The legal industry can be small when looking for career opportunities, so unsurprisingly, from time to time, former employees wind up back at a law firm where they once worked.

Sometimes individuals leave to take a break from the industry or to go on maternity leave or for another job within the same industry, but regardless of the reason for leaving, it’s important to leave on a good note, according to those who have done it.

Senior associate at DLA Phillips Fox, Paula Nicolaou, left the firm three years ago, to work as an in-house lawyer and has now returned to the firm. Nicolaou said returning to the firm was far easier than she expected it would be because she left the firm “on good terms” and has remained in contact with them.  “It’s been really easy to come back, it’s almost as if I never left,” said Nicolaou. “Phillips Fox has a really good process for keeping in touch with ex-staff.  They have kept in contact with me and I have felt comfortable coming back to the firm because of that.”

While there have been subtle changes at the firm in the time she was gone, Nicolaou said that for the most part, the senior people and the culture of the firm have remained the same, allowing her to re-integrate with ease. From an employee perspective this made it easier on her, as she was not required to learn new systems and protocols from scratch, while for the firm, her return meant she could start work sooner, with less training time required than someone brand new. “They still gave me the support a new employee would require, even though I had been here before,” said Nicolaou who believes a senior staff member returning to a firm also impresses clients.

She advises anyone considering a return to a former employer to ask the same questions of the move they would ask if they were going somewhere completely new. She also recommends contacting them, even if no jobs are on offer, to get an idea of how they would feel about you returning to the company. “It’s important to have open channels of communication...without those, it would be very difficult,” she said.