5 min
March 23, 2021

Going Over a Typical Employment Agreement

Updated:
July 24, 2024
Two people shaking hands across a table during a meeting, with others taking notes and drinking coffee, symbolizing business agreement and collaboration.

Most employee-employer relationships are contractual. Depending on the relationship, some agreements can be long and complex, while others are short and sweet. As a start-up, hiring an employee marks an exciting milestone in your business journey. You're at the point where you may be growing quickly or have enough business that you simply can't do on your own.

In this blog post, we will be examining common provisions contained in a “typical” employment agreement. We'll break down what each section stands for and why it’s generally included. A lot of the language contained within this post will be "couched" and speak in generalities - it’s almost impossible to give broad, sweeping statements that will apply to every entrepreneur looking to hire employees, but we’ll try to keep it as relevant as possible.

In most provinces, there is an Employment Standards Code that governs many aspects of employment relationships, and in Alberta, the Employment Standards Code controls such classifications.

These codes are extremely important and deserve their own blog post to dive into the nuances, but we just wouldn’t be able to fit all of the content into a single post.

Generic Employment Agreements

1. Document Introductions

Simply put, this part of the Employment Agreement is like the title or cover page of any essay you read. It's important and provides context for the remainder of the Agreement.

Before the Actual Terms

Most legal documents will have an introductory piece that sets the stage for the parties that the agreement applies to and why the document exists in the first place. At the top, Employment Agreements usually set out the party names, whether they are companies or individuals, and the “Effective Date” of the agreement.

Pretty self-explanatory stuff so far!

Preamble

After the parties are listed, you’ll often see provisions that begin like:

“WHEREAS, the Parties wish to…”, or

“THEREFORE, for good and valuable consideration…”

These parts are referred to as the Preamble, which is used to knock out the basic checkmarks that are required in most legal documents. The Preamble is uncontested and is generally a given for most Employment Agreements.

2. Employee Descriptions

These sections provide the core of the relationship between the two contracting parties. Why are we even here in the first place? To layout an employment agreement - which is accomplished in these sections:

Employment Position

The first substantive section sets out the actual agreed-upon position the employee will take. As we’ll see with a lot of the terms in Employment Agreements, and indeed, many legal documents as a whole, it almost seems too obvious to include. That’s the important part though – it wouldn’t be a valid Employment Agreement if you don’t have a section stating that explicitly.

This term will lay out when the employee will begin employment with the employer, an optional end date if the employment period is limited and not fixed, as well as the title of the employee and their reporting structure within the company.

Employment Duties

The next material section in Employment Agreements sets out the scope of responsibilities and duties that the employee has agreed to perform. Often, the “Scope of Services” will be set out in an attached Schedule to make readability easier in the Agreement itself. A provision will generally lay out the employee’s acknowledgment that they will perform those responsibilities to the best of their ability, with further provisions outlining the working hours (e.g., 40 hours? Part-time?) and extraneous duties that may not normally be in the course of day-to-day operations.

For start-ups, a key question to ask is how strict you want the responsibilities of your hired help to be.

That question ultimately comes down to the reason you hired the individual. Are they in a sales capacity and you only want to carve out a very niche undertaking? On the other hand, many first hires for start-ups eventually go on to take senior roles in the organization, as they have been there from the very start. If your Employment Agreement is narrow and constrained to what your employee was doing the day they got hired, you may have to revise the existing Employment Agreement to reflect the change in the employee’s duties. 

As a note, rules are surrounding such revisions – make sure you get a lawyer to give you the green light before unilaterally making the changes yourself!

3. Payment and Statutory Requirements

After laying out the extent of the employment relationship, there are additional matters to take care of!

Compensation, Benefits, and Expenses

This section is pretty straightforward: how much and how often is the employee getting paid – minus any standard payroll taxes, appropriate expenses to take in the course of employment, and other applicable statutory or other agreed-upon deductions. This is where the Employment Standards Codes come into effect. The law in various provinces sets out the kinds of taxes that, as an employer, you will be legally obligated to pay.

