Flying solo

I read with interest your feature on sole practitioners (see [2000] Gazette, 22 June, 26), but was somewhat surprised to see that it made no mention of my book Setting Up and Managing a Small Practice - a Guide For Solicitors.

Several of those interviewed in the article spoke of their fears of isolation, lack of resources and the danger of taking a leap in the dark in setting up on one's own.

The book deals with all of those fears and offers reassurance, and contrasts the benefits with the burdens to enable anyone contemplating setting up to take an informed view.I was interested in your statement that most people agree that the day of the generalist is now firmly in the past.

You correctly point out that many clients have traditionally liked sole practitioners because they offered a cradle-to-grave service.

The ever-increasing complexity of practice makes it harder to be a generalist, but anyone contemplating setting up who intends to turn away work that they feel competent to do because they feel they should concentrate solely on areas of specialism will find themselves going under in the early days unless they set up with a strong client base in a specialist area.It may be that the easiest way is to specialise so you need not bother keeping your skills up in other areas, but it may be the easy way to a short-lived practice.

My advice to anyone setting up without a large client base in a specialist area is to take any work you feel competent to carry out which makes a profit, and have the self-discipline to maintain your skills on as many fronts as possible.

Once you have been going for a year or two, you can then have the luxury of specialising and skipping past all the other law reports in the Gazette, other than your area of specialism.

Martin Smith, Martin Smith & Co, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire