Hi, I've been out of the legal field since 2006. I had a nervous breakdown, quit my job, had no confidence in my abilities, and an overwhelming need to have a job. So I applied for non-legal jobs and took them if I was hired. 11 years later, I still regret that I didn't try harder to get another law job and cared so much about what I imagine people must think of me. It seems like being gone from the field for so long, it's an insurmountable challenge to getting back in the field. Do you have any evidence to the contrary? I did write an article that's up on the BCG website this week about that, which is called "Do law firms hire attorneys from other practice settings"?
It sounds like you're not even doing legal work. Different people will have different issues and will quit for different reasons, and a nervous breakdown is one of them . It's not impossible to get back after leaving, you just need to probably start lower than where you were or network your way into better positions.
That's the way that I would recommend doing that going forward. It's definitely not insurmountable, but what you typically want to do with a resume is you want to talk about your legal experience and have a separate category of that.
And then not really talk about your non-legal experience in your resume. If people ask about that, talk about your non-legal experience, but I wouldn't talk about having a nervous breakdown. That's personal to you. It's not something they need to know.