Another consideration for start-ups is that cash isn’t the only way you can adequately compensate an employee.

Often, emerging companies do not have the bankroll to pay competitive salaries, particularly if they’re looking for senior engineers, professionals, or specialized technical ability to fill employment spots.

That’s why many start-ups decide to pay most, if not all, of their employees in stock options. The logic being that the employee believes in the company and themselves enough to forgo a stable salary to receive a higher upside if the company ends up a big success. In Employment Agreements, terms can be inserted to indicate that the compensation that an employee will receive will be in the form of stock options plans. As these are generally separate legal documents, we recommend getting advice from a lawyer who has experience drafting them!

Vacation

Another provision that has its roots in the Employment Standards Codes depending on the province you are hiring an employee in. Our lawmakers have set out the minimum amount of days that employees are legally entitled to go on vacation. However, avid readers of the Goodlawyer Blog may recognize that skating by on the bare minimum set out in the various Codes may not be the best practice.

Further clauses in this section will set out the specific company protocol for when vacations can be taken and the process an employee has to go through to get the vacation approved.

4. Other Employee Covenants

Beyond the administrative requirements for employees to get paid, and what their duties are, these sections layout other requirements that a business can mandate. These sections will protect your business!

Company Policies

Many businesses have company policies they want their employees to abide by. Codes of conduct, protocol to dictate dispute resolution, and to otherwise put forward a unified front that your business wants to have are all contained within those documents. The policies themselves will not be listed in the Employment Agreement itself, but you can include a term that states the future employee has read, agreed to, and will follow what is set out in them.

Confidential Information

This provision is particularly important for start-ups and doubly so for those start-ups who are entering into any industry where technology is created or much research and development occur. This section will outline what the employer wants to classify as confidential information, how much of it will be given to an employee, how that employee will have to handle and use it, as well as an agreement from the employee that they will not divulge said information to any unwarranted parties.

Often, you will want to have the confidentiality obligation extend past the employment period for a reasonable time, as you would not want to have ex-employees directly competing off the information you provided to them. 

Check out the “Post-Employment Clauses” below.

IP Assignment / Ownership of Work Product

Another important section for start-ups and established companies alike, and again doubly important for those that are operating in the realm of intellectual property. There are presumptions in place that when individuals gainfully employed by an organization create intellectual property, it automatically belongs to the company. To really protect this point, employers will expressly include a provision along the lines of that presumption.

Often, the Employment Agreement will go further, assigning any rights that generally may coincide with the creator of the work (i.e., the employee) to the Company as well. Further moral rights and other physical documents that were integral to the creation of said work can also be subject to company ownership.

5. Post-Employment Clauses

The law is all about certainty and making sure your business is protected. In the event the employment relationship doesn't work out, you still want to have applicability after the fact.

Termination (Employee and Employer)

There are a couple of ways that an Employment Agreement can end. If the term of the employment period is set out in the contract, upon the agreed-upon end date the contract will automatically conclude. However, in the case of an indefinite term, either the employee or employer may terminate the Agreement.

As a note, the Goodlawyer Blog will have a piece on termination coming up soon! In the meantime we will leave our readers with a short primer on the topic.

For employers, the Employment Agreement will generally contain a provision instigating a probationary period. After setting out how long (usually 90 days), the Agreement will typically state that within this feeling-out period, the Employer reserves the right to terminate the Employee’s employment for any reason and without providing any sort of advance notice.

Following the probationary period, the Employer must adhere to the requirements and restrictions set out in the applicable Employment Standards Codes. While jurisdictions may vary, there are usually two options. If the employee consistently fails to meet the responsibilities set out in the Employment Agreement or habitually fails to show up to work on time, the employer has just cause to terminate the employee.

If just cause cannot be evidenced, an employer may nonetheless terminate an employee following the Code. Usually, this requires setting out a reasonable notice period of termination, or pay instead of reasonable notice. How much notice period you are required to give depends on various factors, which refers to the soon-to-be-added termination content above will go into more detail.

