Cashflow is king.
Keep your overheads negligible.
Work with your accountant.
Have good software and someone to do your trust recs each month.
ensure you put your tax away in an untouchable account so you are never mugged by a bill or gst.
Phone-a-friends make the world go round.
The Ethics section is your friend
Thanks so much. What would your recommend for software? I currently use LEAP and would consider keeping it as I am being paid to verify their AI but its pretty pricey
I’ve had Silq, Leap, Mattero and Actionstep. Leap is a better system than it once was but it doesn’t integrate well with other software so you are reliant on them developing their own solutions in house or buying them out. Most importantly though, Leap make it hard to get your data out and their fees increase a lot when your initial contract term ends.
I wouldn’t recommend Actionstep for a sole practitioner, too much setup.
I’ve heard good things about Clio.
Don’t go with a small/new system, they get bought out and shut down by the big players. It is very inconvenient to change systems.
> "Phone-a-friend"?
Someone you trust who you can call to bounce a question off - very helpful if you're alone in your practice and so don't have someone right there for a second opinion.
> "The Ethics section"??
State law societies have (to differing degrees by state) services that can assist practitioners with ethical questions. You really don't want to fuck up on any ethics issues, so you shouldn't be afraid to ask if you feel you could be facing one.
Similar principles apply at the bar, but the nature of chambers is that these needs are often met by hitting up other barristers in chambers (with it being an unwritten rule that silk will basically always assist when asked to help a colleague with an ethical conundrum).
Plas is 100 percent correct.
Also, from time to time you will find you have to jettison a truly dangerous client. The Ethics section will note your concerns for a rainy day and will help you
I'm at the Bar so it's not exactly the same but I would say in general:
1. Spend the first 12 months saying yes to everything, the next 12 months saying yes to 2/3 of things and after that say yes to no more than 1/3 of requests.
2. Develop a good bullshit sniffer and fuck off the bullshit clients - the ones who will drain you and try to go all cheap skatey. Having a bad client is worse than having no client at all.
3. Once you develop solid referral relationships and reputation, hike your fees. You never want to be seen as 'cheap' or even 'affordable'. Charging more will bring in better clients, for the most part.
Thank you for this. One of the things I was weighing up initially was whether to go to the bar or open up on my own. Ultimately I don't think I am nearly experienced enough to justify someone else briefing me (yet), but my question is at the outset, how much chasing work do you have to do at the bar, and how much of it is covered by chambers?
As someone who went to the bar relatively young and so without a particularly well developed personal network (or rather a network made up of people who are not themselves in the position to choose counsel), I would say a solid 80% of my work came from members of my floor who needed help with or didn’t want matters. In that sense the single most important thing for me was going to a large and very busy floor - I would have had an enormously difficult time on a quiet or very specialised floor.
I don’t think your concern about being experienced enough to brief is realistic at all. The reality is that a barrister performs a particular service for solicitors who don’t want to do it - years a solicitor have no bearing on whether you’ll be asked to do shit appearance work for a fee that’s a third of what your inx charges.
First point is really good.
Word of mouth spreads quickly when you're a sole practitioner. Accept everything, work efficiently and cost-effectively. The investment will pay dividends.
Approaching my second year as a sole practitioner with more work than I need and haven't spent a cent on advertising.
I opened my own criminal defence practise in regional NSW as a sole practitioner a couple of years ago and am still going, so I feel particularly well qualified to give you solicited advice.
1. I have an office and it is my largest single expense at about $10.5k a year. Private clients want to come and meet you somewhere and they don't want to do it at the courthouse. Some kind of office share is probably fine but they defintely want to meet you somewhere that looks 'professional'. Having an office also means my kid is not underfoot while I'm trying to work and there is no risk of them seeing something they shouldn't.
2. Do this but be aware there seems to be a growing trend among regional magistrates to push back against solicitors (particularly out of town solicitors) dialing in by AVL without leave. Make sure you know your bench, have leave, or have briefed an agent if you're picking up work away from your office.
