Anderson is focusing her practice on family and criminal matters, working from an office in The Pas then returning more than 600 kilometres home to Winnipeg every other weekend to be with her kids. “Because there are so few lawyers in the north, if I stand around [the courthouse] I get cases,” she jokes.

She says the hours are long, but the rewards are worth it. “I’m making good money, but sometimes it’s difficult and a lot of extra hours.” Anderson’s is an arrangement she hopes will be temporary, but has afforded her valuable experience to perhaps set up in Winnipeg soon. “As sole practitioner, your time is your own and you work as hard as you want to work.”

Lawyers’ reasons for going solo are diverse. Aida Abraha graduated from McGill University in 2004, received her call in Ontario in 2005, and opened her own firm to be able to practise in the field of her choice. She had articled at a mid-sized labour and employment law firm but longed to practise immigration. So she took six months off to plan, network, and research the possibilities before taking the plunge. “I wanted the lifestyle and control over the direction of my career,” she says simply.

Through research and networking, she found shared office space in downtown Toronto with two other, experienced lawyers who also work independently. She says the research leading up to launching her practice was invaluable, such as the need to obtain law society templates to properly maintain her practice finances and finding resources such as MyShingle.com on the web.

Abraha starts work at 8:30 a.m. and leaves at around 7 p.m., often taking work home, and routinely goes in to her office on Saturdays to do accounting. Now well into her second year of practice, business has picked up, although she advises to colleagues contemplating going it alone, “The first few months are going to be slow.” She suggests lawyers use the time to “organize yourself, your precedents, templates, and study, attend, and observe court proceedings. That’s what I did.”

Ambition pays

Abraha joins the chorus of lawyers who attest that diverse life experience is essential. “If you’ve just finished articling, make sure you do have some life experiences behind you,” she advises. I’m not a mature student, but I’ve travelled and worked abroad, worked in various government agencies. “You have to be a self-starter, you have to be a good researcher. You’re not going to have someone next to you who’ll be right there when you need something. You really have to be creative to find the information on your own when you’re pressed for time,” she says.

“So when they say ‘sole practice,’ you really are on your own. You really require good judgment on so many levels. It helps to have that life experience so you’re confident in yourself.”

Similar to Abraha, Eve Schwarz hung her own shingle in Toronto to practise in her field of choice, which was a radical switch from the bank-fraud-focused corporate work she was doing at a mid-sized firm in Toronto the first four years after graduating. Schwarz preferred family law and, in 2005, she made the leap. “I really didn’t think about it that much,” says Schwarz. “I’m not saying planning isn’t a good idea, but if you analyze it too much you’re probably going to be paralyzed.”

She, too, found office space she shares with two lawyers her senior from whom she can learn. “I knew if I opened my own practice I would need mentoring and some guidance, so I decided early on that I would find a place where I’d be with other lawyers.”

In the beginning, Schwarz cautions that new, solo lawyers can expect to spend more time finding their way than what they’ll get paid for. She once invested 120 hours on a file worth a 40-hour retainer. “You can’t charge for a lot of your time,” she affirms.

These days, Schwarz says her practice is busy, although she believes she’s found a golden marketing tool in the Yellow Pages. “It’s been a phenomenal resource for me” she says. The ad deadline for listings in the Yellow Pages is January, she shares, and they hit the streets in June, “So open your practice in May or June. Once the Yellow Pages ad was in and running, oh my God,” she says of the constant phone calls.

Indeed, it’s clear that running your own practice is a slog — at first. The hours are long, the environment lonely, and there’s not going to be much money in the petty-cash kitty for at least the first six months.

But those practitioners who are innovative, determined, and resourceful are sure to succeed. And in the end, the reward is huge. As Peter Brauti attests, “There’s something about working for a dollar and knowing it’s your dollar you’re working for.”