Why I started Clause
My life has orbited the world of lawyers, for the past decade. I’ve collaborated with law firms, navigated legal businesses, and mingled with the constellation of personalities that animate this profession. The legal world, for all its rules and rituals, is a stage for some of the most captivating characters I’ve ever encountered.
Yet, surveying the terrain, I sensed a conspicuous absence. There was an abundance of information, rankings and roll calls, awards, conferences, and the familiar carousel of who had advised whom. The news was plentiful, but it left me wanting.
But where, I wondered, were the people themselves? That absence gnawed at me.
A lawyer, after all, is more than a job description.
I’ve always been fascinated by the contours of a person when the scaffolding of job titles falls away.
The senior partner who spends weekends chasing rare birds through a telephoto lens. The general counsel with a horological obsession. The litigator who finds solace on marathon routes. The amateur painter. The clandestine art collector. The quiet architect of a side business. These small revelations tell you more about a person than any litany of deals ever could.
Sometimes, they sketch a truer portrait than any official biography. Lawyers, perhaps more than most, are too often distilled down to the contents of their business cards. I wanted to rewrite that script.
And the law itself is in flux.
The legal profession now occupies a vastly different landscape from the one I first set foot in.
Technology reshapes the very fabric of work. Clients pose new questions. Maverick firms emerge. Lawyers sculpt personal brands with a boldness that would have seemed almost eccentric a decade ago.
The ground is shifting beneath our feet. It feels as though we’re not talking about it enough or not with the right kind of curiosity. And when we do, the conversation tends to acquire a certain gravity, a seriousness that can stifle.
I wanted Clause to have more space to breathe.
So, what exactly is Clause?
Clause is a platform for the legal world, yes, but also a living record of its people and preoccupations.
That sounds simple, but I mean it literally and generously.
We hope to gather the people, firms, ideas, and conversations that comprise this world. To document its pulse, to listen to its voices, to create spaces where the community’s threads can intertwine.
The Table is our main story about the person behind the lawyer – dne with absolute finesse and respect.
The Registry is one part of that documents the institutions and its lawyers.
The Journal is another where you get to read long form stories, viewpoints, arguments or sometimes just about culture.
‘After Hours’ peers into the lives lawyers lead when the briefcase is closed. ‘The Edit’ traces our obsessions—watches, books, restaurants, travel, art, design, and whatever else seizes our collective curiosity.
There will be conversations, events, and serendipities we can’t yet predict.
And I’m perfectly at ease with that uncertainty.
I don’t want Clause to feel like work - a magazine, perhaps, but never a memo.
This is probably the hardest thing to explain. I want Clause to be clever, never ponderous; informed, but not weighed down by its own seriousness.
Imagine reading about the business of law, then five minutes later falling down a delightful rabbit hole into a lawyer’s alternate universe!! I want gravitas, yes but also irrepressible curiosity.
I want readers to stumble upon unknown names, encounter opinions that challenge them, uncover a new restaurant, or simply wander somewhere unexpected for ten minutes.
The legal world is larger, richer, and infinitely more interesting than the work lawyers do. That is the world I want Clause to explore its edges, its depth, its color.