Non-Solicitation & Non-Competition Clauses

Non-solicitation and non-competition clauses are typical in many Employment Agreements, but their enforceability and validity will vary. The general usage of these terms is for the protection of the employer. When an employee leaves an organization with the know-how and information to set up a directly competing business to the one they just left, it can greatly damage the initial company’s business. Employers will include these terms to prevent ex-employees from directly setting up shop “across the street” and from poaching the initial company’s clients, other employees, and other relevant third parties (e.g., suppliers, vendors).

The enforceability of these clauses have been debated in various Employment Agreements across various provinces.

The balance lies in wanting to let the ex-employee continue to make a livelihood in their area of choice, particularly if it is a niche, specialized one and preventing the employee from subsequently taking advantage of the knowledge and training gained on the job at their place of work to the disadvantage of their past employer. 

Many factors are examined, and the enforceability is context-specific – but the two main ones that Courts look to are time (length of the prohibition) and the geographical distance between the first company and any subsequent work the employee gets into. It takes really extenuating circumstances to forbid an employee from working in their industry for over a year and within the city of initial employment.

As always, if you’re looking to protect your business with these clauses, make sure you get a lawyer’s advice! If the courts find unenforceability as a result of unfair terms, the courts will not hesitate to throw the entire clause out.

6. Boilerplate Clauses

While many other clauses can be put into Employment Agreements, some are more substantive than others, and some necessary due to the complexity of certain employment relationships. 

In most Agreements, however, many will feature a list of typical "boilerplate" clauses that are commonplace:

Monetary Amount: This term indicates whatever currency denomination you would like your employee’s salary to be paid in.

Notice: In regards to termination by employee and employer – what medium (e.g., email, fax, telephone) would constitute sufficient notice for the Agreement.

Confidentiality of Employment Agreement: Similar to the Confidential Information clause above, this term would apply to the Employment Agreement itself.

Governing Law: If any disputes end up going to the courts, which jurisdiction or province will hear the issue?

Severability: To be fair, this one is pretty important. If one clause of the Employment Agreement is found to be unenforceable, this clause allows that single clause to be separated from the rest – allowing the enforceability of all other terms agreed upon.

Survival: Remember when you wanted confidential information to be protected outside the term of employment? What about company ownership of work that an employee created? The enforceability of these terms usually occurs after the fact, so you want specific clauses to stay “alive” after the period of employment is over.

Independent Legal Advice: It is good practice to have the Employee agree to have had the chance or actually consulting an independent lawyer about everything contained in the Employment Agreement – it would be difficult to plead ignorance after having gone through the contract with a lawyer.

How can a lawyer help?

If you want to get ahead of crafting Employment Agreements early, we recommend chatting with a lawyer. You will be able to get advice that's tailor-made to the nuances of your company and specific situation.

Book an Advice Session, or when you're ready to get an Employee or Independent Contractor Agreement for your company, we can help.

Get started with Goodlawyer

Recent posts
See all

Goodlawyer Delivers $21.8 Million in Cost Savings for Clients in 2024

Goodlawyer, Canada’s fastest-growing1 provider of Fractional Legal Services, saved clients over $21.8 million in 2024—marking a 145% increase from the previous year2. This milestone underscores Goodlawyer’s commitment to providing businesses with practical, cost-effective legal solutions tailored to their needs.

Goodlawyer’s Fractional GC™ and Fractional InHouse™ services allow businesses to scale their legal support without the cost and rigidity of traditional law firms. In 2024, Goodlawyer expanded beyond high-growth tech companies, partnering with leading organizations in retail, sports, energy, and aviation.

Clients like Loblaws, Flair Airlines, and the Vancouver Whitecaps relied on Goodlawyer to streamline legal operations, support growth, and significantly reduce legal costs. “Goodlawyer’s Fractional InHouse service has been invaluable, delivering reliable legal support that moves at the pace of our business,” said Manav Deol, Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel of the Vancouver Whitecaps.