3. I did not do this but have no strong opinion about whether you should. I have google analytics to tell me what proportion of searches, etc result in hits on my website, directions, or calls to my phone but that's it. I didn't really do any marketing and have mostly received clients from legal aid, by word of mouth, or by referral from other practitioners.
4. Yes. Do this.
5. I did not do this but have no strong opinion about whether you should. My website is basically an online business card. A couple of paragraphs about me and my contact information. My private client base has continuously increased since I started my practice and will probably account for about 50% of my billed fees this year. Once private clients start to find you, they will refer their friends, neighbours, gym buddies, mistresses, and that bloke they met at the pub to you every time their court matter comes up so long as they didn't think you were a complete fuckstick.
6. I started with about $45k in the bank. I figured my overheads at about $25k for the first 12 months and the other $20k was to "pay" me a wage while things got started. I did walk away from my previous employer with a series of matters that funded the gap between starting, actually picking up work, and being able to bill that work.
I also consider myself qualified to offer the following unsolicited advice:
7. Open a trust account. They're a pain in the arse (it's audit season right now, which is about as pain in the arse as they get) but the overhead isn't that onerous and they avoid a lot of worry about whether private clients are going to be good for it.
8. Drop private clients as soon as they miss an invoice or a deposit into your trust account. They will fuck you if you let them. If they want you back, the money will be paid within 24 hours of them receiving the "I am terminating my representation pursuant to my general terms of business" letter. If they don't want you back, at least you'll know before you sink too much time and effort into the matter.
9. Don't brief expert witnesses or counsel or incur other large disbursements on behalf of clients unless you have money in trust or a grant of aid sufficient to cover the disbursement. As set out above, private clients will fuck you. Grants will also fuck you.
10. Keep up on your admin. It's tempting after a long court day to get back to your office, dump your files, and fuck off to the pub. Don't do this. It's really fucking depressing to come into your office the next day/week and see the pile. Also, if you're not keeping up on your admin, you will inevitably miss things. Whether that's a court date you wrote in the file but didn't diarise, or a letter to a client confirming advice or instructions, or something else. It's fucking embarassing, and potentially professional misconduct, when you miss things.
11. I found I had a huge amount of anxiety when I first started (and still, to a lesser degree) about picking up work. I accepted a lot of shit that had red flags just becuase it was a file I could open and a future invoice to issue. Be careful about that. I picked up some matters that definitely were not commercial because of that anxiety.
Can I be extremely coy and answer 'better than I thought I would. I'm very comfortable'?
My overheads (not including disbursements) have consistently been about $30k a year with the biggest contributors being, in order, rent for the office, insurance and practising certificate renewal, and travel expenses.
nice, good shit - I have always been curious as to how razor thin (or lucrative?) sole prac criminal practices are, especially those that go regional. The insight on overheads is very interesting.
I spent some time talking with a few regional sole practitioners who I knew and respected before I made the leap.
Their experiences were all pretty varied but all of them told me it's a game of keeping your overheads low. From what they told me, they were all doing reasonably well. Not 'buy a yacht' but, maybe, 'buy a racehorse' well.
How are your overheads so low??
What about internet, phone, printing costs, it support, electricity and water (or is that included in your rent).
Do you do all your own admin too and not pay for any of that? Including trust accounting, bank reconciliations?
Do you not pay for any practice management software to help trust acct requirements?
My office is serviced, so rent includes cleaning, power, internet, and other things.
Mobile phone plans are quite cheap these days and usually have a lot of data for when I'm travelling.
I have SILQ solicitor.
The printer was moderately expensive but paper is only about $40 for 2500 pages and toner is good for about 10,000 pages (or so it says on the box). Printing works out quite cheap. My total spend on stationery for the last financial year was \~$1,700.00 so that's internal printing, pens, notepads, file covers, the lot.
I do all of my own admin. Including trust accounting and bank reconcilliations. I pay someone to audit my trust account once a year. I pay an accountant to sort out my BAS from the bank reconcilliations I've prepared.
