We have comprehensive professional liability insurance that covers our business for the work of our independent consultants as contractors under our insurance and regulatory umbrella. I met Lucy Tarrant at a first Friday lunch at the Hotel du Vin while working at Loch Associates. We deleted it and I took his business card as a future reference. When I left my company, I discovered an ad on LinkedIn posted by Lucy indicating that she wanted to expand and hire specialized consultants. I then met Lucy and Stuart for coffee and was happy to be offered the role with a start date in December 2016. We have an efficient management team that, in collaboration with consultants, ensures that client invoices are carefully prepared and sent at the end of each monthly billing period. We then regularly monitor unpaid payments and have an effective process in place to increase pressure on customers to ensure that all agreed and correctly charged fees are paid. They are also SRA registered, but they are not allowed to hold client funds or contracts through a legal entity, and they are responsible for their own liability insurance. If you think the consultation model is right for you, you`ll probably want to talk to someone else who has already held your position. Our advisors appreciate the freedom Setfords offers them and are more than happy to talk to anyone considering a change. Just contact us to find out more first-hand. For example, a lawyer works on legal projects and fixed-term contracts for eight months and spends the remaining four months learning to ski in the Alps! In addition to providing all the administrative support you need so that our specialized independent lawyers can focus on high-quality legal work, manage more cases and take on voluminous cases with a large number of documents, our counsel often combine with our designated junior employees (paralegals, trainee lawyers and junior lawyers) at our head office and delegate them. If the client is one of its own consultants, the consultant will receive 15% of the time invoiced by our commissioned junior fee recipients (as well as 70% of the time invoiced and paid for by the consultant).
The answer is officially no, but in reality, we are still trying to give the work back to the consultants. One of our USPs is that we are not just a virtual law firm, which means that the firm has regular work recommendations and not just individual consultants. If you do not quite reach this threshold, please always contact us as you may have the opportunity to work with an existing consultant who could be responsible for your supervision and can also help you develop your training. Interest in legal education is also growing. There is an upward trend for some of the largest national companies to offer apprenticeships that can lead to paralegal and legal roles. However, I think it will take some time for this to become more common. It will be interesting to see if apprenticeship can gain popularity over the next few years and compete with the traditional university and LPC route. Apprenticeships can be a great way for companies to empower their workforce by recognizing that there are top talent who are looking for an alternative path in law and prefer to learn on the job. The industry is more relaxed than it used to be and modern businesses manage cases through their own case management systems – a digital documentation system, so to speak. There has been a digital shift as large companies take the paperless route, so graduates are expected to have good IT skills. All documents are scanned into these case management systems, reducing physical paperwork and simplifying work.
Only you will be able to answer this question. Being a consulting lawyer is a very different way of working compared to a typically busy role. Many advisors thrive and double (sometimes triple) their income and have a much better work-life balance. While minimal, some consultants also struggle, especially if they`re used to their companies feeding their customers. How to Become an Independent Lawyer Consultant and Build Your Own Practice If you really want to keep the relative security of working for a company, but want to regain some quality of life, you can always try going part-time. However, this is of course inevitably associated with a proportional reduction in remuneration and is often accompanied by some stigmatization, especially given customer demands. We work with specialized legal accountants to ensure that we keep our client and office accounts compliant, that all transfers and receipts are carefully recorded, and that our advisors are paid on time once client invoices have been paid. Having worked as counsel myself for several years, I know how frustrating it is to have to wait for payment once the virtual business has received the funds from the client`s invoice. While not surprising, these surveys show that despite recent upheavals, there has been no real change in attitude and approach for many regarding the practices and work habits of the legal profession, either for a firm/partnership or internally. In addition, cuts to legal aid have had an impact on criminal law, so there are now fewer companies willing to deal with it. First and foremost, because the process to become a Crown/Magistrate-recognized law firm is through competitive bidding.
If you represent the accused, the government pays you, but the cuts limit your income. It also allows them to benefit from the cost savings of centralized management, remote working, and using the latest technology. If required, we can provide access to a fantastic experienced legal secretary who has worked remotely and on their own for the past few years. He is always available at short notice to make tight deadlines a very profitable hourly rate. The company you work for as a consultant will cover a percentage of your fees. This is usually between 20% and 40% of what you charge for the work you do for your own clients through the company, but this will vary. Compensation is a common concern, especially for new consultants who come to us from traditional companies. But at Setfords, all of our lawyers are paid when the client has paid us. In addition, we do not limit how often you can charge us your share of the fee.
In 2012, LawCare (an organisation that supports and promotes the health and wellbeing of the legal profession) reported that, according to an initial survey of UK lawyers, more than 66% admitted to having suffered from stress in the past, with 32% admitting to suffering from clinical depression. Yes. In fact, during the first lockdown of 2020, we welcomed over 50 new advisors as more lawyers realized there was a better way to work. We are very well positioned for remote work after spending more than ten years perfecting it. So, if for any reason you want to take control of your professional life, we would be interested in talking to you. I always advise and assist my clients in finding ways to have conversations with a range of consulting lawyers who work in different ways and for different law firms. We let the consultants decide whether to use Outlook or Google`s G Suite. In both cases, advisors can access their emails with us on any device they use. The Jonathan Lea Network currently offers our counsel a 70% fee share for their own work done through us, while for work you accept from us, you receive 55% of what is billed and paid for by the client.
For any questions you refer to us where other royalty recipients are doing the work, you will also receive a 15% referral fee.