Scomo is an innovative practice in which virtually all our fee earners are self-employed consultants. They have their own offices or work from home, are free to decide on their own workloads, and can combine work for us with any other work. We believe that people who do difficult and demanding work do it best if they control their own working lives. Our consultants are experienced lawyers who just want to be lawyers (rather than administrators or managers), and we make it possible for them to be so.

For many years we were an entirely legal aid practice, and have continued to flourish as such during the recent difficult times. Lately we have expanded into privately paid work, with our Personal Injury, Clinical Negligence, Employment and Military Claims Units. We have shown that the system that we devised to make legal aid an attractive option in grim financial conditions will work equally well in other circumstances, and particularly suits motivated people who want to be free to organize their working lives to suit themselves. We want to go on expanding.

Technology makes our structure possible. We have a web based case management system and a secure intranet to ensure that distance does not impede communication or effectiveness. This enables our consultants to practice from anywhere in the country. However, we do not rely on technology alone to make the firm work; our consultants meet professionally through regular unit meetings and socially. There is a network of colleagues who can offer advice on cases and the ethos is friendly and supportive.

A key factor in this mix is our equality policy. All our consultants have the same terms and conditions, whether solicitors or non-solicitors, in that they all keep 70% of their profit costs, and have full and equal access to all our services. We do not distinguish (we have no way of distinguishing) between full timers and part-timers, and support and supervision are based on need, not status. We don't have a glass ceiling; because we don't have a ceiling at all. Our consultants determine their own goals and success is in their own hands.

Our way of working suits people who want to combine work with family responsibilities, those who enjoy portfolio working, and those who want to go flat out for success in their chosen field.

Are you fed up with billing targets and long hours?

The convention is that fee-earners have to make three times their remuneration package: one third for the overhead, one third for their salary and one third for the partners. We have turned this upside down, so that consultants keep over two thirds of their profit costs. The 30% which goes to Scomo covers the costs of running the firm (administration, accounting, archiving, professional indemnity insurance, management, quality assurance, some advertising etc) with the partners getting what is left. The 70% kept by consultants is not pure profit, as they have to pay for their practicing certificates and meet their own business expenses (telephone, stationery etc.) There is a one off charge at the outset for our web based case management and e-mail system, use of which is compulsory. There after the IT running costs are met from the 30%.Currently the one off cost is £750. If consultants are paid through legal aid, this means that they don't have toexhaust themselves to earn a respectable living, and if they do privately paid work it means that they can offer a very
competitive hourly rate and still do well.

Are you worried about the prospect of redundancy?

It might seem counter-intuitive to jump before you are pushed, but is it? You will be taking the initiative, feeling full of get up and go having got up and gone, and will be busy exploiting your contacts and setting up your practice (with some help from us) while your ex-colleagues are waiting for the axe to fall. An economic upheaval is a good time to offer something new as potential clients reassess their existing
commitments.

Are you exhausted by the demands of management?

If you are a sole practitioner or own a small practice, you probably have to run your business in the gaps between working for your clients, which means your work/life balance isn't anything of the sort and you are in danger of forgetting what brought you into the law in the first place.

Scomo provides professional indemnity insurance, and we have systems in place to ensure compliance with the many regulations that apply to a legal practice including the Solicitors’ Code of Conduct, the Legal Services Commission (LSC) contracts and data protection and money laundering regulations. We deal on our consultants' behalf with the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the LSC. We also handle complaints and deal with the Legal Complaints Service. Lucy Scott-Moncrieff is a Law Society Council member, and makes sure that everyone is kept informed of imminent changes

Our consultants are self-employed, and we take self-employed status very seriously. We have been checked by HMRC which found us compliant, and part of our compliance is that we really do not have billing targets. Our consultants can build exactly the sort of practice that suits them; we have people doing our work more or less full time, and others who work for us as part of their portfolio, another part of which may involve working for one of our competitors. That said we do ask that consultants aim to commit to a minimum of 12 hours per week.

Would you like to work for yourself, but not by yourself?

Our consultants make their own choices and are free to create their own case-mix, without being restricted by the aims of others or the needs of the firm. They can work whenever they like, fitting in their work around their other responsibilities and interests. However when they need cover, in an emergency, or because of a clash of dates, there are other people around willing to help. We have unit managers for all our categories of law. They are always available to discuss problems and are responsible for regular file reviews and the content of unit meetings. Support and advice from every other consultant is available at the end of an e-mail. We can help with finding secretarial and billing services.

