05/28/2026
I'm almost four years deep with The Longhair Lawyer and I'm finally comfortable doing something I should have done straight out of the gate, niching down.
I have a great brand and I'm proud of it! I've helped a lot of folks from all walks of life to recognize that it's ok to be different from the norm. People love the brand!
That said, nobody understands what I actually do!
Litigators and law students think I do "transactional law," but they don't know what that means. Transactional lawyers think I do real estate. Real estate attorneys think I do employment work. Employment lawyers think I do estate planning. Estate planners think I do corporate work. Corporate attorneys think I make cringey Instagram reels for laypeople. Laypeople think I write contracts.
The reality is, all of these people are right in some sense. For several years, I've been practicing door law (that means taking just about everything that comes in the door). I've written wills, I've done real estate deals, I've handled employment issues, and I've definitely made some bad videos.
Variety is the spice of life, but I can only take so much heat on account of my Celtic ancestors never having had access to salt and pepper. I've been hitting my limit lately. A law practice designed to take on small issues of all kinds is great for consumers, but hard on its proprietor.
Am I really niching down? Kind of! I'm shifting from a model where I provide sporadic assistance to lots of people to one where I provide consistent support to fewer clients, but still over a wide array of practice areas.
So what does The Longhair Lawyer do?
The Longhair Lawyer provides legal advice and general counsel for Small Businesses in Washington State.
I'm already migrating some of my existing clients to a subscription-based model that will give them access to me on a consistent basis, and allow me to keep up with the day-to-day operations of their businesses so I can identify issues before they arise and address them quickly.
Silly as it is - I'm certain some folks think I don't have enough grey hairs to be a general counsel. I think that's part of what held me back from making this shift a lot sooner. It's hilarious that I'd hesitate for a moment, given that: (1) I've been doing "GC-type" work this whole time; and (2) all the while I've been running businesses of my own?
Who better to help business owners deal with all those gnarly state agencies, messy rules, and wild industries, than a person whose in the trenches dealing with it firsthand?
Stay tuned!
P.S. The picture is completely unrelated.