Redefining Legal Services

By blending technology with a people-first approach, Goodlawyer’s innovative model delivers value to both businesses and legal professionals:

  • For businesses: Scalable, affordable legal services that adapt to changing needs.
  • For lawyers: Flexible, meaningful career opportunities that provide autonomy and balance.

“Every business deserves legal support that drives real results,” said Brett Colvin, CEO of Goodlawyer. “We’re making it easier for companies to access experienced in-house legal talent while empowering lawyers to design fulfilling careers on their own terms.”

Meeting the Growing Demand for Fractional Solutions

The rising demand for fractional legal services reflects a shift in how businesses approach legal support. Goodlawyer’s tailored solutions address diverse needs, from part-time GC coverage to parental leave support, while alleviating pressure on overworked legal teams.

In 2024, Goodlawyer became the trusted partner for businesses looking for a smarter way to manage legal challenges. By helping clients reduce costs and operate more efficiently, Goodlawyer continues to reshape the legal landscape for companies of all sizes.

Looking Ahead to 2025

Goodlawyer remains focused on delivering exceptional value to clients while building a better future for lawyers across North America. As more businesses seek flexible legal solutions, Goodlawyer is ready to expand its impact and help even more companies thrive.

———————————

(1) Goodlawyer was Canada’s fastest-growing provider of fractional legal services and ranked 15th overall in The Globe and Mail’s 2024 Top Growing Companies, outperforming all competitors and legal providers on the list.

(2) Calculation is based on Goodlawyer’s internal analysis that compares our average hourly rates to the hourly rates listed in the Valeo Firm Rate Report 2024 for national Canadian law firms offering equivalent legal services. This is a conservative estimate based on the available competitive rate information available at the time of this announcement.

Goodlawyer delivers $21.8M in Savings for Clients in 2024
January 28, 2025

If you're running a business, especially a growing one, you might find yourself grappling with an ever-increasing number of legal issues. Whether it's about contracts, intellectual property rights, compliance, or potential lawsuits, having consistent legal advice becomes essential. However, hiring a full-time in-house lawyer may not be cost-effective or practical for many small to medium-sized businesses. This is where a Fractional General Counsel (FGC) can shine. Below are 10 reasons to consider hiring an FGC for your business.

1. Customized Solutions

One of the greatest benefits of a Fractional General Counsel is that they deeply understand your business. We work hard to match you with a lawyer who fits your company culture and budget, and who has relevant expertise. This ensures that you get tailored legal solutions that fit the overarching business objectives of your organization.

“We immediately realized the advantages and efficiencies — quick response times from someone embedded on our team who can channel our culture, vision and strategy in their decision making — at a fraction of the cost.” — Rob Park, Former COO at Helcim

2. Free Up Your Executive Team

Instead of spending hours trying to navigate complex legal landscapes, you can focus on what you do best: running your business. Just see how it helped the CEO of Trufla Technologies get his time back!

3. Cost-Effective

Hiring a full-time in-house lawyer can be expensive. A lawyer with 10 years of experience can easily demand $200,000 per year. A Fractional General Counsel provides you access to an experienced lawyer without the overhead of a full-time salary, benefits, and other associated costs.

4. Expertise On Demand

With Fractional General Counsel, you have access to experienced legal professionals without the friction of having to engage external counsel. Simply send them an email, text, Slack message, carrier pigeon or phone call - and get specialized advice when you need it.

“The openness, availability, and responsiveness that we have with our Fractional Counsel is something we never experienced with our previous legal provider.” — Jodie Allan, General Manager at PowerBill

5. Flexibility

FGC engagements are flexible in order to fit your needs. Scale their services up or down based on your business needs and budget. Best of all, you don't pay for the time you don't use. Unused hours are rolled forward for future use.

We are getting far more value from the Fractional General Counsel model than we have in the past with other legal service providers. The flexibility and accommodation to our business model and needs has been refreshing.” — Ryan Mueller, CEO of Phantom Compliance

6. Risk Management

Risk management is not just about avoiding legal troubles but also seizing opportunities. A Fractional General Counsel can help you take evidence-based strategic risks while giving you the confidence to adapt when the excrement hits the oscillating device. This approach can save you time, money, and hassle in the long run.

