I know a lot of people who've done similar coming from residential property but that's because they've got good connections with existing clients and agents so can rely on a certain amount of initial business to keep them ticking them over.  Much harder if you're basically starting from scratch and trying to find clients although do you not have any contacts with funds and angel investors who could put you in touch with start ups they've been approached by?   If you joined someone like Keystone I guess others would be able to feed you some work and you'd not be all on your own from day one but also more in control of when and how you work.

Yes. I have done it.

It is not particularly easy, but the biggest bit is the bravery to do it in the first place. Loads of people talk about it but do not do it because they are scared. Felix Denis’s book ‘How to get rich’ addresses point this well.

I was lucky in that the timing fell into place so I had a soft entry as I had a part time consultancy with my previous employer + I had one anchor contract which was very profitable.

Overall it is ace. Way better in terms of work life balance and more money than a proper job. Wild horses would not drag me back.

There are some downsides. You are never really off work (but are you ever in any senior employed position?). Also it is all on you so if you are not motivated nothing happens.

As an aside you have a lot more respect for small business people who run an ice cream shop etc who have been brave enough to do something on their own rather than some corporate gimp who works for [insert big brand name] who bangs on about work in terms of ‘we’ and is nothing but a number on a spreadsheet.

Do it or don’t do it. Don’t rof about it.

Nearly 30 years on and I don’t regret it for a minute.

I would definitely be wealthier if I had stayed in my old firm, but would have missed out on so much of the kids growing up; and being totally your own boss is a really great feeling.

One essential - if you are someone who frets and worries, don’t do it. In the early days especially, you need to be like Mr Micawber - in terms of new work “something will turn up”.

Ask this: who will my clients be?  On day 1 and month 6?  How will I get them?

Also:  how am I differentiating?  Why would anyone choose me over some other law firm?

If you have good answers to those, go for it.

much more possible than most british lawyers realiee

absolutely commonplace in other markets, even in high value commercial work

and you don’t need “high value” work anyway

I’d make more money in knockabout regional private M&A, as a sole principal, than I do as the most senior and best paid non partner in my city firm

So why don't you?

Yes Laz, why don't you?

Haven’t the SRA deregulated all of this so that you can do it easily without even needing SRA authorisation? I think you should do it. 

The first 12 months will be hell but if you have decent sales skill, a good and distinguishable niche then it can work.

The job will be much more focused on getting clients than in private practice (at senior associate level anyway).

It may help going via some time at a Setfords/Keystone setup first before opening your own boutique.

Expect to have zero income the first 3 months, and minimal income the next 3, if you don’t have a client following.

Having worked in VC, the worst legal support and the largest bill was from a large, highly regarded US firm.

If you're looking at that angle, spend some time with a firm that specialises in it.  Baker Botts in San Fran was very good.  Oxford might have a good firm or two - but haven't instructed them.

If you don't have experience in it, you do a disservice to your client particularly when the weird typical VC terms are at odds with your typical PE/M&A terms.    

One thing: look at trying do do this as a legal consultant rather than an acutal law firm.  Obviously don't do anything unlawful or improper.  But in your practice area I suspect it might be workable.

because I’d still be a lawyer, supp shots, and responsible for all the admin on my increasing book of business rather than being assisted with it all by the platform of a big firm

I’d make MUCH more money flying solo, or as principal in my own small firm anyway, but I’m not really very money driven. I’ll happily pay a plentiful tax on my earnings to outsource shite like HR and billing and reg

The job will be much more focused on getting clients than in private practice (at senior associate level anyway).

This would be one massive selling point yes - having an express mandate to develop business. I’m currently as senior a non partner as there is at my shop and the tedious thing is being expected to treat billing 8h as your day job and BD as a sideline. I’d rather be doing 5h sales a day and have my comp more heavily eat what you kill based. 

Flying solo is the dream. Join us.

I would start as a Con in eg Keystone too. The weight of regulation would put me off esp in eg real estate or indeed if clients are in regulated industries but then those types of work not really suited to sole practionners.

Keystone seem to want you to have quite a substantial, genuinely portable book of business on Day 1. The great thing about your own shop is: no other people’s expectations.

I think going without income for only three months would be an outstanding result. Given origination, execution and billing cycles in my area of work (complex private debt finance transactions) I’d probably expect not to get paid for about the first year.

bigdave869

I have thoughts on this topic to share. Prob not for sharing on board tho. Do you have an anonymous email address to which Incan send you my musings?

I have done this after 4 years in PP and 10 years inhouse commercial and contracts.Whilst I don't regret it it, its been a tough 3 years and has taken longer to get off the ground due to the pandemic. Starting 3 months before it hit was not the best timing.

It's taken a while to build up but I have been helped by coming out of a large company with a lot of contacts. I now have a couple of good retainers which mean guaranteed income but to start with picked up anything from helping to write EU funding applications to lecturing.

I love it mainly for the diversity of projects I can get involved in and its flexible with kids. I work 9am - 3pm then usually 8.30pm -11.00pm. I would advise caution tho, its an abosolute rollercoaster and I ate up a lot of savings in the first year. You have highs but also lows. Having no-one behind you can be daunting as its all on you so having good back up is important, i.e someone to refer to. Being accounts department and marketing team is daunting - get some help. But there is nothing like sending out a chunky bill to a client in your own company name.