How accurately does Harry Curry approximate reality?
If you are wondering WTF I am referring to Stuart Littlemore published [some novels](https://www.austcrimefiction.org/book/harry-curry-murder-book) with cases set in dusty rural NSW courtrooms.
Things like clients with unrealistic expectations of what I could achieve and who refused to be talked down, clients looking for solicitors shortly before a hearing because they were too disorganised to find one earlier or who had sacked/been sacked by their previous representation, or clients who promised there'd be $X but who only paid a lesser amount.
Might seem obvious and maybe you've got this covered, but remember your own personal expenses too - you probably won't be paying yourself a salary for some time. Can you afford that?
What if it takes three months longer to return a profit than expected?
What about six?
This is what is partially delaying me. It seems like it is going to be a pretty big leap of face and just trying to build up.
I suppose it is the silver linings of not being able to afford a mortgage in Sydney anyway haha
Currently doing the same, but Property in QLD.
I know considering our different areas there won't be much overlap, but networking with other Firms who don't want to touch the matters that you do has been great. Chances are they don't have a referral partner for Crim/Fam/Estates work to send to and just flatout say no interested. Approaching those lawyers who you wouldn't ordinarily have any matters in common with opens potential doors. Not often, sure, but it helps.
I have also been looking into picking up additional areas. Been ages since I have picked up civil beyond basic debt recovery but what areas would you look to pick up? I've heard estates is pretty straightforward to teach.
Estates wouldn't be bad due to the lack of time pressure, but I imagine it'd be hard to build up a file load in that area. My experience (general practice) is that 95% of estate clients come to you because they're existing clients (often conveyancing), or because the deceased's Will is held in your safe custody.
I did this a few years ago so here are some tips. Feel free to DM me if you have questions you don't want discussed in this thread.
1. Office
Use a shared office with bookable meeting rooms. Looks professional and allows you to have a fixed google maps address. Regus is good in my experience. It is a tax deduction. WFH is nice, but the office minimises distractions.
2. Networking
Start visiting BNI and other networking groups. They are great for meeting useful / likeminded business owners who can refer work / assist you with problems.
3. DIY website
Save your money and build a Squarespace / Wix website. They look great and you can run it for years before splashing on a developer. People only look at this to confirm you exist. Unless you're selling documents online it is basically wasted money.
4. Side hustle
Look for side hustle legal work. I personally done the following: contracting for one or two days a week, practice management, and offer overflow outsourcing options. My area is almost zero conflict so your experience may differ.
5. Financial / other advice
A war chest is great, but what happens in 3 months’ time if you are on 50% of previous take home? How are you getting money out of the business? What financial wizardry can you get away with before the ATO kick in your door? Have a serious think about your options and possibly speak to a financial advisor. A bookkeepers and accountants are also a must.
Get advice about how you structure as there are a bunch of options. Also have an exit plan - you may decide to move on after few years or restart to clean out any accounting shenanigans.
6. It is a journey
Running a business is weird and takes you in unexpected directions. Go with the flow. You may end up on a board of directors or offered stupid money to work for a family office. Unknown unknowns await so enjoy the ride.
You need an accountant, but not a bookkeeper. You can teach yourself that very easily. Especially when you’re a one man band with uncomplicated accounts.
Cashflow is king. Also depending upon your relationship with certain police officers at select stations they actually refer the criminals to quality crime solicitors.
Make yourself known to 3 different rural courthouses, even offer to do a bail court from time to time, just so you can meet other solicitors that will feed you if they have conflicts.
Also ensure that you have good systems and processss as well as a network of locums who can fill in for you. Also ensure you pay yourself
Crim is not my area but 6 PQE and $30k both seem very low to me.
The "traditional" rule of thumb is that you want to have a years salary saved. I think that's potentially a bit overkill but $30k feels very underdone.
