FAQ

Yes, absolutely. I am a qualified solicitor with a current practising certificate. I qualified as a solicitor on 2 February 2004, and I have years of experience in my areas of legal practice.

I can provide legal advice, but I do not operate as a traditional law firm. I am qualified and regulated as an individual in the same way as any other solicitor. Unlike traditional law firms, however, I do not practise law via a business which is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (“SRA”). For some types of legal work, a client might need to use a traditional law firm (see below). For most legal advice, however, it is not always necessary for solicitors and clients to incur the full cost of a traditional law firm.

While using my services can be more cost effective than working with a traditional law firm, the legal services I provide must meet the same high standards set for all solicitors. As well as benefiting from my years of study and training, I am also overseen where necessary by independent regulatory and complaints bodies:

• I am personally regulated by the SRA and comply with the high standards of ethical conduct required, including to advise you in your best interests (regardless of what is best for me or my practice); and
• Complaints about me may be raised with an independent Legal Ombudsman free of charge (once I have had a chance to respond to your concerns). More information can be found in my enclosed terms of business.

The SRA and the Legal Ombudsman only deal with solicitors and a solicitor’s legal work, however. Any concerns about my business as a whole or any non-legal work would be dealt with in the usual way, as for any other business.

Yes. For the types of legal work I offer, I am not required to take out ‘professional indemnity insurance’ which meets the minimum standards of cover required of traditional law firms. Nonetheless I am required to hold adequate and reasonable cover for the type of work I undertake. To that end I have purchased professional indemnity insurance to cover my legal advice up to a limit of £500,000.00. This is so that, in the unlikely event that I make a mistake on your matter, insurance is in place to protect you. If you would like to see the policy to more fully understand the terms and exclusions or have any questions about the cover, please do let me know.

For my areas of law, I find that this business model is a great fit for clients, delivering the expertise that they need within a boutique practice without all of the costs of a more traditional practice. However, I do want to be open about the differences between working with a freelance solicitor and a traditional law firm so there are some details on this below.

Solicitors practising outside of a traditional law firm can be a great option for certain types of work such as general legal advice and legal drafting on a variety of topics including commercial contracts, regulatory matters, and advisory work. For some legal services, clients do still need to use traditional law firms, such as immigration work, making claims in “claims management” regulated activities like personal injury, financial services and products, employment, Criminal Injuries Compensation, industrial disablement benefit and Housing disrepair.

There may also be occasions where I feel that someone might be better off working with a traditional law firm and, if so, I won’t hesitate to tell you. Traditional firms can offer additional services and protections which can sometimes be particularly important, such as:

• The handling of client money: I cannot hold client money for you in the same way that traditional law firms do. Ordinarily, this is not a problem for my type of work. Client money held by traditional solicitor firms also benefits from possible access to the SRA compensation fund should a solicitor ever steal money from the client account (an extremely rare occurrence);
• SRA ‘minimum terms’ professional indemnity insurance cover: this significantly limits the circumstances in which an insurer can escape liability for funding claims in the event of a mistake being made and requires a minimum amount of cover of £2 million to £3 million. However, as explained above, I have purchased equivalent cover to protect my clients albeit limited to £500,000;

• The SRA has recognised that clients using a freelance solicitor should understand the regulatory protections and practical implications of that model. I practise as a freelance solicitor rather than through a traditional law firm. I owe my clients a professional duty of confidentiality, subject to their consent and to any disclosure required or permitted by law.

  In addition, confidential communications between a client and a solicitor made for the purpose of seeking or giving legal advice will generally attract legal professional privilege. This is a right
  belonging to the client and may enable the client to resist disclosure of the relevant communications or documents in circumstances where confidentiality alone would not do so.

  I consider that legal professional privilege applies to legal advice I provide in my capacity as a solicitor. Whether privilege applies will nevertheless depend on the particular circumstances, including the purpose of the communication, whether it remains confidential, and whether I am providing legal services rather than non-legal or mixed services..

For the types of legal work I offer, I generally find that my clients benefit greatly from working with me as a freelance solicitor. I can offer clients the reassurance of working with a qualified and experienced professional without necessarily incurring the full cost of a traditional law firm service and can offer much more bespoke and flexible service. If you have any questions, however, please do not hesitate to ask.