This is the 7th post in our series “How I Became a Freelance Lawyer” by our Flex lawyers. Today’s post is by Carol MacPherson.
I have been a lawyer for over thirty years. I started my career as a junior partner in a three person firm, the first all-female firm in Mississauga in fact. When that disbanded, I joined a law firm in Toronto where I specialized in mortgage remedy law for several years.
I then decided to go out on my own. A friend who was a family lawyer in Mississauga had a spare office and invited me to set up my practice. I had always preferred the “solicitor” part of “barrister and solicitor” and to be sharing office space with a litigator worked out well. As my friend’s practice expanded, so did the space, and eventually, there were seven of us sharing space, mostly family law lawyers and myself. I was the recipient of referrals from these lawyers in the areas of real estate and wills, indeed it became obvious to me that this was a very satisfactory way to set up a practice: concentrate on one or two areas of law and then give and receive referrals to and from lawyers in other areas of law. All the others in the shared space were also sole practitioners and this arrangement continued for many years.
Eventually I decided to “retire” from a full-time practice. I was interested in pursuing other interests, mainly obtaining a Certified Financial Planner designation. I also started teaching in the paralegal program at Sheridan College, something I had done at Humber in the early days of my practice.
My practice now consists of only Wills and Estates and real-estate work related to Estates, and I offer a “Mobile” service meaning I go to the client rather than the client coming to my office. This means that I can offer my legal services to people who either don’t have the time or the ability to travel. I find that being freelance allows me to work anytime anywhere and I love that flexibility and also the time to do volunteer work.
