Starting a criminal defence firm can look deceptively straightforward from the outside. Get licensed, find an office, launch a website, and start taking calls.

The reality is much more demanding. Running a successful practice means managing clients, court deadlines, finances, staff, marketing, and countless day-to-day decisions that law school rarely prepares you for.

Akash Dhillon understands that transition well. Dhillon graduated from Queen’s University Faculty of Law and spent three years at one of Toronto’s leading criminal defence firms before starting his own practice, A. Dhillon Law. Since then, he has appeared before the Ontario Court of Justice, the Superior Court of Justice, and the Ontario Court of Appeal. Today, he operates offices in downtown Toronto and Brampton.

That growth has helped Dhillon emerge as a rising figure in Ontario criminal defence. So what advice does he have for younger lawyers looking to build their own practices? His approach is practical: develop the skills required to practise criminal law first, then learn how to run the business behind it.

Don’t Be Afraid to Develop Skills Under Pressure

Before you hang your shingle and put your name on the door, you need experience handling real files under pressure.

That means learning how to deal with bail hearings, obtain disclosure from the Crown, negotiate with prosecutors, conduct yourself properly in court, manage client expectations, meet deadlines, and respond when an urgent problem arises outside regular business hours.

Before starting his own firm, Dhillon spent three years working at an established criminal defence practice. When he decided to strike out on his own, he described it as a long-held dream and acknowledged that the road had not always been smooth.

Once you become the principal of your own firm, there will not always be someone down the hall checking your work or stepping in when a difficult situation arises. Building that experience beforehand can make the transition much easier.

Focus on One Area of Law at a Time

Young lawyers can feel pressure to accept almost any file that generates revenue. Dhillon took a more focused approach by building his practice around criminal defence.

Concentrating on one area of law can simplify many parts of running a practice. Referral sources know exactly what type of work to send you. Your website has a clear purpose. Your professional development can focus on the cases, legislation, and courtroom skills that matter most to your clients.

The Law Society of Ontario encourages lawyers opening practices to identify the areas of law in which they intend to practise and assess their competence in those areas. The Canadian Bar Association has also emphasized the value of developing a recognizable niche.

Trying to be everything to everyone can make it much harder to become known for anything in particular.

Build Strong Referral Relationships Before Spending Heavily on an Office

A nice office might impress someone for an hour. A strong relationship with another lawyer can generate referrals for years.

According to Mr. Dhillon, other lawyers should be viewed as an important part of your professional network. Former colleagues, law school classmates, senior counsel, family lawyers, immigration lawyers, and lawyers working in unrelated areas can all become valuable referral sources.

Criminal lawyers regularly encounter conflicts of interest, out-of-town matters, and urgent cases that require immediate attention. There will also be situations where another lawyer simply does not handle the type of criminal matter a client needs help with.

Becoming the lawyer people trust enough to call in those situations can be far more valuable early in your career than spending heavily on advertising.

The Canadian Bar Association also recognizes referrals from fellow lawyers as an important source of work for younger lawyers.

Treat Intake as Part of the Legal Work

New firms can become so focused on generating leads that they pay too little attention to what happens when a prospective client actually calls.

Someone contacting a criminal lawyer after an arrest may be scared, confused, or trying to help a family member who is in custody. They want to know who they are speaking with, what happens next, and how quickly someone can help them.

A new firm needs a proper intake system. You should know who answers calls, what information gets collected, how conflicts are checked, how consultations are booked, and how quickly prospective clients receive a response.

Your intake process should also help determine which clients are a good fit for your practice. Accepting every paying client may seem attractive when a firm is new, but poorly matched clients can create expensive and stressful problems later.

The Canadian Bar Association has identified careful client selection as one of the strongest ways a firm can improve profitability, reduce stress, and provide better service.

Keep Your Overhead Under Control

Some new lawyers want their practices to look established before the revenue is there to support it.

That can lead to oversized offices, unnecessary staff, too many software subscriptions, and expensive advertising contracts before the firm has predictable cash flow.

Dhillon’s advice is to know your monthly number.

What does it cost to keep your firm operating each month? How many paid files do you need to cover those expenses? What happens if you have a slower month?

Cash flow deserves as much attention as revenue. A firm can appear busy and still struggle financially if bills are not collected promptly or overhead grows too quickly.

The Canadian Bar Association has repeatedly highlighted weak collection practices and excessive overhead as common problems for solo practitioners.

Build Reliable Systems Before You Get Busy

Being busy can temporarily hide a poorly organized practice. Eventually, something gets missed.

A criminal defence firm needs dependable systems for conflict checks, retainers, trust accounting, court dates, deadlines, disclosure, client updates, document storage, and follow-up tasks.

Ontario now requires lawyers opening their first sole practice to complete the Law Society’s Foundations of Sole Practice course. That requirement highlights an important distinction: practising law and running a law firm require different skills.

It is much easier to build good systems when you have 10 files than when you suddenly have 100.

Market Yourself by Providing Value

Dhillon also believes good lawyers should not simply wait to be discovered.

Marketing can go far beyond billboards and slogans. Lawyers can answer real questions that people search for online, provide useful information on their websites, speak with media outlets when appropriate, build relationships within the profession, and stay visible in the communities they serve.

Even the Law Society of Ontario’s guidance for establishing a new practice discusses search engine optimization, online content, and emerging strategies such as generative engine optimization.

The strongest long-term approach is straightforward: make yourself easy to find, easy to understand, and worth referring.

Reputation Compounds Over Time

Clients may never fully appreciate the technical difficulty involved in winning a motion or identifying a problem with the Crown’s case. They will remember if their lawyer returned their calls, explained what was happening, arrived prepared, and treated them with respect.

Other lawyers notice preparation, reliability, and professionalism too.

That is what makes Dhillon’s experience useful for younger lawyers. A criminal defence practice rarely becomes successful because of one major case or one clever marketing campaign. Growth usually comes from hundreds of smaller decisions made consistently over time.

Learn the work. Control your costs. Answer the phone. Build relationships. Develop good systems before you desperately need them. Then give your reputation time to grow.

In criminal defence, your name may ultimately become your most valuable asset.