7. Managing Specialized Counsel

Complex legal matters require specialized lawyers, leaving some businesses juggling multiple external providers. A Fractional General Counsel can identify, onboard, and supervise legal specialists and ensure they are billing you fairly. The shared language of lawyers makes it easy for an FGC to collaborate and guide external counsel on business objectives and broader context.

“We found that we had to deal with many different firms and lawyers, retelling our story repeatedly. With Goodlawyer, it’s all under one roof… It frees me up and saves us money.” — Mike Bignold, Founder & CEO of CostCertified

8. Stay Updated

Laws and regulations change. A Fractional General Counsel ensures you stay compliant and informed about the latest legal changes that could affect your business. They can also help you predict future changes and skate to where the puck is going.

9. Seamless Integration

A Fractional General Counsel is integrated into your business operations, ensuring smooth collaboration with your team and stakeholders. Many function like any other team member, with a company email and title like General Counsel or VP of Legal. They can be a trusted voice at the boardroom table and represent your interests at the negotiating table.

It’s been a huge load off my busy plate, and I love the peace of mind knowing our Fractional Counsel is guiding my team and me at critical moments.” — Brenda Beckedorf, Former Executive Director at Alberta IoT

10. A Trusted Advisor

Beyond legal advice, a Fractional General Counsel often serves as a sounding board for business decisions, providing a well-rounded perspective that combines both legal and business insights. FGCs typically have 10+ years of expertise relevant to your industry. They understand your sector, competitors, regulators, and other stakeholders who can be key to your growth journey.

Conclusion

A Fractional General Counsel is not just for businesses that can't afford a full-time lawyer. It's for businesses that want to free up their executive team with a responsive, trusted, and cost-effective legal solution. It's about having a tailored legal solution that provides on-demand access to someone who truly understands your business.

Learn more about Fractional Counsel

10 Reasons To Hire A Fractional General Counsel
August 28, 2023

Business growth inevitably brings legal complexities. With your business speeding towards success, you're considering the transition from relying on external counsel to building your in-house legal function. But is hiring a full-time lawyer the right move? Or is there a more flexible, cost-effective solution? Let us introduce you to the concept of Fractional General Counsel (FGC).

FGC is an in-house legal solution tailored to your needs. Fractional General Counsel aren’t full-time employees. Typically they work 15-30 hours per month; but they're there when you need them. They manage your operational legal needs at a volume and monthly price that makes sense for your business. 

These legal professionals are a godsend for scaleups and fast-moving enterprise clients. They serve as your in-house legal team and tackle everything from enterprise contracts, employment and HR to corporate governance. The result is often a freed-up executive team, reduced risk and increased deal velocity.

In-house vs. external legal support

Your business's relationship with your Fractional General Counsel is fundamentally different from an external legal provider (i.e. a traditional law firm). While an external legal provider offers valuable expertise, they often don’t have the same depth of understanding of your business, your risk tolerance, or your objectives. They can also be less responsive than you might like — especially when it comes to your day-to-day operational legal needs like commercial contracts, regulatory compliance and employment matters.

External legal service providers are often unresponsive because they’re focused on major legal milestones like financings and M&A transactions, so they can be slower to respond to operational legal matters. 

"There's a reason that every large enterprise eventually builds an in-house legal team — to ensure their legal work is dealt with quickly, cost-effectively, and in tune with the overarching business objectives of the organization. That last piece, deeply understanding the business, is perhaps the greatest benefit of having an in-house legal function," says Brett Colvin, co-founder and CEO of Goodlawyer.

Fractional General Counsel do much more than just fill a void; they quickly become integral members of your executive team, saving you time and money, and adding a business lens to the legal problems you face on a daily basis. They integrate into your operations by adopting a company email, joining your Slack, or using whatever communication tool works best for your team. They can also design processes to speed up your legal processes. 

