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 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.

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 been 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.”

Ms Canty said ever-increasing Law Society rules and regulations were also piling on pressures for small legal outfits.