Blog Post

A few years ago saying that you were thinking about starting your own law firm was on par with saying you were thinking about flying to the moon, at least as far as I was concerned. I had started my career with a good high street firm with extremely high standards. The cases were good and interesting, the lawyers were good and interesting. It was long enough ago that it still had the ‘them and us’ feel to it so that the partners seemed like incredibly clever grown-ups while I was part of the trainee/support team.

The years drifted. I stayed with the firm, in the same chair for 13 years. I was promoted to Associate, I helped manage support staff and supervise trainees, yet in my soul I was still a trainee there because that’s what I felt like the partners saw me as. I got married and had two children but still felt I wasn’t a grown-up lawyer. I knew I had to do something and so I left and became self-employed under a platform business. I didn’t think of this as a bold or ambitious move, I just couldn’t think of another firm I would want to work for so I went alone to see how it would go, and it went well. I was now alone, managing the cases which was something I was very familiar with, and the business, which was not something I was familiar with.

Something that took me too long to realise is that people are not always as open as I am. If my day is going terribly or if I have made a mistake, I will tell anyone who will listen. I felt rather intimidated by those business types that seemed to know what they are doing and talk in ‘business’ language. The truth is some of them do know what they are doing, and they do speak in a business language because they are often in business bubbles of other people who know what they are talking about. Some people are using this jargon to confuse us, and I was confused.

Late last year my desire to be entirely self-sufficient resurfaced and I decided to just do it. The panic of trying to get it right first time and do things by the book was overwhelming. I was vibrating I was so anxious about getting it all spot on and I was desperate for someone who knew what they were talking about to tell me how to do it.

In an exercise of public service, this is what I have learned over the last six months getting Melyn Legal up and running.

• There is no textbook on how to do things properly. Just like there is no one book to tell you how to live your live properly, it is subjective.
• Read your governing body’s advice, follow their guidance, their website should have help for you to make a start. The SRA does, so start there if you want to start a law firm.
• Take advice early for your insurance, accounts, and cost everything up ahead of time.
• Make sure you know the sequence you need to make your applications. Lawyers have to be a company first, then apply to the SRA. You need a DBS check somewhere in there. You can’t have a HMCTS account without a PBA account and you can’t have that until you have a bank account which you can’t have until you are on the SRA website! Check your timings.
• And finally, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Obviously don’t eat any elephants, but the principle of doing one job a day to get you closer to your goal is what kept me motivated. Starting a law firm is a massive undertaking but

I’m happy to speak to any lawyers thinking of starting on their own or joining a platform, so get in touch if you want to have a chat.