In my experience, the ‘practice of law’ is dirty. It has a taint to it like bonfire smoke which eventually seeps into your clothes and your hair making you feel unclean. In 2023 lawyers gather together in chambers or in the waiting rooms of courts in a manner indistinguishable from 1720’s Marseille quarantine. However, I do not hold the same ‘dim view’ toward the concept of law, the philosophy of law, or the pursuit of justice. All of which is pure and worthy of a lifetime of study. That purity is what drives me to ‘suffer’ the system, to stay up late, and to take on the stress of running my own practice.

On 19 March 2018, I settled the Gregson Family Discretionary Trust (Number 1) and registered the business, Gregson & Associates. It involved a lot of after-hours planning. I registered my business with no savings whatsoever and on the back of a small credit card. In 2019, I went off on my own. It was both exciting and terrifying. I leased my first office space in the Hay Street Mall and enjoyed the great privilege of filling my sedan with second-hand commercial-grade carpet tiles. Like the cornerstone of a great architectural superstructure, I planted my first tile. Shortly thereafter, absent phone systems, power, lighting, or a website, I started my first legal work.

Fast-forward to 19 March 2023; our current office is five times the size of the first. The firm has over a dozen websites (our main site is the best law firm site in the world) and has put two lawyers through their master’s degree programs. We are a certified legal education provider and hold over $5M on trust on a daily basis. We now have partnerships with Humm, payment and booking portals, digital vaults, and a fully automated client intake. In 2023 we implemented DocuSign technology for cost agreements, service standards, authorities, and the like. In 2022 we went completely paperless. We have professional branding both physical, digital, and audio. We have our own YouTube Chanel; regrettably, we are yet to have a cult following.

In five years, we have won over twenty-five awards. The firm has implemented complimentary employee counseling, domestic violence leave, yoga, employer-sponsored paid parental leave, mandatory days off, and office massage. From January of 2023, each month, we sign-up around 20 – 30 new clients. I estimate that a good 90% of that business is a result of organic growth. However, none of the above accomplishments is as important as the lessons I have learned in the five-year period.

I received my first regular fortnightly paycheck on 7 March 2023. Next fortnight I might treat myself to $350.00 of superannuation.

I am surrounded by a team of eight staff, and I am no longer lonely. These legends make me reconsider my long-standing opinion that it is only 98% of lawyers give the other 2% a bad name. Perhaps the percentage is lower.  Everyone in my office wears my family name on their workwear and is just as committed to growing this business as I am, perhaps sometimes more. I am extremely proud of that and am thankful for their support and commitment.

There are several ‘secret projects’ on the boil all of which will be announced between 2023 and 2028. I wonder if the firm will double or triple in size and output over that time…