Start your own law firm — with a proven guide beside you.
I'm Rachel Roche, LL.M., TEP — solicitor, firm founder and co-author of How to Start a Law Firm (The Law Society). This isn't generic, dated advice. It's how to build a modern, AI-enabled firm from day one — taught by a solicitor who works hands-on in legal AI. Join the waitlist to be first through the door.
The leap
Starting a firm is the dream. The problem is, there's no manual.
You're a brilliant lawyer. You know your area of practice inside out. And then, on day one of your own firm, you're suddenly a first-time business owner, a compliance officer, a marketer, a bookkeeper and an HR department — all at once.
I remember that feeling. The mix of excitement and quiet panic. The hours lost googling SRA forms at midnight. The wondering whether anyone else was finding it this hard.
You're not alone in it. And you don't have to figure it all out from scratch.
The course
Build a modern firm — not a 1995 one.
Most guidance for new firm owners is generic and dated. This course is different: it teaches the fundamentals of starting a firm and how to use AI and legal tech to run it leanly from day one — so you spend less time on admin and more time practising law. Designed for solicitors serious about going out on their own, whether you're still weighing it up or already drafting your business plan.
Use today's legal tech and automation to run lean from day one — saving hours every week, cutting overheads and competing with firms many times your size.
Choose the right model, set realistic financial targets, and build a plan you can actually start working from on Monday morning.
Walk through SRA authorisation, indemnity, accounts rules and the operational scaffolding — without the late-night panic.
Position yourself confidently, build a pipeline that doesn't rely on luck, and use smart tools to turn your reputation into real instructions.
Set up the systems, pricing and tech-enabled processes that let the firm grow with you — instead of burning you out in year one.
The mistakes I made (and watched others make) so you can see them coming and step neatly around them.
Step into the role of founder — managing yourself, your time and eventually your team — without losing the lawyer you are.
Use AI and automation for the day-to-day — drafting, intake, admin — so you spend less time on busywork and more time on fee-earning work that grows the firm.
Practical, paced and supportive. No fluff, no jargon for jargon's sake — just the things that move the needle.
Why learn from me
I've actually done this — and I'm doing it in the AI era.
I'm a solicitor who has spent the last twelve years running my own firm. I founded Roche Legal in 2014 and have grown it from a standing start into a private client practice with offices in York and London. I'm still there, still practising, still living it.
My background is probably a little unusual for a law firm founder. Before building the firm, I read for a Master of Laws in French and European Law at Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne on the HM Hubbard Law Scholarship — so I bring an international, rigorous academic lens to my work. Later, I completed the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses programme at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. That gave me something most legal training doesn't: a genuine business-growth mindset. I know how to read a balance sheet, price for profit and scale operations — because I've had to do all three.
What sets this course apart, though, is where the profession is going next. I work actively in legal AI and hold executive AI qualifications including the BCS AI 360 Executive Leadership programme and the AI Lab for Lawyers. I'm not theorising about the future of practice; I'm building a firm in it.
In 2018 I was named Law Society Sole Practitioner of the Year. Two years later, The Law Society commissioned me as co-author of How to Start a Law Firm — the practical guide they now publish for the profession, later featured in the Law Gazette's Best Law Books of 2022. I also serve as Co-Chair of the UK Chapter of the New York State Bar Association International Section.
So this course isn't generic theory. It's practising solicitor, business-school operator and active legal-AI practitioner in one — the mentor and roadmap I wish I'd had when I was sitting where you are now.
- Founder of Roche Legal since 2014
- Master of Laws (LL.M.), Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne — HM Hubbard Law Scholarship
- Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses, Saïd Business School, Oxford
- BCS AI 360 Executive Leadership · AI Lab for Lawyers
- Co-Chair, UK Chapter, New York State Bar Association International Section
- Co-author, How to Start a Law Firm (The Law Society, 2020)
What you'll walk away with
The clarity — and the practical know-how — your law degree never taught you.
To make the leap, and to keep making decisions once you have.
On the model, the numbers and the next right step.
Not a vague vision — something you can actually open on Monday.
Compliance, clients, cashflow, systems. The business of law.
Be first in
You don't have to do this alone.
Join the waitlist and I'll keep you posted as the course takes shape — including early-access pricing for the founding cohort.
— Rachel