Now I know what many of you are thinking.

After 5 blogs challenging preconceptions, providing anecdotes and theories, and inviting you all to think laterally about your futures, we now get to the crux of the issue.

The consultant solicitors model; that innovative change in practice which encapsulates everything that we have been discussing for the last four weeks.

Before we go any further, there are two things that I must acknowledge, which I hope will establish some trust in what I am about to say.

The first is that we must accept that the consultant solicitor model is not for everyone. If there is one warning that you should take from this blog, then it is this:

Be wary of the firm which promises all things to all men.

I would urge you all to only consider the firms who are honest about the challenges of making the transition. We all know the firms who promise eye watering salaries within 12 months (remember someone saying something about something being too good to be true?)

Secondly, I must acknowledge an inconvenient truth about myself. Except for the three months I spent as a paralegal for a shipping firm when I was 23, I have never been employed. Instead, I have only ever been self-employed or free-lancing as a consultant director.

I have never felt the comfort of a regular monthly income, health insurance benefits, holiday leave, paternity leave, pension plan etc etc.

What I am trying to say, in a somewhat roundabout way, is that I would have the same feeling of trepidation leaving the opportunities of being self-employed as many of you reading this would have in leaving the confines of employment.

I am really trying not to preach to any of you, and I have tried my absolute best not to in any of my blogs.

Before we continue, let us briefly consider the consultancy model.

There has been so much written on it, not all of it reliable, and so much comment has been made that gossip has provided a meaning (an aura, even) which is markedly different to practice. Simply put, the consultancy model enables lawyers to leave traditional employed practice by setting themselves up as independent contractors undertaking work for "client" firms.

Hence, the use of the term "consultancy."

A consultant can conduct work for as many firms as possible; although in practice, this will be no more than 2 or 3. Usually, the client firm would collect the fee and will deduct their own fees before passing the remainder to the consultant.

The more reputable firms will all follow a transparent fee structure, that is fully explained to the candidate during the interview process. Furthermore, reputable firms will also provide a detailed breakdown for the services they provide to their consultant solicitors, including access to legal resources, CRMs, office space, software and lead generation.

Beware of firms you suspect of being anything less than transparent; they do exist and should be avoided.

Before I get deluged by comments by opponents to the consultancy model, let me say two things. Firstly, this fee arrangement is still better than most arrangements for lawyers, who at best, are bound to one-third model (i.e. 33% to the lawyer, 33% to the partners, 33% to the firm).

Secondly, there is a place for both models; I am not saying that one is better than the other, but they both suit different types of practitioners. It is a personal decision; what works for 1 may not work for another.

It goes without saying that there are obviously several advantages to the consultancy model. Just this very morning, I came across a vacancy post on LinkedIn by a well-known firm of consultant solicitors. The headline ran "Bored of the daily grind?" which accompanied a photographed of a thirtysomething professional standing in a busy, filthy Tube carriage.

You don't need to be Einstein to work out the role being advertised.

The possibility of hybrid working and a better work/life balance are obvious attractions. We have seen the photographs of the male consultant working in his pyjamas with a Jack Russell on his lap, or of the young mother working on a laptop in her kitchen, cup of coffee in one hand, a three-month-old baby in the other.

These images appeal to some degree of naivety and considering that most of us have some experience of remote working due to covid, I am surprised that this naivety still exists. Is your dog like that friendly playful Jack Russell, or is it more like my German Shephard who knows how to interrupt every meeting by trying to tear apart an unfortunate delivery driver?

Even the term "work/life balance," I would argue, is somewhat misleading. It implies that your personal life will share the same time ratio as your work life during your working week. We all know that this is difficult for any professional, let alone a lawyer.

Any reputable recruiter will fully expect you, as a professional candidate, to be committed to working a full working week. Any firm or recruiter promising you the dream of an easier career is doing just that. They are selling you a dream, and as we discussed last week, dreams have the nasty habit of remaining fantasies. And we all know how dangerous they can be.

Instead, let us look at this term a bit more critically and work out what it means to us. We can do this by looking beyond the more obvious meaning.

For me, work/life balance is about deciding when I want to take that holiday, that I will now take my dog for a walk, listen to the radio whilst working or doing the school run, without first having to ask a superior for permission.

I said at the start of this blog that I have always worked the consultancy model, but I have always been realistic to know that a 45-hour week was the minimum I would work.

In fairness to the LinkedIn post, the consultancy model does limit the need for the daily grind, as hybrid working is the preferred practice.

It is too simplistic to just to consider the consultancy model based upon strengths and weaknesses. Instead, we should be looking at to whom it appeals.

Without doubt, this includes lawyers who want to working flexible hours; those who want the freedom of choosing when they work and how they work, who want the opportunity of finding their own leads, of developing their own business within the law.

TO BE CONTINUED....

Next week, we look at how the consultancy solicitor model can be ideal for those looking to work part time, the model's financial benefits and the what I consider to be the potential draw backs of practising as a consultant solicitor.