In October 1992 two solicitors embarked on a courageous course of action.

Anne Aitken and Margaret Kelly left established jobs to set up a new practice in north London which would deal exclusively with family law.Ms Aitken was a partner in a West End firm, where she concentrated on family law in a predominantly criminal practice.

Ms Kelly, who qualified in New South Wales, Australia, came from a high street legal aid firm, where she had built up the family side of the work.

Both women are on the Law Society's children panel.The move was prompted by a feeling of professional isolation.

Historically, family law has been marginalised, Ms Kelly says.

It sits unhappily with business aspirations: most of the City firms have closed their private client departments and, in the smaller firms, family law tends to be viewed as something that has to be done or worse, 'something that anyone can do'.

The result is, typically, an adversarial approach which is largely inappropriate in family matters.So Ms Aitken and Ms Kelly set out to corner a section of the family law market.

The first year was tough, financially and in other ways, they acknowledge, but their workload has grown steadily, and since Christmas it has 'really exploded'.'In retrospect,' says Ms Kelly, 'we were probably a bit ambitious at the beginning.

We were winding up our previous caseloads as well as having to deal with stationery and office chairs.' She left her job on a Friday, and opened the new firm the following Monday, with Ms Aitken joining her a fortnight later.

The first problem came on day one, when printing of stationery had to be halted at the 11th hour because of difficulties over the phone number.'On the second day, partitions were put up in the office and we had the electricians in.

On the third day, my old boss gave us an agency case,' Ms Kelly says.

The practice's 'unique selling point' was the decision t o take on only work for which the partners have the necessary expertise and available resources.

The policy has paid off.'We have turned a lot of work away,' Ms Kelly says.

'At the beginning, we did wonder whether we were doing the right thing.' 'It was a temptation to take it on,' Ms Aitken adds, 'but we are very thankful now that we didn't.'The two solicitors undertake conveyancing (although not at cheap rates merely to get the work) but refuse personal injury work, except for existing clients, and all immigration, employment and housing matters.

They do, however, make a point of recommending other specialist firms.

One local practice, Bolt Burden, reciprocates by sending AKA its family clients.

The firm rang AKA to welcome it to Islington after seeing its announcement in the Gazette.In fact, work came in quite quickly.

'The first couple of months seemed quiet,' says Ms Aitken, 'but looking back, we have opened the same number of files each month since we began.'Apart from the Gazette advertisement, AKA made the decision not to spend money on marketing in its first year.

The partners did have a lucky break, however, in the shape of a feature in the Independent's law pages.

This brought them quite a bit of business, mainly from non-legal aid firms referring clients on, but also from prospective clients who read the article and rang the Law Society for the firm's number.

The article also brought a call from specialist chambers, whose counsel AKA regularly uses.The partners also wrote introducing themselves to 'a few chosen people', but their main marketing thrust was carried out locally, in the shape of an information leaflet sent to domestic violence units and the two local law centres.AKA's one attempt at direct advertising was unproductive, according to Ms Aitken.

The partners paid £100 for a business-card sized advert in a two-page spread on fostering and adoption in the Daily Mirror.

It seemed like a good idea but not one bit of business came their way as a result.Now, says Ms Aitken, some 80% of their work comes by word of mouth.

'We have both been in the profession long enough to have built up a lot of contacts,' she says.

'It would have been difficult to start from scratch without that.'Experience as a lawyer is one thing, starting and running a business is another, and that was the difficult bit, both women agree.

'You have to go a long way to achieve a small step,' Ms Aitken says, adding: 'But we are getting there.

We are very strict with ourselves on procedures.''We spent a lot of time earlier on creating time-saving devices that worked once we got used to them,' says Ms Kelly.

A new computer system is in place and the firm also invested in a specialist family law software package that is not only time saving, but as Ms Kelly was asked to rewrite it, also proved to be profile-raising.

Ms Aitken and Ms Kelly's enthusiasm is undimmed.

it has been an interesting time, they say, and they survived their lowest ebb, in April last year, when it all seemed like a long slog.Currently, the partnership, which has just enlarged its premises, employs three staff: a receptionist; a full-time secretary and an articled clerk - a young woman with a masters law degree taken on last August as part secretary, part legal assistant, but who entered full-time articles with the firm in January.

The partners have also offered provisional articles for later in the year to another young woman who does outdoor clerking for them.'That's how we are looking to expand,' Ms Aitken says, 'training people ourselves, in our way of wor king, and keeping them on after qualification.'Each of the partners is now dealing with four or five cases in court every day.

More work comes from the domestic violence unit at Islington police station, and a one-line advert in the local Thompson's directory has brought in a fair share of clients.

But, says Ms Aitken, it is impossible to identify any one source as the reason for the expansion.

'Our difficulty is knowing how much bigger to get,' she says.

'For the moment, we are even shelving a decision on whether to apply for a legal aid franchise.

We are working so hard now, life is nerve-racking in a different way.'