Peremptorily announce one’s retirement as solicitor? (3,4,3,3)
I believe the answer is:
lay down the law
'retirement as solicitor?' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.
'peremptorily announce one's' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'one' could be 'the' (both can introduce a definite example of something) and 'the' is located in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for lay down the law that I've seen before include "Speak dogmatically" , "Read the Riot Act" , "Be dogmatic" , "Issue instructions dogmatically" , "Pontificate" .)