Advice on a split practice (barrister and soliticor)

[lawstudent2]

Hi all,

Currently an articling student - just wanted to know whether a split practice of barrister and solicitor work is possible if one were to maintain a general practice in both. 

Thank you!

[Rashabon]

What do you actually mean and want to do? Can you be a high end class actions barrister and a securities law solicitor? No. Can you practice L&E as a barrister and be a high end M&A solicitor? Also no. Can you do wills and estates litigation and solicitor work? Probably.

Narrow your question, right now you haven't asked a meaningful one.

[Dinsdale]

Of course that is possible.  Many smaller town lawyers, sole practitioners, etc., routinely do both.  They draft wills, do real estate closings, draft routine employment contracts, and also appear in court on family law, debt collection, personal injury matters, etc.  Perhaps less serious criminal matters too.  But, as above, they would not end up doing higher end, more complex work in any area, in all likelihood. 

[Jaggers]

1 hour ago, Rashabon said:

Can you practice L&E as a barrister and be a high end M&A solicitor?

There are people who do this, although their M&A solicitor role is limited to dealing with the flow/compensation/transfer/retention of employees during deals that the real solicitors are running.

[Rashabon]

3 minutes ago, Jaggers said:

There are people who do this, although their M&A solicitor role is limited to dealing with the flow/compensation/transfer/retention of employees during deals that the real solicitors are running.

Yeah it is usually, in my experience, just a regular L&E lawyer that also works frequently in a support role on M&A files. But you're not running the file or negotiating the deal terms broadly.

[Jaggers]

Yeah, just pointing out that employment lawyers are one of the practice areas where most people are both barristers and solicitors, though the mix varies. Some really do specialize in M&A support, though that stuff is boring as hell.

[Psmith]

Management-side labour and employment is one possible "split" practice. Estate planning/administration and estate litigation is another. Some construction lawyers both negotiate contracts and litigate disputes. You can also end up doing both in insolvency. In each case, you can have subject matter expertise that's applicable to both barrister and solicitor work, so you may be qualified for fairly sophisticated files of both kinds.

[Diplock]

I think the most important answer, here, is that practice areas are not really divided according to barrister and solicitor lines at all. Which I'm sure is much of the reason we lost that distinction in the profession to begin with.

[Bob Jones]

11 hours ago, lawstudent2 said:

Hi all,

Currently an articling student - just wanted to know whether a split practice of barrister and solicitor work is possible if one were to maintain a general practice in both. 

Thank you!

Yes and no, just depends on the specific areas you want to practice. 

For example, if you get into L&E, a big portion of your day will be spent on reviewing employment agreements, workplace policies, and/or termination letters or other similar documents. So there's the solicitor-side of things. But at the same time, you will likely be in and out of discoveries, mediations, case conferences, etc, which gets you to your barrister-practice. 

I would wager that you can create a similar set up with wills & estate and Estate Litigation. 

 

But if you're hoping to mimic Harvey Spectre and close M&A deals on a Monday, while arguing a criminal trial on a Wednesday, that's probably not realistic. Although makes more entertaining TV.

[chaboywb]

At your typical big law firm, there are a decent number of specialist groups that lend themselves to both transactional work (consulting on M&A deals or other corporate matters) and advocacy (often before administrative tribunals). Tax, competition, environmental law and IP come to mind, in addition to L&E and insolvency as were mentioned. Some securities transactional lawyers will have the opportunity to be involved in advocacy from time to time, such as in connection with proxy fights or unsolicited takeover bids. I think the majority of these lawyers would view themselves as either a solicitor or litigator that occasionally dips their toes in the other side, but I'm sure there are some who are close to 50/50.