The husband and wife team of law firm O'Halloran Deal Lawyers are both former Sydney city lawyers who have done what many lawyers would think impossible: they have replicated the "big city" experience in the country and challenged the assumption that exciting work is only attainable in the city.

After spending the majority of their careers working for national and city firms, including Coudert Brothers and Abbott Tout, husband and wife Anthony Deal and Julie O'Halloran decided to move back to where they grew up - Wagga Wagga - and start O'Halloran Deal Lawyers in 2005.

"After working in the CBD and overseas, we decided to raise our children in the Riverina - as we were - and try our hands at developing a boutique commercial law firm. At the time, we thought we were quite possibly committing professional suicide," Deal says.

Despite having doubts about making the move, Deal says they've since discovered there are "enormous opportunities for law firms to take advantage of low overheads and attract good, solid commercial work - exciting commercial work".

Upon arriving, Deal and O'Halloran noticed that most of the firms in the area were geared towards personal injury, criminal and family law but very few focused on commercial law.

"We had a look at the practitioners around here and a lot of them were ageing. A lot of the commercial practitioners were getting to retirement age," Deal explains.

So they set up as commercial lawyers only to be met with doubt from local businesses and colleagues. Deal says many of the locals doubted they would succeed as commercial lawyers in the country but Deal and O'Halloran saw the gap and knew they were on to something.

Describing the initial struggle to attract clients, Deal says it was just him and a receptionist sharing a tiny office for the first six to 12 months. But within four years, the firm grew to eight solicitors. While the numbers recently dropped back, the firm is still looking to hire another two lawyers.

"The first five years has been a pretty intense period and only now are we starting to consolidate," Deal says. It's been hard work, but Deal adds that business is now going "great guns", boasting high calibre clients and transactional work worth millions. "There is large transactional work to be had here. You're talking 20, 30, 50, 100 million."

And the perks of living and working in the country certainly involve the lifestyle change. Deal says life is not as hectic now that he is back in the country and that he now lives 10 minutes from work and rides his motorbike most days. Although Deal is quick to point out that he doesn't have much time to enjoy things because he's working "mad hours".

The lower cost of living is an added bonus of being in the country and Deal says after setting up shop in Wagga Wagga he noticed he had money in his wallet the whole time. "You're not hindered by all that muck that goes on in the city."

Briana Everett