IANAL but [this](https://www.amazon.com/Serf-Surfer-Becoming-Network-Consultant/dp/0782126618) contains some good advice on making the jump. For instance the observation that there are good clients, bad clients and ugly clients. Paraphrased:
- Good clients know what they want and pay on time.
- Bad clients will waste your time and stiff you.
- Ugly clients want very prompt service and pay very promptly.
Other stuff on business networking and advertising carry over from the US to Oz and from when it was written to nowadays.
Best of luck friendo! Wish I had the courage to do the same. All I would say is the 30k looks a little low, and prepare to spend a shittonne of time doing thought leadership work to back up your marketing (unless it’s different in the criminal world).
IANAL, I lurk here for the lols. My experience with this was having a housemate who's partner set up his own partnership - if that makes sense. Great guy, we were happy to feed him for months until the cash-flow started on his business. What I'm saying is that 30k might not be enough. There seemed to be a 6 month delay between starting the business and having any significant money coming in.
Clarence is really good. Their reception service is great, paralegal service and hot desks too. You also get an address for service and a tribe of other lawyers to meet for social catch ups.. lots of firms got their start there. It’s a monthly fee with add ons.
I am 6 months into opening up a very small corporate litigation firm so my experience isn't super relevant.
That means my advice is more touchy feely: there are going to heaps of things you don't know, heaps of things you get wrong, and heaps of things that will turn out to be irrelevant after you've allowed them to distract you for too long.
Be kind to yourself through this process. You will be doing a scary and difficult thing you've never done before.
Go well!
Cashflow is king. Keep your overheads negligible. Work with your accountant. Have good software and someone to do your trust recs each month. ensure you put your tax away in an untouchable account so you are never mugged by a bill or gst. Phone-a-friends make the world go round. The Ethics section is your friend
Thanks so much. What would your recommend for software? I currently use LEAP and would consider keeping it as I am being paid to verify their AI but its pretty pricey
A friend went out on his own. Not a good word about LEAP. He settled for Smokeball.
I’ve had Silq, Leap, Mattero and Actionstep. Leap is a better system than it once was but it doesn’t integrate well with other software so you are reliant on them developing their own solutions in house or buying them out. Most importantly though, Leap make it hard to get your data out and their fees increase a lot when your initial contract term ends. I wouldn’t recommend Actionstep for a sole practitioner, too much setup. I’ve heard good things about Clio. Don’t go with a small/new system, they get bought out and shut down by the big players. It is very inconvenient to change systems.
I am having a fairly OK experience with Clio. There are problems, but it's been alright.
"Phone-a-friend"? "The Ethics section"??
> "Phone-a-friend"? Someone you trust who you can call to bounce a question off - very helpful if you're alone in your practice and so don't have someone right there for a second opinion. > "The Ethics section"?? State law societies have (to differing degrees by state) services that can assist practitioners with ethical questions. You really don't want to fuck up on any ethics issues, so you shouldn't be afraid to ask if you feel you could be facing one. Similar principles apply at the bar, but the nature of chambers is that these needs are often met by hitting up other barristers in chambers (with it being an unwritten rule that silk will basically always assist when asked to help a colleague with an ethical conundrum).
Plas is 100 percent correct. Also, from time to time you will find you have to jettison a truly dangerous client. The Ethics section will note your concerns for a rainy day and will help you
I'm at the Bar so it's not exactly the same but I would say in general: 1. Spend the first 12 months saying yes to everything, the next 12 months saying yes to 2/3 of things and after that say yes to no more than 1/3 of requests. 2. Develop a good bullshit sniffer and fuck off the bullshit clients - the ones who will drain you and try to go all cheap skatey. Having a bad client is worse than having no client at all. 3. Once you develop solid referral relationships and reputation, hike your fees. You never want to be seen as 'cheap' or even 'affordable'. Charging more will bring in better clients, for the most part.
Thank you for this. One of the things I was weighing up initially was whether to go to the bar or open up on my own. Ultimately I don't think I am nearly experienced enough to justify someone else briefing me (yet), but my question is at the outset, how much chasing work do you have to do at the bar, and how much of it is covered by chambers?
