Moving To Consultancy From Being A Sole Practitioner

The comparison above highlights just how different life can be when you step away from running your own regulated practice. But the advantages go far beyond reduced burden and improved efficiency. The sections below walk you through the practical mechanisms – structural, regulatory and commercial – that make the consultancy model a smarter, more scalable and more profitable approach for sole practitioners.

1. A Virtual Law Firm Model That Retains Your Autonomy Without Regulatory Burdens

Under our platform, you join us as a self-employed consultant solicitor trading through our umbrella SRA-regulated law firm.

You can continue to operate your existing de-regulated limited company as a service company that supports your consultancy business. This company can continue to:

• employ your own support staff
• handle admin, marketing, bookkeeping and non-legal operations
• invoice for service provision

This gives you the commercial flexibility of running your own business without the weight of regulation or SRA compliance obligations.

Our regulated firm becomes responsible for:

• PII
• COLP/COFA functions
• client onboarding and AML compliance
• file reviews and supervision
• all SRA-regulated policies and systems

You simply focus on your practice and your clients.

2. Continue Working With Your Own Solicitors and Trainee Solicitors Through a Tripartite Agreement

Solicitors and trainee solicitors must be employed by an SRA-authorised body. Under our model, this requirement is satisfied through a simple but robust structure:

The Tripartite Agreement

The arrangement involves:

• You / your de-regulated service company
• Our regulated law firm
• Your solicitor or trainee solicitor

This agreement ensures:

• The regulated law firm is the legal employer of the solicitor or trainee (as required by the SRA).
• The individual works exclusively for your consultancy practice through your service company.
• You remain their day-to-day manager and direct their work.
• The fees generated by these individuals are credited to your consultancy account within the regulated firm.
• As a result, you increase your gross revenue share and, in turn, the fee share you receive.

Salary Recharge Arrangement

Because the regulated firm is the legal employer, it pays the solicitors’ and trainees’ salaries each month. To keep this compliant and clear from an SRA and employment law perspective:

• You (via your service company) pay the full monthly salary cost + VAT to the regulated firm in advance of each month.
• The VAT is recoverable by your service company.

This structure is widely used in consultant-style platforms and allows you to retain the benefit of your team while removing the burden of running a regulated entity.

3. Avoiding Run-Off PII Through a Successor Practice Arrangement

Ordinarily, when a sole practitioner closes their SRA-regulated firm, they must purchase six years’ run-off cover, often costing between 2.5 and 3.5 times their annual premium.

However, you may be able to avoid this cost entirely through a successor practice arrangement.

How Successor Practice PII Works

• Under the SRA rules, if the new regulated firm agrees to become a successor practice to your old practice, then your previous firm’s liabilities transfer to the new firm’s PII.
• This means:
  • You may not need to purchase run-off insurance at all.
  • Any future claims relating to work done under your old firm will be covered by our PII policy in force at the time of the claim.

Important Factors to Consider

• The umbrella firm’s PII insurer must agree to take on your prior practice’s risk profile.
• If your claims history or risk profile could negatively impact the umbrella firm’s premium:
  • You may negotiate a contribution to any temporary increase in premiums.

This is still substantially more cost-effective than paying for run-off independently.

We routinely assess potential successor practice arrangements and have successfully onboarded sole practitioners under this model.

4. Superior Marketing, Internal Referral Opportunities, and Scalable Lead Generation

Many sole practitioners operate without the benefit of strong SEO, marketing support, or a broad referral network. By joining a larger virtual firm, you not only gain upgraded marketing infrastructure but also access an extensive internal ecosystem of fee-earners who can refer work to you—and to whom you can refer work for passive income.

Enhanced Digital Presence and Marketing Support

Upon joining us, you immediately benefit from:

• a high-performing, SEO-optimised website with strong AI-driven GEO search ranking
• marketing assistants who help generate more enquiries for your services
• professional management of:
  • Google Ads
  • SEO
  • Directory listings
  • Social media
  • Blog writing
  • Content strategy

This instantly amplifies your visibility and creates a reliable pipeline of new work.

Keep Your Own Website and Brand Too

You may continue using your existing website and brand, provided it states clearly that you now practise through our regulated law firm. This allows you to maintain:

• your established online presence
• continuity and trust with existing clients
• ongoing lead-generation activity
• historic SEO indexing

You effectively benefit from two powerful marketing channels.

Internal Referral Revenue: A Major Earnings Opportunity You Didn’t Have as a Sole Practitioner

One of the biggest advantages of joining a larger platform is the ability to earn passive income from internal referrals. In your own firm, when a client needed help outside your expertise, you often referred them externally—and earned nothing.

That changes completely under our structure.

Earn 15% of All Fees Generated by Work You Refer Internally

Under the consultancy agreement:

• You earn 15% of the revenue generated when a matter you refer is handled by another solicitor within the firm.
• You are not required to do any work on the matter beyond making the introduction.
• The income can be significant: many consultants comfortably earn several thousand pounds per month purely from internal referrals.

This creates a new revenue stream that sole practitioners simply cannot generate on their own.

Receive More Work From the Firm’s Network

The benefits go both ways. You can also receive new matters from:

• the network of self-employed consultant solicitors
• employees of the firm
• the firm’s inbound marketing and central enquiries

Although the fee share for referred work is lower than for matters you originate yourself, the volume is often high and consistent—giving you:

• additional quality clients
• reliable work streams
• a healthy and diversified revenue source

This internal ecosystem is a major financial advantage unavailable to most small firms.

5. Higher Earnings, Lower Overheads, and More Billable Hours

Sole practitioners typically carry heavy layers of fixed and variable costs:

• PII
• Office space
• Compliance infrastructure
• Case management systems
• SRA fees
• Accountants and HR obligations
• Staff overheads
• Supervision duties
• IT and cybersecurity compliance

Under our model, these burdens vanish.

Your cost base becomes:

• a predictable fee share
• optional service company costs
• minimal fixed expenses

This leads to:

• more time billing
• greater productivity
• less stress
• higher net profit

Many sole practitioners who join us earn more than they ever did running their own firm—with a fraction of the administrative load.

6. A Proven Pathway – We’ve Successfully Transitioned Many Sole Practitioners Already

We have successfully transitioned multiple sole practitioners (and their teams) from their own regulated firms into our platform. Many have been with us for years and consistently tell us they:

• wish they’d made the move earlier
• enjoy greater earnings
• benefit from passive referral income
• have more time for client work and family life
• feel significantly less stressed
• rediscovered their enjoyment of practising law

This is a tried, trusted and highly effective transition route – not an experiment.

Is It Time for You to Step Away From Running Your Own Regulated Firm?

If you are ready to:

• eliminate regulatory burden
• avoid the cost of run-off PII (subject to successor practice assessment)
• keep your team and your brand
• access a superior marketing engine
• earn passive referral income
• receive internal referrals
• grow your income
• regain your time
• enjoy practising law again

…then becoming a consultant solicitor with a virtual firm may be the most commercially strategic decision you ever make.

Next Step: Speak to Us in Confidence

We can confidentially review your current structure, PII position, team, claims history and client base, and advise you on:

• successor practice eligibility
• how your team can migrate under the tripartite structure
• how your service company should operate
• your earning potential with us
• how to close your current regulated entity smoothly

We already have several former sole practitioners thriving on our platform and we’d be delighted to show you how the transition can work for you.

✉️ jonathan.lea@jonathanlea.net

Photo by Redd Francisco on Unsplash