A little while ago, I let my Linkedin network know about my services. Thanks to analytics, I noticed that the most visited page on my website was the one explaining what is a freelance solicitor. This piqued my curiosity as to why that was of such interest.
I then did some quick desktop research on Linkedin and also Google and I realised that freelance solicitor is not a term used that often by solicitors.
A quick recap: freelance solicitors are the name given by the Law Society for lawyers registered to provide certain types of services but as sole practitioners and not via a regulated law firm.
Whilst the term “freelancer” has been around for a while, a freelance solicitor is a relatively new one. What is much more common is consultants.
When I was a wee trainee solicitor, a consultant was usually a retired partner who carried on working as a consultant and no longer as a partner. Venerated and experienced is both how they were and how I saw a consultant. I doubt I was alone in that view.
These days I would say it is very different. It usually means a self-employed solicitor who provides services under the umbrella of a regulated law firm. The key benefits are usually professional indemnity insurance, access to certain types of software like online resources and time recording and support. As a consultant is not an employee, they can work as little or as much as they want. In exchange, the consultant gives a percentage of their fees to the law firm which can be 20-40% though those at the lower end often have to bring in huge fees before they get that percentage.
However, I do think many of these “consultant solicitors” are in fact registered as a freelance solicitors with the professional body and you can register as a freelancer with as little as 3 years post-qualification experience (and I think it used to be 5 years).
Why don’t they call themselves “freelance” solicitors? Well, one suspects it is simply that being a consultant gives more gravitas than a freelancer.
I used to call myself a consultant but then switched when I realised that “freelancer” was a more accurate term, though from a marketing perspective less appealing.
For non-lawyers, maybe this is why I got so many views on that page.
Finally, I do find myself asking if I should in fact be calling myself a “Fractional Counsel”, an alternative for a part-time, ad-hoc counsel. It does seem to be the mot du jour. But that really sounds somewhat David Brent, doesn’t it?