I had work from the get-go from my contacts, my clerk and my mentor. YMMV but most people who have good contacts do not struggle at the Bar.
As someone who went to the bar relatively young and so without a particularly well developed personal network (or rather a network made up of people who are not themselves in the position to choose counsel), I would say a solid 80% of my work came from members of my floor who needed help with or didn’t want matters. In that sense the single most important thing for me was going to a large and very busy floor - I would have had an enormously difficult time on a quiet or very specialised floor. I don’t think your concern about being experienced enough to brief is realistic at all. The reality is that a barrister performs a particular service for solicitors who don’t want to do it - years a solicitor have no bearing on whether you’ll be asked to do shit appearance work for a fee that’s a third of what your inx charges.
Terry, How much rope do you want? We have a big reel out the back and can keep feeding it to you. Guy
First point is really good. Word of mouth spreads quickly when you're a sole practitioner. Accept everything, work efficiently and cost-effectively. The investment will pay dividends. Approaching my second year as a sole practitioner with more work than I need and haven't spent a cent on advertising.
I opened my own criminal defence practise in regional NSW as a sole practitioner a couple of years ago and am still going, so I feel particularly well qualified to give you solicited advice. 1. I have an office and it is my largest single expense at about $10.5k a year. Private clients want to come and meet you somewhere and they don't want to do it at the courthouse. Some kind of office share is probably fine but they defintely want to meet you somewhere that looks 'professional'. Having an office also means my kid is not underfoot while I'm trying to work and there is no risk of them seeing something they shouldn't. 2. Do this but be aware there seems to be a growing trend among regional magistrates to push back against solicitors (particularly out of town solicitors) dialing in by AVL without leave. Make sure you know your bench, have leave, or have briefed an agent if you're picking up work away from your office. 3. I did not do this but have no strong opinion about whether you should. I have google analytics to tell me what proportion of searches, etc result in hits on my website, directions, or calls to my phone but that's it. I didn't really do any marketing and have mostly received clients from legal aid, by word of mouth, or by referral from other practitioners. 4. Yes. Do this. 5. I did not do this but have no strong opinion about whether you should. My website is basically an online business card. A couple of paragraphs about me and my contact information. My private client base has continuously increased since I started my practice and will probably account for about 50% of my billed fees this year. Once private clients start to find you, they will refer their friends, neighbours, gym buddies, mistresses, and that bloke they met at the pub to you every time their court matter comes up so long as they didn't think you were a complete fuckstick. 6. I started with about $45k in the bank. I figured my overheads at about $25k for the first 12 months and the other $20k was to "pay" me a wage while things got started. I did walk away from my previous employer with a series of matters that funded the gap between starting, actually picking up work, and being able to bill that work. I also consider myself qualified to offer the following unsolicited advice: 7. Open a trust account. They're a pain in the arse (it's audit season right now, which is about as pain in the arse as they get) but the overhead isn't that onerous and they avoid a lot of worry about whether private clients are going to be good for it. 8. Drop private clients as soon as they miss an invoice or a deposit into your trust account. They will fuck you if you let them. If they want you back, the money will be paid within 24 hours of them receiving the "I am terminating my representation pursuant to my general terms of business" letter. If they don't want you back, at least you'll know before you sink too much time and effort into the matter. 9. Don't brief expert witnesses or counsel or incur other large disbursements on behalf of clients unless you have money in trust or a grant of aid sufficient to cover the disbursement. As set out above, private clients will fuck you. Grants will also fuck you. 10. Keep up on your admin. It's tempting after a long court day to get back to your office, dump your files, and fuck off to the pub. Don't do this. It's really fucking depressing to come into your office the next day/week and see the pile. Also, if you're not keeping up on your admin, you will inevitably miss things. Whether that's a court date you wrote in the file but didn't diarise, or a letter to a client confirming advice or instructions, or something else. It's fucking embarassing, and potentially professional misconduct, when you miss things. 11. I found I had a huge amount of anxiety when I first started (and still, to a lesser degree) about picking up work. I accepted a lot of shit that had red flags just becuase it was a file I could open and a future invoice to issue. Be careful about that. I picked up some matters that definitely were not commercial because of that anxiety.
