Afterwards take a liberal to one side (7)
I believe the answer is:
lateral
'to one side' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'afterwards take a liberal' is the wordplay.
'afterwards' becomes 'later' (synonyms).
'take' says to put letters next to each other.
'liberal' becomes 'l' (abbreviation).
'later'+'a'+'l'='LATERAL'
(Other definitions for lateral that I've seen before include "Of, at or towards the sides (7)" , "This kind of sideways thinking does not use conventional logic" , "Edgeways" , "Sort of thinking" , "Towards the side" .)