A prominent Birmingham solicitor “fed up with living on a shoestring” is closing her city centre practice after seven years to avoid running up more debts.

Kate Canty, sole partner of Canty and Co in New Street, is shutting up shop after “sinking every last penny” into her struggling firm.

Ms Canty, a board member at Birmingham Chamber of Commerce and Birmingham Metropolitan College, said the impact of the recession and soaring insurance costs had left her no choice but to call it a day.

She told the Post of her heartbreak at leaving the legal profession after nearly 20 years working in Birmingham – and warned that more small law firms faced oblivion.

And she revealed that staff at her firm, which worked in the commercial property sector, had taken 20 per cent pay cuts in 2009 to keep the business afloat at the height of the recession.

Ms Canty said: “Ever since I opened in 2004, it has been a struggle. We were doing all right until the recession hit but I am just fed up with living on a shoestring.

“I sank every last penny into this place. This experience has cost me a lot of money and a lot of grief and angst. This is a practical decision – I can’t justify incurring any more debt. I am 45 years old, I have beeen living on very little for the last seven or eight years – I just want to make money to live for myself.

“It’s partly due to the recession and partly due to the fact that insurance premiums just keep going up. When your premiums are starting to match 25 per cent of your turnover it is time to call it a day.

“The profession has been imploding for small businesses for some time. In conveyancing you need to act for both the mortgage company and the client and there is a clear conflict of interest.

“Then you have a recession, people default on their mortgage and the mortgage company will try to get you on the insurance.”

Ms Canty, a well-known figure in Birmingham business circles, said ever-increasing Law Society rules and regulations were also piling on pressures for small legal outfits.

“Walking away from my staff is hard but walking away from risk assessments, risk management, administration and regulations – I am absolutely delighted.

“I get circulars from the Law Society on the latest rules and regulations every week – they have just written the rule book again. I am pretty disillusioned with the legal market.”

Ms Canty warned increased insurance costs, mounting regulations and the continuing after-effects of the recession would tip more small firms over the edge.

“You will find that sole practitioners, who often work as family friends giving well-rounded advice – all that is disappearing.

“We worked as a niche, private client small business practice. There are not many of us left in the city centre.

“Choice is going to diminish. A lot of legal work is not a mechanical process – you are dealing with people, there are always quality issues and problems. The personal touch is disapppearing.

“I wanted to preserve the staff, I have worked with some of them since 1994. There were 15 of us and I have not had to make anyone redundant throughout this. Back in 2009, they took 20 per cent pay cuts for two years.

“The people here have been brilliant to work with and I will miss coming in here to see them.

“I have loved working with them but a little voice said to me: ‘What about you? You are tired’.”

Canty and Co is already closed to new business and will shut permanently in September, while Ms Canty is to work for a client managing a property portfolio.