Regulatory wise, I requalified in an EEA country and am registered as a law firm here. I am covered by insurance here for work under English law with UK clients so can passport in.

Really good advice from CJ.

Much easier to do this from in-house than PP.

Calamity Jane, I run a small legal consultancy (outside of SRA regulation as not doing any reserved stuff and very clear about that to clients). I am looking to take on a few international clients though.

Is it possible to get PI insurance to advise clients who are based outside of the UK / EEA on English law contracts / advice, whilst providing that advice from the UK / EEA? Is this specialist professional indemnity insurance? A lot of online quotes seem not to offer cover if you spent a certain % of time on non UK / EEA clients.

And what about providing consultations to clients on non-UK / EEA laws (so consulting them on the local laws, but being clear it is not legal advice and purely consultation and working with local counsel for a legal advice)? 

I have a licence to practice in Norway and have a registered law firm here. It's regulated by the Norwegian bar association and my NO PI insuarance covers; (i) advice on NO/ UK contracts in both NO and outside NO. The PI insurance covers this as long as there is signed engagement letter with the regulated NO entity and the work is conducted by the NO entity. The NO PI insurance is wide enough to cover all activites conducted by the NO entity so I can provide genral advice on contracts under other laws.  I make sure we have a written agreement that any advice on other laws is  'general advice'. I either work with a local firm or advise to get local law advice. 

I have a UK company with 2 other individuals in the UK who are non lawyers. We provide training and consultancy services to mainly UK clients. We have a pretty clear red line too. No resereved activities and anything that resemebles legal advice, drafting, interpreting or negotiating contracts, the client has to become a direct client of the NO regulated entity.

For the UK entity, we spent 6 months looking at PI insurance to provide legal advice in the UK  and for advising EU / EEA clients from the UK. No-one would insure us. They only seem to cater for large law firms and not individuals / small companies. I think we were lucky as there was a solution for us, in that I can passport in as  a registered foreign law firm and PI insurance from Norway covers it. It has been a world of pain trying to sort it out and its painful trying to explain to UK clients why they have to enter into two engagement letters.

I'm sorry as I realise this probably doesn't help your situation. If you do manage to find an elusive UK PI insurance company which will insure to provide advice on UK law to clients outside the UK, or provide general advice on local law, please let me know!

Why not just set up a subsidiary for that work and forget about the insurance?

Calamityjane, thanks very much for all of that, very interesting. Were the issues finding insurance for the UK a result of your practice being based in NO? 

Or are you saying from your review of the insurance market in the UK, that if you set up a legal consultancy in the UK (non-SRA authorised) you effectively cannot take on any clients outside of the UK because nobody insures that? 

I too am having trouble with the insurance, although I am admitted in England and the company is incorporated here. It seems weird the SRA would de-regulate but not have thought about the insurance consequences. If it is actually impossible, I’m going to have to say no to two large prospects outside of the UK. 

That RoF, this is great.

Suspect I have at least a year or so more of the golden handcuffs before I make the leap and decide exactly what it is I want to do…

The issues generally were getting PI insurance for a UK consultancy firm that might just run into providing legal advice, advising clients in the UK or outside it.

I'm not an expert on the UK PI insurance market so can't make any general statement other than it was very difficult for us to find insurance. We found it strange too that the Law Society had de-regulated but that it seemed the insurance market hadn't yet caught up.  We identified a way of working around it for now but as we develop the UK business we will be looking at other structures. 

Thanks calamityjane. And when you say might run into providing legal advice, do you mean providing reserved legal activities or still non-reserved activities? I have PI for current consultancy but only UK clients, and I only do non-reserved. My understanding is that you can provide legal advice in the UK through a consultancy company as long as you don’t do any reserved activities. For example, I do general contract advice / negotiation for UK clients, but would then down something like litigation. 

It’s when I’ve been looking at getting the cover to extend to non-reserved for non-UK that I can’t seem to find coverage.

It’s interesting what you say about other structures. I have considered the structure you mentioned of providing training / consultancy services (ie taking the scope of that service completely out of being a legal service) to the non-UK clients if they’re interested in that, but I know they want drafting / negotiation and advice. It is very frustrating as there are smaller prospects who are interested in navigating local laws through local consultants. 

Did you find the Law Society / SRA were helpful in terms of solutions? I have tried to contact them about this but they’re not very responsive. It’s really frustrating as the effect is to limit your service to the UK and there are international prospects who are interested in the service. 

I’m happy to let you know if I find anything, I can  give you an email address on here if you want (generic to avoid identifying self).I

we are only providing non-reserved activities but advising on litigation was a grey area with some insurers as to when it becomes contentious.

I found the Law Society / SRA  no help whatsoever as their initial stance was that the UK company  needed to be fully authorised and that the two other directors needed to be authorised. We have had a lot of correspondence with them to get where we are now. In general they have been as much use a chocolate teapot following Brexit. I requalified because of the danger of losing equivilent recognition. The assistance they provided was ask us to find out what we needed to do to requalify in each jurisdiction. 

it would be good to keep in touch to hear how you get on, on your quest..