Rough with the smooth

In March of 1984 my husband and I established a small solicitors' practice in the South West.

We were both nearly 40. Now at 65, we are merging our practice with another and so we will cease to exist as a separate entity. As I deal with chores which have to be done in preparation for the handover in a few weeks' time, memories of what things were like 25 years ago surface.

A Dickensian tale

To young solicitors much of what I write will sound like something out of Dickens. To those of our generation, however, it may serve as a reminder of how things change yet somehow stay the same.

After qualification locally, determined to see if I could cut it in the big time, I went to work in the City for a couple of years. I loved the work, the people and the atmosphere, but not the commuting. This was before the big bang when hours got ridiculously long and all the fun went out of it. Back then I would catch the 8.17 up to town and the 5.36 back from Paddington most days; staying up sometimes if I had a late meeting, but otherwise managing to cope with a work load which was fairly normal for a newly qualified assistant solicitor.

After a brief period during which I worked locally, my husband and I both decided to opt out of the rat race and set up our own high street practice. Somewhat naively we imagined we could offer a city-quality service to local businesses at an economical price. I would concentrate on contentious work which was my speciality and he on company/commercial work, and we would both do conveyancing and probate. We would stay small and everything would be done by a partner. We would aim for quality, not quantity.

Because there were two of us but we only needed one income, we wouldn't have to earn as much as two separate lawyers in partnership but not married to each other. We would be able to hold our partners' meetings while walking our hounds on the downs. We wouldn't do anything unless we both decided to do it. (This last rule meant that we never did much of anything as we never agreed).

Young and fearless

How did we start? I look back now and wonder at our lack of fear. We interviewed banks and took the one that offered us the best deal (that is the one which didn't insist we put any of our own money into the venture). We took a lease on office premises. We bought antique furniture because we thought it would hold its value (we shall shortly see if it has when it all goes to auction). We hired staff. We bought typewriters. Electric ones because we were progressive. Memory ones even!

We registered for VAT. We had notepaper printed and had telephones installed. We decided how to organise things. We bought books '“ this was a big expense but one which could not be omitted and it pains me now that they are literally going into the bin. No one uses books anymore. It is all online. Lexis or Nexis. We bought cabinets with shallow drawers in which to keep forms and lamented the cost of those forms. These too are now nearly totally redundant. I think it is only local search forms that get typed out today.

We wrote letters to all the building society managers in town introducing ourselves. We met estate agents. We gave little lunches in our office to which we invited local people who might give us work. I recall we had our first client recommended by a local estate agent who we did not even know. It was so exciting. And because it was ours we didn't mind that the matter was relatively simple, the sort of thing neither of us would have touched in our former lives in the City. Friends asked us to draft wills. Strange people who had fallen out with the other practices in town contacted us and asked us to take on things that sounded too good to be true and usually were. We set up systems and procedures.

We bought a fax machine. We were one of the first practices to have one and I think it cost something like two thousand pounds. We had a strange version of Telex called British Telecom Gold whereby Telex came in via a phone line. It wasn't much good and didn't last long, but filled that little gap between Telex, fax and eventually of course the internet.

Shortly after we had started I went up to London to a party for 'old' employees at the City firm where I had worked. Practice management was just beginning to be a recognised subject for lawyers and one of the senior partners was an editor of the first major work on this subject which had recently been published. I said we had just set up a new practice, and he asked me if I had used his book. 'No,' I said, 'it was far too grand for us. What we needed was a sort of idiot's guide.' 'Yes,' he said, 'I have often thought we should have one. Would you like to write it for us?' And I did.

A few years later when I came to revise it I had to revise the bit about fax machines - which I had indicated were by no means a necessity for the small firm!

Finding our feet

We experimented with various types of business, including I recall uninsured loss recovery which was then in its infancy and sounded like a good idea. We got I think £11 for opening a file and then only what we recovered from the other side. We were inundated with clients and opened scores of files before we realised that we were incurring overheads and working very hard but not making any money. I think it is called 'profitless growth', and of course the clients never came back as we did only one thing for them. They didn't think of us as their solicitors, but merely the people who were dealing with their accident.

My husband dealt with minor landlord and tenant matters for his previous employers, commenting that things he would have looked down his nose at when employed as the company lawyer were suddenly quite acceptable when one could charge for them!

Gradually, rather than a practice made up of small things for big companies as we anticipated, it was big and small things for smaller companies and individuals which made up our practice over the years. The work came from unexpected sources and, as I believe is common with all small businesses, it was either feast or famine.

We never got it totally right and over the years had too little work rather than too much. We got savvy about turning away things that sounded too good to be true. They invariably were. If I was not going to be paid for a job I would prefer to know before I did the work rather than after, and I became quite ruthless about money on account.

Important clients came from unexpected sources and at unexpected times. I recall for instance one of the weirdest cases I ever dealt with being an employee referred by a commercial client of my husband's. It ended in what counsel later described as a murder trial in the Chancery Division. But that's another story!

A turnaround for the books

One gloomy early December afternoon when things were slow I recall our financial services contact ringing to ask if I could deal with a big piece of litigation for a good client of his. We would be the third solicitors to deal with it. My heart sank as that almost always heralds bad news, doesn't it? In fact it turned out to be one of the biggest, most profitable and most interesting cases I have dealt with over our whole period of practice, and the client one of our best and most loyal and active. So you never know.

What were some of the other differences? Well, people SMOKED. In the office! I recall one had ashtrays for the clients because if a client wanted to smoke, it seemed quite harsh not to allow that '“ even though personally I always hated smoking. My husband smoked cigars. And a pipe. Secretaries smoked. In fact, our first secretary who started with us and who at first did everything including the books was a heavy smoker and even then I can remember how I hated the smell. Subsequently, we did not recruit smoking secretaries at all; but how things have changed now that we have those no smoking signs on the front door.

Will I miss it? No. I don't think so. Things have moved on. Our loyal clients will be well looked after by a merged practice with younger people at the helm. They use digital dictation and email and a practice management system. It will be different. Better, I don't know. But different.