Many scaleups rely on Fractional General Counsel to manage the fast-paced operational legal needs and retain their external counsel on certain matters, particularly milestone events like funding rounds or M&As. In such cases, the FGC and external counsel can coexist and even become greater than the sum of their parts. The shared language of lawyers makes it easy for FGCs to collaborate and guide external counsel on business objectives and broader context.

The value proposition of Fractional General Counsel

Patrick Veilleux, a Fractional General Counsel at Goodlawyer, exemplifies the value of an FGC. Following five successful years at Shopify as Director of Legal, and stints on Bay Street and with the federal government, Veilleux missed the thrill of working with fast-growing Canadian scaleups. So in 2023, he joined Goodlawyer’s FGC ranks.

In Patrick’s words, "Being a Fractional Counsel enables me to provide sophisticated scaleup clients with both legal and strategic insights. The opportunity to be at the table during critical planning sessions empowers me to identify risks and opportunities proactively and help my clients chart the best path forward. It's also been incredibly rewarding to leverage my past experiences to help support some of the most exciting technology businesses in the country.”

5 Reasons why your business needs Fractional General Counsel

  1. Tailored Arrangement: FGC allows you to design the scope, cadence and volume of legal support. Engagements are customized to your needs to best address pain points and capitalize on opportunities. Alignment with your company’s culture is imperative, and Goodlawyer allows you to meet and interview candidates to ensure the right fit. 
  2. Specialized Expertise: FGCs typically have 10+ years of legal expertise and specific knowledge relevant to your industry. They understand your sector, your competitors, your regulators, and other stakeholders who can be key to your growth journey. 
  3. Freed-up Executives: CEOs, CFOs, and COOs often find themselves responsible for their organization’s legal function, spending valuable time managing external counsel and deciphering what is (and isn’t) in a contract. A Fractional General Counsel becomes your dedicated internal legal lead, freeing up executives and ensuring more efficient resource allocation.
  4. Agile and Cost-Effective: Full-time in-house counsel brings substantial commitment and costs – salaries, benefits, office space, administrative burden and more. By contrast, FGC engagements offer a stable fee structure and immediate value. 
  5. Scalable: As your business grows, you can easily scale the engagement to match your expanding needs. Increase the monthly hours of your Fractional General Counsel, or add a Fractional In-House Counsel. If you find your needs reduced, engagements can be downsized.

Navigating toward Fractional General Counsel

Want to learn whether Fractional General Counsel might suit your business? Click the button below to set up a conversation with a senior member of the Goodlawyer team. We'll explore your legal requirements, analyze your annual legal budget, and determine if you need industry specialists or senior legal expertise. Our team will also introduce you to vetted candidates tailored to your business. A pilot engagement can allow you to gauge the efficacy of this model for your growing business.

Conclusion

With the dynamism of your scaleup and the legal intricacies that come with growth, it's essential to have legal counsel who understands your business and can respond quickly to your needs. The value lies in your FGC’s ability to provide both legal and strategic insights, like a dedicated in-house team, but at a fraction of the cost. Explore Goodlawyer's Fractional General Counsel services and discover how this innovative legal solution could boost your scaleup's journey.

Get started with Fractional General Counsel

Fractional General Counsel: legal support for scaling businesses
August 10, 2023

 Ready to embark on a thrilling solo adventure as a Canadian lawyer? Buckle up friend, the legal world is about to get a whole lot brighter! Whether you're bidding adieu to a big traditional firm, an in-house gig, or even the government, taking the leap into solo practice requires some serious planning and preparation. But fear not, for we've gathered the top 10 tips from seasoned Goodlawyer’s who have taken over the Canadian legal landscape on their own terms. So, let's dive into what is hopefully a delightful dose of inspiration!

Tip 1: Embrace the Art of Frugality

Who said you need fancy, overpriced resources to thrive? Seek out affordable gems that suit your working style — think budget-friendly practice management and billing software, administrative support (virtual and/or fractional options), and nifty tools to keep your inbox and calendar in check. By keeping your overhead costs low and increasing the efficiency of your practice, you'll have extra funds to sprinkle into growth.

Cheat code: if you’re interested in a one-stop shop for legal operations support, Goodlawyer offers all this and more to its lawyer network!

