A solo legal practice is not for everyone. There’s no regular paycheque, and you’re in charge of everything from conducting cases to finding clients to making sure the bills are paid – and collected.

On the other hand, solo practitioners can create their own careers. They don’t have to seek employment because they are their own employers. Within reason, solo practitioners can also set their own hours and work from home if they so choose.

So what does it take to be a solo practitioner? Here are some must-haves:

1. To succeed as a solo practitioner, “a lawyer must have an entrepreneurial spirit,” says Omar Ha-Redeye. He runs a legal incubator in Toronto called Fleet Street Law to help solo practitioners and small firms get started. “You have to have a tolerance of ambiguity,” he adds. “This means that you have to be able to cope with the uncertain payments that go with running your own business – and implement savings and cost-control systems to keep yourself afloat when billings are low."

   “You have to enjoy the business side of running a legal practice, or at least have a knack for it,” says Jordan Furlong. He is principal of Edge International, a legal market analysis firm based in Ottawa. “This is entirely different from being an associate in a law firm where business just seems to come in and you get a regular paycheque,” Furlong said. “A solo practitioner has to do it all.”

2. Solo practitioners have to do more than cope with the stress of an uncertain paycheque: They have to address this issue head-on to bring money in the door. This means changing perspective from “what can I do?” to “what can I do?” They need to be able to look at the specifics of the situation and do something to improve them.

   “Are payments slow this month? Then perhaps clients with outstanding bills can be motivated to pay early in exchange for a discount,” says Ha-Redeye. “Does the practice not have enough clients? Then it’s time for the solo practitioner to ramp up their networking and self-promotion.”

   Having to find their own clients is enough to deter many lawyers from going solo. “If this fear predominates, then a lawyer is wise to work for a firm rather than be their own boss,” said Furlong. “There’s no shame in this. Some people are better off working for someone else.”

   A solo lawyer doesn’t have to be a glad-handing extrovert to successfully cultivate new clients, says Bo Arfai, a solo practitioner based in Toronto. “But you do have to drive sales by networking with others in your profession, letting the general public know that you are in business, and generally making yourself visible,” he said. You won’t get work by sitting alone at your desk and waiting for it to come to you. “You have to get out there and let the world know that you can help.”

3. Another must-have for a budding solo practitioner is self-discipline: It takes self-control and persistence to run a practice as a full-time, no-excuses career – and the ability to keep going when the going gets tough. “You have got to do what it takes to keep your practice going – not just finding, serving and billing clients, but all the day-to-day details of running any sort of small business,” Furlong said. “And if you don’t have the skills to run a small business, you have to get them.”

4. The problem for new lawyers is that law school teaches law, not how to run a business. To fill this gap, U.S. lawyer Susan Cartier Liebel founded Solo Practice University. It is an online educational and professional networking community created to teach lawyers the business of running their own practices. Courses include How to Hang a Shingle Right Out of Law School ... Or Shortly Thereafter and Introduction to Billing and Accounting, as well as courses on marketing, virtual technology, unbundling legal services, among others. (Solo Practice University also offers free lectures online and through iTunes.)

“Even though we are based in the U.S., we have a number of Canadian solo practitioners as students,” said Cartier Liebel. “This is because the business and legal courses we teach are broad-based – addressing the overarching issues in specific practice areas but from a nuts-and-bolts approach. The principles apply whatever the details of the jurisdiction a lawyer may be working in.”

As for busy solo practitioners not having the time to learn new skills? “With everything they have to deal with, they can’t afford not to make the time,” Cartier Liebel says. “If you are going to run your own show, you have to have the skills to do it all – or fail.”

Whatever educational resources they choose, solo practitioners must be willing to keep upgrading their skills over time, especially as the legal profession migrates to electronic forms and web-based services. “Solo practitioners also need to look at value-based pricing – that is, charging fees commensurate with the value to the client – rather than the old-fashioned billable hours model,” said Cartier Liebel. “Value-based pricing is where the profession is going and what the client is demanding. Solo practitioners can profit from this fact by adopting this consumer-preferred model now.”

To sum up, a solo practitioner needs an entrepreneurial spirit with the ability to tolerate risk; the drive to rustle up clients, and the discipline to persist even when times are tough -- because tough times happen to every business. They also need the skills to run their own office; at least until they earn enough to hire a legal assistant and bookkeeper.

“There’s one more thing solo practitioners need, and that is the ability to strike a work/life balance,” said Arfai. “If you manage the stress of an uncertain paycheque by working seven days a week, then you defeat the benefits of being your own boss. Downtime helps you maintain your relationships – and your sanity!”

About the Author

James Careless is a freelance journalist.