity;
• you want to use your legal knowledge without continuing your present work.

You might discover that you enjoy advising but dislike litigation, or that you prefer strategy to detailed drafting. Perhaps you feel most engaged when teaching, leading, negotiating, researching, improving systems or helping other people develop.

This does not necessarily point away from law. It may point towards another practice area or an adjacent field such as policy, compliance, mediation, legal operations, innovation, knowledge management, professional development or academia.

The central question is:

Is my main difficulty caused by where I work—or by what I spend most of my working day doing?

If the content of the work remains unsatisfying across different environments, a new employer may provide only temporary relief.

3. You may need a broader career redesign

A wider career change becomes more plausible when neither a healthier workplace nor a different legal role seems likely to address the underlying problem.

You may have changed organisations or practice areas without finding a sustainable fit. Perhaps the direction in which your career is moving no longer feels connected to the person you have become.

Possible signs include:

• conventional markers of legal success no longer motivate you;
• your priorities or values have changed significantly;
• alternative legal roles generate little interest;
• the desire to explore another direction persists even after periods of rest;
• you are staying primarily because of status, expectations or the years already invested;
• an improved version of your current career still does not resemble the future you want.

A revealing question is:

If you received the promotion or professional recognition you are currently expected to pursue, would you feel excited—or confined?

A broader redesign does not have to mean rejecting your legal background. Legal training develops abilities in analysis, communication, judgement, negotiation, research, advocacy and managing complexity. These abilities can remain valuable in many different professional settings.

The task is to decide which parts of your legal identity and experience you want to carry forward.

More than one answer may be true

The three categories are not mutually exclusive. Another client had reached a role that once looked like a dream job, yet discovered that it no longer aligned with her values. Her challenge was not simply to find a better title, but to reconnect with what purpose and professional success meant to her.

You may need to leave an unhealthy workplace and move into a different kind of role. A role change may eventually lead towards a wider professional transition. Alternatively, exploring other possibilities may help you recognise that you still value legal work when it is performed under sustainable conditions.

This is why a rushed decision can be misleading.

If you focus only on escaping your current circumstances, the first available alternative may look more attractive than it really is. If you analyse the problem too abstractly, you may remain stuck while waiting for complete certainty.

The aim is to identify which level of change appears most significant now.

What if you are simply exhausted?

The World Health Organization describes burnout as an occupational phenomenon resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterised by exhaustion, growing mental distance or cynicism towards work, and reduced professional efficacy.

Burnout can make every possible future look unappealing. It can also reveal that something important has been unsustainable for a long time.

This means exhaustion should be taken seriously without requiring you to interpret it immediately as proof that you chose the wrong profession.

Where possible, consider whether you are experiencing:

• a temporary period of acute pressure;
• an ongoing problem with your working environment;
• a mismatch with your daily activities; or
• a deeper conflict with your desired direction.

If distress extends well beyond work or significantly affects your health and functioning, appropriate medical or psychological support may also be needed. Career reflection and professional mental health support can serve different but complementary purposes.

Start with a more precise question

“Should I leave law?” can feel impossible to answer because it compresses several different questions into one.

A more useful starting point might be:

• Would I want this work in a healthier environment?
• Would I want to remain connected to law in a different role?
• Does any realistic version of this professional path still appeal to me?

You do not need to decide today whether you will remain a lawyer for the rest of your working life. You need enough clarity to recognize what deserves closer exploration.