Legacy Anchored, Vision Expanded: The Story Behind Our Merge
TLDR: After 8 years as a sole practitioner, I am merging my law practice with Winters & King, a ten-person firm of seasoned professionals who collectively provide comprehensive outside counsel services for businesses worldwide, including 501C3 nonprofits, litigation, estate planning, contracts/general transactions, and a specialist in book deals, as well as, an in-house COO.
This isn’t an ending, but a next chapter. My direct counsel continues, now amplified by Winters & King’s four decades of experience – expanding capacity while preserving personal connection.
This merger blends Winters & King’s decades of integrity with Paige Hulse Law’s entrepreneurial lens, creating counsel that is both timeless and timely. Legacy rooted in service meets pioneering shaped by entrepreneurship, ensuring clients can trust the stability of history while accessing futuristic perspectives. Anchored in trust and amplified by innovation, this collaboration carries heritage forward into a future that demands adaptability.
This is not the end of Paige Hulse Law- it’s the next evolution. By merging with Winters & King, Inc., Paige Hulse Law’s capacity is amplifying and continuing to deepen its ability to serve today and tomorrow’s generations of entrepreneurs and organizations building enduring businesses.
The Law Firm Is Merging
The biggest announcement since the day I decided to start my own firm: today I can officially announce that after careful consideration, I am so proud to say that Paige Hulse Law is officially merging with Winters & King.
8 years ago, I experienced a “seachange”, which resulted in starting my own firm. When I founded my firm, I made a promise to myself. I also knew that practicing as a solo would be a chapter in the journey. I never knew when the choice to expand would occur, but knew that when I felt like the “smartest person in the room”, it would be time. I knew starting my own firm was the right next step.
When I say the “smartest person in the room”, I don’t mean that as “on the nose” as it may sound. In order to uphold my integrity in my work, I knew that if I did my job well, my clients would outgrow a sole practitioner. When that happened, I would expand, rather than plateau.
To be more specific, coming from a background in litigation, I knew that one of (if not the key to success) was the ability to literally walk down the hall and have a coworker challenge my thinking/ arguments. Not to mention, awareness of bandwidth – I knew I would reach a point where I would be limited in my ability to hone my skills to their sharpest ability, while running every aspect of the firm alone. My largest concern with starting a firm would be getting to a point where I created my own “ceiling” in terms of capacity, but didn’t maintain the perspective to recognize that my “solo law firm” was actually a box I couldn’t see my way out of.
I knew that if I did my job well, my clients would not just need more of me; they would need the continuously refined, cutting-edge version of my intellect, and more resources to pull from.
I’ve grown and scaled many businesses, and one truth remains: no business is linear. In this case, growing a law firm was just different. When looking at my available resources (time), I cut a large portion of my client base (one-off contract requests), and instead created the Creative Law Shop®, and later, the Foundry™ to meet those requests in the middle- freeing up my time, and alleviating the costs that most entrepreneurs don’t need to carry. Instead, I focused my time and attention on continuously refining my passion in law: intellectual property. I didn’t just throw myself into learning more about the continuously-evolving subject; I created my own businesses, and emulated my own IP strategies for my clients’ licensing opportunities.
Scaling Horizontally v. Vertically
A few years ago, I recognized that I had outgrown the model I had built. I saw the impact my deep work could have on my clients, and saw the growth in complexity in the skill set required to execute. I also started truly honing into my zone of genius (strategizing and executing licensing deals), and knew that my time was becoming too limited.
I either had a choice to stay small, or begin to think asymmetrically in terms of how to increase the assets I could provide to my clients (upgraded operating systems beyond myself). I could choose to plateau with what felt like the standard “building blocks” of business, or think outside the box. And by asking myself that question, I triggered the question I’d identified all those years ago. Integrity required a different approach.
It bears repeating; I never intended to stay solo. To be solo, with what I wanted to do with my clients, and the legacy I wanted to create/life I wanted to live, would mean to choose to stay stagnant. I knew there were two ways to accommodate that- to grow vertically (grow with associates under me) or laterally (merge). The former did not tap into my particular skill set. I had a fantastic associate for a few years, and as much as I adored her, I realized that acting as a manager/”professional rainmaker” while also growing a firm that was still in the entrepreneurial phase not only didn’t mesh with my skill set, it robbed my other endeavors. Over the years, I started thinking about the latter (merging) more and more, and also continuously turned down offers.
It was time to make a shift; either horizontally or vertically. I could build the firm I’ve clearly had in my mind’s eye for nearly a decade, and train associates under me (“vertical”). Within a few years, I could have a team that could provide the high level of integrity I require within my team, hopefully think like entrepreneurs, etc. I could probably hire attorneys within the next month and get started on this path.
