{"id":103,"date":"2021-09-02T13:01:46","date_gmt":"2021-09-02T12:01:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.duport.co.uk\/blog\/?p=103"},"modified":"2025-10-24T17:03:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T16:03:21","slug":"start-up-stories-christian-a-private-client-solicitor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.duport.co.uk\/blog\/start-up-stories-christian-a-private-client-solicitor\/","title":{"rendered":"Start-up stories: Christian a private client solicitor"},"content":{"rendered":"

This Month Duport went to meet Christian, a Private client solicitor<\/a> who took the plunge and become self-employed in October 2019. We quizzed him about many aspects of his work life and
\nover the next couple of months we will bring you extracts of the interview. This month we have concentrated on why he went self-employed.<\/p>\n

In your words you\u2019re a Private Client solicitor \u2013 in layman\u2019s terms what is that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m a private client solicitor, that means that I deal with Wills, Probate, Lasting Powers of Attorney, I do an element of Trust work as and when it\u2019s needed, but its mainly the first 3 that are my areas of law. Private client work is all about dealing with individuals, not organisations or companies. I have my own clients, but I also assist other solicitor\u2019s firms that need help with their private client\u2019s work (this is known as locum work).<\/p>\n

What was your motivation for moving from employment to self-employment?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The reason I went self-employed was to get that happy balance between family and work life. A balance I found I couldn\u2019t really get right in a firm and going forward maybe even would have been
\ndetrimental to my or my family\u2019s mental health.<\/p>\n

Why wasn\u2019t it working in a firm?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Travel and pressures \u2013 pressures from billing and targets. It\u2019s still a very old school profession that is only changing its attitudes in the last 5 years or so but it\u2019s still slow. When you\u2019re working for a solicitors\u2019 practice (whether big or small), you get a lot of input from others who may not have practical experience in your area of law.<\/p>\n

Was it an easy decision to move from employment to self-employment?<\/strong><\/p>\n

No, the biggest concern would be the monetary element. Being used to a regular income from a salary; going to not knowing whether you are able to do the job well enough to get a regular income
\ncoming in. I think the best advice ever given to me was to get a safety net of money behind you before you do it [self-employment]. It gave me the flexibility to network and work hard to get my
\ninitial client base and start generating money.<\/p>\n

How much money would you want to have behind you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think, realistically, 6 months of what you are used to getting on a monthly basis, this gives you enough flexibility to go both feet in to make it try to work.<\/p>\n

How does working for yourself compare to working for others?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The external pressure isn\u2019t there \u2013 the only pressure is what you put on yourself. Which I think is actually an insight that I put a lot more pressure on myself than I realised. I think maybe some
\npressure is a good thing for my line of work. I have a certain high standard, so by me achieving those goals it allows me to produce good work and get repeat work. But it\u2019s all about that balance, you don\u2019t want to take on too much to the point that you do a bad job. I\u2019m trying and I think I\u2019m succeeding to get that balance with family life and work.<\/p>\n

If you could go back to when you started out, when you set up your limited company and decided to work for yourself is there any advice you would give yourself?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t panic, it will be ok. Not knowing what is coming round the corner, there\u2019s an awful lot of support out there for people being self-employed, there are organisations and people that want you
\nto succeed. I think also just like I am with clients, if you don\u2019t know something just be honest, speak to your accountant \u2013 say I don\u2019t know what I\u2019m doing here and I don\u2019t want to mess it up. Just have that chat. You\u2019ll be better for it.<\/p>\n

For my line of work if I don\u2019t know something I\u2019ll find out, or, if I can\u2019t deal with that area of law I\u2019ll tell the client, but I\u2019ll get someone who can deal with it. It\u2019s all about having those connections.
\nSaying you can\u2019t help someone isn\u2019t a bad thing because I think it gives reassurance to the client that you are listening to them and that I\u2019m honest. It\u2019s nice I\u2019ve got quite a large contact list so I can often help alleviate that problem or concern.<\/p>\n

Next time we will hear what methods Christian<\/a> uses to secure a client base and the changes Covid
\nhas brought about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This Month Duport went to meet Christian, a Private client solicitor who took the plunge and become self-employed in October 2019. We quizzed him about many aspects of his work life and over the next couple of months we will bring you extracts of the interview. This month we have concentrated on why he went […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,15,13],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nStart-up stories: Christian a private client solicitor Start up stories solicitor<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This Month Duport went to meet Christian, a Private client solicitor who took the plunge and become self-employed in October 2019. 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