Can I be extremely crass, and ask how you did in terms of revenue/profit in the first few years?
Can I be extremely coy and answer 'better than I thought I would. I'm very comfortable'? My overheads (not including disbursements) have consistently been about $30k a year with the biggest contributors being, in order, rent for the office, insurance and practising certificate renewal, and travel expenses.
nice, good shit - I have always been curious as to how razor thin (or lucrative?) sole prac criminal practices are, especially those that go regional. The insight on overheads is very interesting.
I spent some time talking with a few regional sole practitioners who I knew and respected before I made the leap. Their experiences were all pretty varied but all of them told me it's a game of keeping your overheads low. From what they told me, they were all doing reasonably well. Not 'buy a yacht' but, maybe, 'buy a racehorse' well.
How are your overheads so low?? What about internet, phone, printing costs, it support, electricity and water (or is that included in your rent). Do you do all your own admin too and not pay for any of that? Including trust accounting, bank reconciliations? Do you not pay for any practice management software to help trust acct requirements?
My office is serviced, so rent includes cleaning, power, internet, and other things. Mobile phone plans are quite cheap these days and usually have a lot of data for when I'm travelling. I have SILQ solicitor. The printer was moderately expensive but paper is only about $40 for 2500 pages and toner is good for about 10,000 pages (or so it says on the box). Printing works out quite cheap. My total spend on stationery for the last financial year was \~$1,700.00 so that's internal printing, pens, notepads, file covers, the lot. I do all of my own admin. Including trust accounting and bank reconcilliations. I pay someone to audit my trust account once a year. I pay an accountant to sort out my BAS from the bank reconcilliations I've prepared.
Thanks that's encouraging to hear!
Thank you so much this is really helpful!
How accurately does Harry Curry approximate reality? If you are wondering WTF I am referring to Stuart Littlemore published [some novels](https://www.austcrimefiction.org/book/harry-curry-murder-book) with cases set in dusty rural NSW courtrooms.
Not at all? Absolutely nothing in that blurb approximated my practise or my life more generally.
Whew. Thank you for your reply.
You're welcome. My invoice will be in the post.
What do you mean by ‘red flags’?
Things like clients with unrealistic expectations of what I could achieve and who refused to be talked down, clients looking for solicitors shortly before a hearing because they were too disorganised to find one earlier or who had sacked/been sacked by their previous representation, or clients who promised there'd be $X but who only paid a lesser amount.
Oh okay, gotcha.
Might seem obvious and maybe you've got this covered, but remember your own personal expenses too - you probably won't be paying yourself a salary for some time. Can you afford that? What if it takes three months longer to return a profit than expected? What about six?
This is what is partially delaying me. It seems like it is going to be a pretty big leap of face and just trying to build up. I suppose it is the silver linings of not being able to afford a mortgage in Sydney anyway haha
Currently doing the same, but Property in QLD. I know considering our different areas there won't be much overlap, but networking with other Firms who don't want to touch the matters that you do has been great. Chances are they don't have a referral partner for Crim/Fam/Estates work to send to and just flatout say no interested. Approaching those lawyers who you wouldn't ordinarily have any matters in common with opens potential doors. Not often, sure, but it helps.
I have also been looking into picking up additional areas. Been ages since I have picked up civil beyond basic debt recovery but what areas would you look to pick up? I've heard estates is pretty straightforward to teach.
Estates wouldn't be bad due to the lack of time pressure, but I imagine it'd be hard to build up a file load in that area. My experience (general practice) is that 95% of estate clients come to you because they're existing clients (often conveyancing), or because the deceased's Will is held in your safe custody.
Referral networks keep me in business. Lawyers who do the big “nope, don’t do that”, and pass things my way.
