BOOK REVIEW
HOW TO BE A FREELANCE SOLICITOR
A Practical Guide to the SRA-Regulated Freelance Solicitor Model
By Paul Bennett
ISBN 978 1 91268 734 3
LAW BRIEF PUBLISHING
www.lawbriefpublishing.com
EXCELLENT GENERAL CAREER ADVICE FOR ASPIRING SOLICITORS WHO WISH TO BE “FREELANCERS”
An appreciation by Elizabeth Robson Taylor MA of Richmond Green Chambers and Phillip Taylor MBE, Head of Chambers, Reviews Editor, “The Barrister”, and Mediator
Solicitor Paul Bennett gives us a most useful practical guide on what to do as career advice for aspiring solicitors. He offers some constructive tools and sage thoughts on the type of career path potential solicitors may travel as they develop their own legal practice in 2020s. The intention is to give a practical hands-on approach to getting started as a freelance solicitor. As the author says, it is not “an academically driven textbook or black letter law book” readers will be relieved to hear!
So, who fits in to the term “freelance solicitor”? The author gives us a definition that they “are those truly practising on their own, without a law firm”. We feel that this excellent short book from Law Brief Publishing arrives at just the right time because solicitors have been given significant new freedoms under Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) rules from November 2019 about how they may set about their own practice.
The main question to be posed, post Covid-19, is “what are these opportunities”? Do begin by reading the Preface which sets out how to use the book with Bennett asking three useful questions: is it the right model for you and your clients; what is the difference to being a sole practitioner; and how this approach is radically different to the consultant model which some firms already use for the term “freelance”?
As a book which covers both professional conduct and ethics, we feel that this practical guide to these questions will be fully addressed for you to enable you to assess the impact of the new regime and to assess the freedoms now currently on offer. We found that the title will help both potential freelance solicitors and law firms looking to understand how the freelance solicitor model works today.
You can read the book from cover to cover quite quickly – it is only just over 70 pages in length. There are three parts: an introduction and business planning matters; the practical application of the SRA rules; and a short conclusion/checklist. The text allows you to focus on the professional elements which will be of most assistance and relevance to your own pre-existing skills, knowledge and the action plan you develop because of the bold step you take in becoming freelance.
But do be aware! Paul Bennett concludes with these words: “freedom is a wonderful thing as any truly self-employed person will tell you when things are good”. And “it is a proper challenge at other times”. Sadly, as this book appears in 2020, we are in challenging times because the freelance model will bite the careless and the unwary as it’s about the management of risk- and we think this focused “how to” book will be of great help to you on your journey.
The date of publication of this paperback edition is cited as at 6th December 2019.
Do have a look at the publisher's website for their latest titles.
