Christina Blacklaws describes the potential feelings of isolation some lawyers working from home in virtual law firms can experience (see [2009] Gazette, 20 August, 5).

I have worked very successfully alone as a sole practitioner in the joint smallest firm in the country since 1994. I do not even have a secretary. I enjoyed my time at Slaughter and May and Bristows, but this is better. I practise high-quality niche work (IP/IT/competition) and, indeed, many of my clients are other firms that do not have experience in my areas of law.

Isolation does not occur if you maintain your networks and committee memberships, meet clients, give legal talks, are emotionally robust and internally content, and have friends (or, in my case, have five children around). I would pay for isolation at times, so precious a commodity can it be. I had to buy a small island in Panama to achieve it.

Imagine a life without internal meetings; where no one needs to be consulted about any decision; where you have total control over your working life and hours; where you have no staff to manage; where you retain almost 100% of your turnover as profits; and where you ‘eat what you kill’. This is the nirvana that is sole practice working from home.

By joining together with others, some solicitors will find they are then saddled with some of the burdens they thought they had left behind when they achieved the freedom of going it alone. So decisions to join networks should be approached with caution. Most of us know other lawyers to whom we can refer work where it is outside our competence. Going a stage further and forming or joining a formal network is not for everyone, but certainly works well for many.

Working from home is a much easier and traditional way to work than commuting to an office. As my late father, Dr Peter Morgan, a psychiatrist who was instructed by many solicitors’ firms as an expert witness, used to say: pick work you enjoy. Next week my elder daughter starts her training contract and her younger sister the LPC. I hope, above all, that whether they end up in small or large firms, they enjoy their working lives.

Susan Singleton, Singletons, Pinner