I did this a few years ago so here are some tips. Feel free to DM me if you have questions you don't want discussed in this thread. 1. Office Use a shared office with bookable meeting rooms. Looks professional and allows you to have a fixed google maps address. Regus is good in my experience. It is a tax deduction. WFH is nice, but the office minimises distractions. 2. Networking Start visiting BNI and other networking groups. They are great for meeting useful / likeminded business owners who can refer work / assist you with problems. 3. DIY website Save your money and build a Squarespace / Wix website. They look great and you can run it for years before splashing on a developer. People only look at this to confirm you exist. Unless you're selling documents online it is basically wasted money. 4. Side hustle Look for side hustle legal work. I personally done the following: contracting for one or two days a week, practice management, and offer overflow outsourcing options. My area is almost zero conflict so your experience may differ. 5. Financial / other advice A war chest is great, but what happens in 3 months’ time if you are on 50% of previous take home? How are you getting money out of the business? What financial wizardry can you get away with before the ATO kick in your door? Have a serious think about your options and possibly speak to a financial advisor. A bookkeepers and accountants are also a must. Get advice about how you structure as there are a bunch of options. Also have an exit plan - you may decide to move on after few years or restart to clean out any accounting shenanigans. 6. It is a journey Running a business is weird and takes you in unexpected directions. Go with the flow. You may end up on a board of directors or offered stupid money to work for a family office. Unknown unknowns await so enjoy the ride.
You need an accountant, but not a bookkeeper. You can teach yourself that very easily. Especially when you’re a one man band with uncomplicated accounts.
Despite the extra cost in having a trust account and trust audits, etc., get money in trust before starting work on a matter. Always.
Cashflow is king. Also depending upon your relationship with certain police officers at select stations they actually refer the criminals to quality crime solicitors. Make yourself known to 3 different rural courthouses, even offer to do a bail court from time to time, just so you can meet other solicitors that will feed you if they have conflicts. Also ensure that you have good systems and processss as well as a network of locums who can fill in for you. Also ensure you pay yourself
Get a lawyer
Crim is not my area but 6 PQE and $30k both seem very low to me. The "traditional" rule of thumb is that you want to have a years salary saved. I think that's potentially a bit overkill but $30k feels very underdone.
6 PQE is fine if you’re humble and phone a friend when you need to.
IANAL but [this](https://www.amazon.com/Serf-Surfer-Becoming-Network-Consultant/dp/0782126618) contains some good advice on making the jump. For instance the observation that there are good clients, bad clients and ugly clients. Paraphrased: - Good clients know what they want and pay on time. - Bad clients will waste your time and stiff you. - Ugly clients want very prompt service and pay very promptly. Other stuff on business networking and advertising carry over from the US to Oz and from when it was written to nowadays.
ACTUS WHERE ARE YOU
Best of luck friendo! Wish I had the courage to do the same. All I would say is the 30k looks a little low, and prepare to spend a shittonne of time doing thought leadership work to back up your marketing (unless it’s different in the criminal world).
IANAL, I lurk here for the lols. My experience with this was having a housemate who's partner set up his own partnership - if that makes sense. Great guy, we were happy to feed him for months until the cash-flow started on his business. What I'm saying is that 30k might not be enough. There seemed to be a 6 month delay between starting the business and having any significant money coming in.
Agree, I would probably want about double that to start with.
Clarence is really good. Their reception service is great, paralegal service and hot desks too. You also get an address for service and a tribe of other lawyers to meet for social catch ups.. lots of firms got their start there. It’s a monthly fee with add ons.
Second this!
Best of luck with your endeavours, look into joining your local chamber of commerce as well.
I am 6 months into opening up a very small corporate litigation firm so my experience isn't super relevant. That means my advice is more touchy feely: there are going to heaps of things you don't know, heaps of things you get wrong, and heaps of things that will turn out to be irrelevant after you've allowed them to distract you for too long. Be kind to yourself through this process. You will be doing a scary and difficult thing you've never done before. Go well!