Growing my firm in the “standard” method, by continuing to hire would have been easy. But I knew in my gut it was not the right decision. Humbly, but bluntly: I know I could build a large firm, but simply couldn’t work in one. I’ve known that since I read Rainmaker in high school. Since I was 18, I always identified with that main character’s choice to go “rogue” and (illogically) step away from the guaranteed success of corporate law (“big law”). I couldn’t practice in the “traditional sense/environment” without feeling trapped in a box.
I recognized that end game, even if I had a multimillion dollar firm, I would want to be the sole managing partner. I can’t have a boss, but I almost equally don’t like being “the” boss in that way- the manager. There was a more potent and rogue way to utilize my skill set-to grow horizontally, with a team that had the complimentary skill set to my own.
So why would I build something that I myself admit I would never work in? And when I say (and mean) a core ethos is a “richness of life”…isn’t that a bit out of integrity? This is why I began to entertain the idea of merging my firm, and conversing with potential partners.
My “secret sauce”- the reason I’m able to do what I do- comes down to my natural proclivity for working asymmetrically: staying flexible and dynamic as I move between my law practice and entrepreneurial pursuits. And frankly, looking at the reality of pursuing the “vertical” growth model would just create a scenario where I would become the managing partner of a larger team. It would just be a larger version of my existing issues, and divergent from my skill set.
If it seems like it’s exhausting to consistently work appx. 80 hours a week for my own law firm and run other businesses, that’s because it is. And I have been grinding for nearly a decade. I will hit a point of diminishing returns at some point, but in the meantime, I built a gilded cage and called it freedom. Remaining solo in the midst of this growth created a set of very beautiful golden handcuffs.
It’s one thing to build a business-it’s another to build one, ensuring you don’t have blinders on in regards to what the end game looks like. At what point is it a pursuit fueled by ego, not actually serving your people to the best of your ability?
I had a clear vision of the type of firm I would build. One that could step in at every step of my clients’ growth; one that was built on the foundation of integrity.
The Next Chapter
Building Paige Hulse Law over the last 8 years has produced my proudest work, and is the actualization of my own American Dream. Advocating for entrepreneurs and business owners is what I genuinely believe I was put on this earth to do. For almost a decade, I’ve walked alongside entrepreneurs around the world building their own versions of the American Dream. It’s remarkable to see how far we’ve come since those front-porch beginnings of building my American Dream, and how that groundwork has carried us forward into this next evolution.
Iron sharpens iron, and it’s time to enter into a new chapter. For those of you who are clients, you know we already have. Entrepreneurship is only the beginning. We’re identifying the assets born from your creative work and translating them into licensing opportunities that generate a 10X, lasting impact.
Last spring, a random phone call from a friend ended with a bit of a joking question asking if I’d ever wanted to work for a law firm. I didn’t even take a breath before immediately answering “no”. “What about with one?” he said. I had no interest, but agreed to go to lunch anyways- I figured it would be nice to at least catch up with a friend.
As I wrestled deeply with this question of vertical or horizontal growth, conversations continued. By summer, I knew that horizontal was the correct path for me; it was just a matter of “who”. I walked into Winters and King with an open mind, but what I experienced caught me entirely off guard. While I only knew two people at the table, I realized I had never felt so much integrity at any given time, in a collective space, in my industry, ever.
This firm, which has been serving clients for over 40 years, was exactly what I wanted to build my own firm to be-one built on the bedrock of integrity. But, rather than work for years, putting my own “skill set” to the side, hoping to build something exactly like this firm, I could instead merge. This merger collapses the timeline of how I want to grow my firm, by bringing the future forward.
Paige Hulse Law has grown rapidly over the last 8 years, but the growth has leaned nearly exclusively on my own shoulders- pulling my time, energy, and bandwidth. The practice has scaled, but by merging with Winters & King, I no longer have to hit the ceiling of what I alone can oversee. The merger creates new capacity, allowing continued growth while accelerating the process.
By joining forces, I truly believe Winters & King and Paige Hulse Law amplify each other’s strengths: Winters & King’s four decades of service to over 5,500 organizations, and my firm’s established influence with creative entrepreneurs worldwide.
In Summary
This isn’t an ending, but the next chapter. Everything that nearly 1500 clients across the world have come to expect over the last 8 years continues; my direct counsel and the entrepreneurial flair to legality will continue. Now, however, it will be amplified by Winters & King’s four decades of experience – expanding my capacity while preserving personal connection, allowing my advocacy to pioneer into the next chapter.
Learn More → Read the full announcement/FAQ on www.paigehulselaw.com for clarity on this merger, and a message.
