A study published last week by chartered accountancy firm Hazlewoods found that the number of sole practitioner law firms in the United Kingdom had decreased by 22 per cent since 2011, based on data from the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Specifically, the report cited the growing burden of regulatory compliance on sole practitioners, claiming that many lone operators don’t have enough hours at their disposal to focus on fee-earning work.

However, representative body the Sole Practitioners Group has hit back at the report, arguing that the SRA data used by Hazlewoods in its report was selective and misleading. By failing to provide a breakdown between sole practitioners who are incorporate and those who aren’t, the Hazlewoods report failed to acknowledge that the number of incorporated sole practitioners has actually increased 63 per cent over the last five years. SPG chair Kemi Mosaku refuted Hazlewoods’ suggestion that joining ‘virtual firms’ was the best way for sole practitioners to minimise the burden of regulation: ‘For a lawyer who is an entrepreneur setting up in sole practice has never been easier and is more attractive than switching from employment in a law firm to being a consultant in a so-called virtual law firm where they cannot build their own brand and are not in charge of their own destiny,’ she told the Law Society Gazette.