Tip 2: Let Your Personality Sparkle

Clients aren't just interested in legal services; they want someone they can relate to. So, be your fabulous, authentic self! Show off your approachable side, build those personal connections, and watch your clients swoon. When you're real and relatable, trust and loyalty will come knocking at your door. If the client still isn’t interested, keep calm and lawyer on; chances are high you’ve dodged what would’ve been a misaligned relationship!

Tip 3: Unleash Your Legal Swagger

Picture this: you, standing proud, armed with a unique value proposition in one hand, a clear understanding of the services you offer in the other, and a laser-focused target market as your sword and your shield. It's time to create your own legal destiny! Craft a compelling position statement that sets you apart from the pack and attracts the right clients and the work you love like moths to a legal flame. You're a lawyering superstar, after all!

Tip 4: Befriend the Big Guns

Now, here's a secret sauce to success — forge connections with other lawyers far and wide, whether from your previous legal world or in your new solo practitioner/small firm world!

These relationships can be your golden ticket to referrals and increased visibility in the legal community. Attend events and conferences, and hop into online groups to meet fellow legal eagles in and out of your field. It's like building your very own legal Avengers team!

Easy button: Goodlawyer gives you access to a highly engaged and supportive network of other Goodlawyers ready to help whether you need a second opinion, precedents, legal tech suggestions to level up, or a calming meditative playlist!

Tip 5: Master the Number Crunching Dance

As a solo practitioner, you're the captain of your financial ship. So, it's time to dust off your accounting superhero gear and conquer those financial statements with relish. This is a must for smooth sailing on the ethical and legal seas! Embrace the numbers, avoid ever-present financial whirlpools, and become the guiding star of your own financial destiny.

Tip 6: Love Yourself Enough to Say "No"

Not every potential client is a match made in legal heaven, my friend. Watch for those red flags and gracefully decline clients who might bring more chaos than harmony to your practice. Trust your spidey senses and your past experiences. Remember, your time, effort, and reputation are highly precious gems, so align and re-align these gems with the clients you choose to work with. You deserve the cream of the client crop!

Tip 7: Save Up for the Legal Storms

In the variable world of solo practice, income can be as unpredictable as a tea party with the Mad Hatter. So, it's time to save up for those rainy days. Start with a modest salary and squirrel away three months' worth of savings. Then, gradually increase your pay until you have a comfortable cushion of six months' worth of savings. Rain or shine, you're ready for anything the legal universe sends your way!

Tip 8: Don't Compromise Your Legal Integrity

When the cash flow slows down, the temptation might knock on your door, urging you to take on clients and matters you'd usually pass on. But hold your ground, dear lawyer! Only accept clients and matters that match your values and that you would handle even if money were falling from the sky. Stay true and be authentic to your legal soul, and success will follow suit.

Tip 9: Give Yourself a License to Chill

Building a thriving solo practice that suits your life and practice goals takes time. So, be kind to yourself on this epic journey. Start by working from the comfort of your own space until you're ready to set yourself up in a fancy office; not only are you avoiding the extra overhead and expense, but you might fall in love with a whole new way of working! Embrace the wonders of legal tech to keep your clients happy without the hassle of office visits and to avoid the gargantuan email chains just to schedule a call. Cheers to working smarter, not harder!

Tip 10: Be the Tax Maestro

Ah, taxes — the bane of every lawyer's (and human’s) existence! If you're not drawing a regular salary, maybe you can tango with quarterly taxes in Canada. Put aside one-third of every payment into a separate savings account, dedicated solely to the taxman. With this little trick up your sleeve, you'll breeze through tax season like a pro, avoiding any unwanted legal drama.

And voilà! You now possess the top 10 tips to conquer the Canadian legal world as a solo practitioner. Sprinkle them into your journey, dear legal trailblazer, and watch your practice soar to new heights. Wishing you endless success and all of the professional fun you can have in your marvelous solo adventure!

Get started with Goodlawyer

Journey of a Solo Practitioner
June 16, 2023