New Beginnings

I've rather neglected this blog after my initial flurry (if you can call two blogs a flurry) of activity. Things got a little crazy for a while as the firm I was working for merged with a more established firm and I was busy trying to build a network of referrers as well as turn the ancient and festering pile of estates they had in to billable work and hence profits - not an easy task at a firm where things have just been allowed to coast for the last five or six years.

Things appeared to be going quite well for the first say, four days, however it quickly became apparent that far from the "loads of work" that had been promised there was nothing of the sort. Rather there were a small handful of probate cases that had been ongoing for at least two years, some of which had already been the subject of client complaints to the Legal Services Commission (as it was then).

There was a distinct lack of work in progress and no real intention of doing anything about marketing ourselves to get new clients through the door.

On top of this it was soon discovered that the junior partner was in receipt of secret profits on Personal Injury cases. He was receiving a commission from the preferred medical agency for each case referred to them. This would not be a problem in itself had these commissions been first declared and offered to the client and not instead squirrelled away in to a separate limited company. The same company which incidentally also hired vehicles to clients who required replacement vehicles while their own damaged cars were repaired or valued and replaced. Somewhat more disturbingly, during the course of an investigation conducted by myself and another partner, it was discovered that the sole equity partner was a member of the hire company and had allowed the whole shady practice to develop unfettered.

I felt the only course of action available was to resign and report the matter to the SRA for their consideration.

As such, I now find myself without a job for the second time in less than a year and seriously considering my future within the profession for the first time since I was at high school.

I have options and a growing list of referrers and other work sources but the choice is a stark one:-

1. Take the financial risk of setting up something of my own (with others) and watch it either grow in to something beautiful and profitable or wither and die within six months;

2. Get a proper job and become a wage slave for someone else, whether that be within the legal profession or not;

3. A mixture of the two - take my referrers to someone else and work under their umbrella for a share of the profits on work brought in

For the time being I have re-registered with the usual suspects in terms of recruitment agencies and approached friends and former colleagues for their suggestions and input. We shall see what turns up.

In the meantime I'll be updating this blog more regularly and already have ideas as to what my next few topics will be.

So for now let us raise a glass to the future and look forward to new beginnings while hoping the past is a fading memory from which lessons can be learned.