There are a number of Local Groups around the Country and details of your nearest Group Contact can be found on our Local Groups Contacts page. These groups meet regularly and provide an excellent opportunity to meet other sole practitioners, exchange information and ideas, keep up to date with the latest developments, network and even pass referrals to each other. Please contact the Representative in your area for further details and information.

If there is no existing Local Group in your area, or your Local Group has been dormant for some time, and you are willing to set up a Group or resurrect it, then SPG can assist you. We will be able to assist with funding meetings, provide you with details of other Sole Practitioners in your area and help you to contact speakers. You will have to arrange a date and time, book a venue and set up the meeting. If there has been no previous existing Local Group in your area, then SPG and the Law Society will be able to assist with the first mail shot to other Sole Practitioners giving details of the meeting. Thereafter it will be up to you to arrange the meetings on a regular basis, but we will provide some financial assistance with funding future meetings.

Details of all Local Group Events are listed on the Local Group Events page, which is a diary of all forthcoming SPG events and meetings around the country. These will also state who you should contact if you are interested in attending.

All SPG Events are advertised on the SPG website and in SOLO magazine, which is the magazine for Sole Practitioners.

Occasionally SPs do not receive SOLO magazine regularly. This may be because your new status as SP has not been updated on the Law Society’s database. Sometimes it is due to having filled in a form for the Law Society or SRA, and having ticked a box saying that they do not wish to receive any mailing from “third parties”. Unfortunately SPG is regarded as a third party so if you ticked this box, you can’t get any mailing from us!

Anyway if you are not receiving your issue of SOLO, what you need to do is contact the SRA - http://www.sra.org.uk/contact-us/. You need to inform them that you do wish to receive mailing from SPG. Your listing on the Law Society’s & SRA’s “Find a Solicitor” should have you down as practising on your “own account” or as the sole Director of a Company or sole Member of an LLP. You should also contact Silvia at to update SPG’s database.

You should then receive SOLO magazine and be able to keep up to date with the latest news, events and topical issues affecting SPs.

Needless to say, if you move address, please contact SPG so our database is up to date, and make sure the SRA are aware for the purposes of sending you SOLO magazine.

Please also use Find a Sole Practitioner, which is a way of finding other Sole Practitioners, both in your own area and in other areas, should you wish to receive work from other SP’s or, indeed, refer clients to another SP, perhaps in a different location or in a different area of work. You will need to register for Find a Sole Practitioner yourself, but again may receive referrals from other SP’s as a result. Once registered to Find a Sole Practitioner, you can log in and carry out unlimited searches, on location and work type. However, you must be registered to access this facility.

Finally, please do use Local Talk. This is an easy way of posting messages and chatting to other SP’s in your area. You will need to be registered to use this facility.

For the latest information download the Local Groups Bulletin - 11/09 Word document.