Instead, they see themselves as solicitors who choose to practice in the country, and who provide their clients with top-shelf service without having to make a trip to the city.

However, the truth of the matter is that most city lawyers would struggle to give the highly specialised equine advice required by about one third of Equilaw's clients.

For partner and Scone-born equine law specialist Daniel Morgan, dealing with horses and the myriad legal issues that reside in the Hunter Valley's thriving thoroughbred industry is almost second nature. He says a unique skill set and a very hands-on approach is required.

"The diversity of legal problems that arise within the thoroughbred industry is one of the great motivators to come to work," says Morgan.

"It's a very vibrant, ever-changing industry and the people involved in the industry have a great outlook in relation to the way they conduct business and the way they deal with ... the vagaries of having horses." Such vagaries, says Morgan, often arise due to the fact horses are highly temperamental animals and can quickly go from being a champion to needing urgent veterinary attention.

This, he adds, requires a strategy which often sees Equilaw's lawyers going out to see clients' on their farms instead of in the firm's Scone or Muswellbrook offices.

As well as dealing with moody mares and stroppy stallions, being an equine lawyer means advising clients on legal matters such as workplace, OH&S, property, contracts, corporate, water rights and environmental issues.

And this is something which keeps those at the firm very busy.

"At the moment we are at capacity. We've got more work than we can handle, so we are looking at fine tuning our processes to make sure we do that work properly, turn it around quickly and keep our current clients happy," says Morgan.

"We have very good and loyal clients and we want to do what is right by them. On that basis, they'll continue to support us and our name gets out in the industry as being lawyers who can get the job done."

And while the loyal clients remain largely the same, Equilaw - which was until recently known as Halletts Solicitors - has just under­gone a significant rebranding and revamping process.

"We thought it was time we moved away from branding a firm by the name of the lawyers that are there. We have four partners so we didn't think it was appropriate to have everyone's names on the letter head, nor did our egos need it," laughs Morgan.

"Equilaw was a great mid-ground for us because we do a lot of work in the equine business, but it also relates to the concept of equity and equality."

Claire Chaffey