Things to think about

We cannot guarantee you work, and although there never seems to be any shortage of legal aid work, in other areas you will have to bring it with you or go out and find it (we will help). You will not have any employment rights (but you can get sickness insurance). There is no hierarchy to ascend. If you are a qualified solicitor you can employ your own fee-earning staff. Such arrangements are entirely a matter for you as long as you ensure that your staff work to our standards (we have guideline requirements for this). As a self-employed person you have to sort out your own tax, accounts, billing etc. and manage your own practice, but you would be a Schedule D tax payer so your business expenses would be tax deductible. If you do not like taking responsibility for your own working life, if you do not want to comply with our minimum requirements such as attending unit meetings and file reviews, if you hate IT then you would probably not be happy with us.


Current opportunities

Pending the outcome of the current round of bidding for LSC civil contracts we are not currently recruiting consultants who wish to do publicly funded work in the Family, Public Law and Mental Health Units.

We are able to consider applications to our Prison Law and CCRC/Appeal units where we have a contract with the LSC. (Please note we do not undertake general crime work.)

We are happy to hear from practitioners who might like to join our private client units - PI, Clinical Negligence, Employment and Military Claims.

We are also very interested in expanding into new non-legal aid areas such as environmental and discrimination law. We do not feel able to move into the fields of conveyancing, wills, probate or matrimonial ancillary relief and this is unlikely to change in the immediate future.

If we open a unit in a new area of law we always provide subject-specific supervision and support, if necessary from outside, but experience shows us that in such circumstances it helps greatly if the pioneering consultant already has supervisory experience.

For any consultancy we have general entry requirements and additional requirements specific to each of the units. These can be found below. Please look at them before you make an application for a consultancy in one of our existing units. We are willing to look at the possibility of taking on existing departments as well as
individuals.

General consultancy requirements

Essential

• All consultants, irrespective of the unit to which they belong, must be able to work without day to day supervision in the area of their legal speciality. Solicitors and barristers must have a minimum of three years post-qualifying experience and other applicants must have corresponding experience in a legal setting. Some units have a longer qualification threshold. You do not have to be legally qualified to work for Scott-Moncrieff but all consultants have to adhere to solicitor standards.
• Consultants must be IT literate as the web based practice management and IT systems underpin much of what we do.
• Consultants must be 'business minded'. By this we mean you must have a sense of how you are going to get work, how you are going to organise your practice and the systems you are going to put in place to ensure compliance with the wide range of rules that apply to a legal practice and that we must
  enforce. Of course, we can put new consultants in touch with those already working for the firm, so that they can benefit from existing good practice and inventiveness.
  
• Unit specific consultancy requirements

Personal Injury, Clinical Negligence, Employment and Military Claims units

Essential

• At least three years experience in one of these work areas
• Ability to provide own source of work

Desirable

• Claimant orientated

Mental Health unit

Essential

• Membership of the Law Society Mental Health panel
• Minimum of three years experience of mental health work
  

Prison law unit

Essential

• At least three years experience in a wide range of prison law work including experience of preparing and conducting 10 parole hearings and/or 10 adjudications.
• Completion of either the LAG prison law and oral hearing courses or Garden Court North prison law course (or a commitment to undertake the next available course after joining).
  

Family law unit

Essential

• At least five years experience in family law
• Membership of one of the advanced panels e.g. children/resolution/family
  

CCRC and appeals unit

Essential

• At least five years experience of criminal law including some appeal work or of miscarriage of justice case work
  

Public law unit

Essential

• At least three years experience of public law work
  

What to do next?
If, having read this and considered the entry requirements, you want to apply for a consultancy send in your CV indicating the area(s) of law you would like to pursue.

Mark your application for the attention of the Practice Manager (Helen Jones).

Your application will be referred to the relevant unit manager(s) for consideration. If you are offered an interview you will also be asked to provide examples of written work and/or undertake a test. The interview will also enable you to find out more about how Scomo works. After interview any offer of a consultancy will be subject to two satisfactory references and an SRA check.