Ms Porter’s whole family are real estate agents, which is why she decided to “niche into” this particular industry — and why her LinkedIn profile states she’s The Real Estate Agent’s Lawyer.

O*NO Legal helps real estate agents specifically, according to Ms Porter.

“We help them to shield their assets, to future-proof their relationships, to expand faster and plan their exit so they can increase the value of their agency and know that their ass is actually covered. We’re corporate commercial lawyers. And because we only service one industry, it’s then very easy to streamline our processes, our messaging, our templates,” she said.  

“Something that used to stress me out quite a lot previously when I was in private practice is yes, you’ve got your practice area and you might be specialising in one area, for example, mergers and acquisitions, which is something that we do, but then you’ve got to be across all of these different industries. I felt like I was always treading water, trying to keep my head above the water and not drown. Whereas if you are focused on one industry, it’s really easy then to get a deep understanding of your client’s business, so you can actually advise them more holistically.”

The real estate industry, in particular, is one that Ms Porter is genuinely passionate about because it’s something she’s always been around growing up.

“I like investing in property. It’s an asset that you can see. Well, you can see it, touch it, feel it. I find real estate because it’s highly regulated; they do generally need more support than an unregulated industry. And we do a lot in the mergers and acquisition space, and buying and selling real estate agencies and rent roles is very technical and very different to buying and selling other assets. So, I quite like being what’s seen as an expert where the industry gravitates to you as well,” she added.  

“Some of the comments we’ve had from clients or prospective clients is, ‘Oh, you understand our business. We don’t have to go and educate you about it.’ And what I’ve found is a lot of lawyers advise real estate agents. It’s not rocket science, if that makes sense, but our messaging and saying that this is all we do, our clients feel that connection with us then as well.”

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Before she started her practice, Ms Porter’s business coach encouraged her to “niche down” — which Ms Porter said can mean “so many different things”.

“Generally, in law, we think of it to mean we’ve specialised in a practice area, which I think is fantastic. But for me, it’s going further than that. It’s saying, ‘This is my ideal client and this is the only type of client I’m going to serve’,” she noted.  

“So, you could be a corporate commercial lawyer that’s in Canberra, for example, that does all industries, and that’s the norm and that looks like specialising, but we flipped it. We said, ‘OK, we will do corporate commercial law in Australia, but only for real estate agents.’ So, we flipped it a little bit in that respect.”

Since settling on her niched-down pathway, Ms Porter said that for her and her team, the day-to-day has been especially inspiring.

“I’m really excited. I’ve got a new lawyer starting with me actually next week, and he loves real estate and he loves law. He actually started as a lawyer and was a real estate agent for four years, had his own real estate agency and has come back to law,” she explained.

“So, I think, for him, too, he’s feeling really excited that both of his loves combined can be his new role. And so, for me, like I said, it’s less stressful, the business. It just feels easier because I’m not having to have so many different template suites and workflows and messaging and all the things.”

In terms of niching down becoming more commonplace within the Australian legal profession, Ms Porter said she is “definitely not the first” lawyer to pick a sector to specialise in, but that it’s still a “relatively new concept”.

“I think what happens, and this is what happened to me when my coach really challenged me about niching down, everything that went through my head was, ‘There’s not going to be enough work.’ I can’t turn work away. As a junior lawyer, I was always taught any work is good work, [and] any fees are good fees. And so, the biggest learning thing I’ve experienced that’s taken so much stress off me is actually saying no to work, saying, ‘That doesn’t fit our service model. That doesn’t fit who we’re trying to serve’,” she quipped.

“I think a lot of us do get scared, that we have that scarcity mindset, ‘There’s not going to be enough work, and I can’t turn work away.’ But by niching down, what I’ve found is actually the doors opened. We’ve grown much faster than I ever anticipated.”

And for those who are looking at going down a similar path, Ms Porter said she found amazing value in simply investing and trusting in herself.

“One of my big values is continuous learning and continuous improvement and investing in yourself. If you are waiting for your boss to hand you certain files or you are waiting for your boss to invest in you, you might be waiting a while, depending on who you work for. Is there any extra learning you could do, any coaching? Are there mentors out there you could reach out to? Surrounding yourself [with] like-minded people, these are, none of this is rocket science. It’s very simple,” she concluded.

“But I think, sometimes, as lawyers, we like to overcomplicate things, and we overlook the simple. I certainly know for me; I wouldn’t have planned out this career. I think a lot of us haven’t had necessarily a straight career path, so I don’t think I would’ve ever mapped this for myself. But sitting here where I am looking back, everything happened for a reason. So just say yes to different opportunities that come along.”

The transcript of this podcast episode was slightly edited for publishing purposes. To listen to the full conversation with Kristen Porter, click below: