When d’Apice conceptualised the vision of starting his own law firm, he said that initially, he thought of it as a “side hustle” for himself – a perception that may differ from how many other firm owners approach their own business ventures.

He shared that this mindset stems from being in a “domestic partnership”, noting that he is “married to someone who’s not particularly unsuccessful in their professional life”, which helps to ease the pressure often faced by new firm owners.

“There’s a version of the world where I do even less work than I do now,” he said.

The concept d’Apice had envisioned for his law firm was originally going to be similar to running an Etsy store where he “might make some nice ceramics, and get some pocket money from selling mugs”.

Despite initially categorising this as an “extremely low-down” priority in his life, d’Apice conveyed that this intended outlook has not aligned with reality, as it has now evolved into a “moderate level priority” for him.

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While this occurrence was not originally intended, d’Apice expressed that there is a “degree where I am pleased and proud” with the current situation; however, he candidly acknowledged that there was a degree of “shame” that the outcome he had envisioned didn’t come to fruition.

As the operation of his firm has become a high-value priority, d’Aprice said that this has led to a noticeable “increase” in the number of hours he dedicates to work since the firm’s inception.

While he is “pleased and profound that there’s work to be done”, he acknowledged the necessity of navigating a “balancing point” between managing the law firm and spending quality time with his family.

But despite considering himself an “experienced old lawyer”, d’Apice admitted that he has “only middling in success” when it comes to navigating this duality.

“There have been a lot of coffees consumed after 11pm, and there’s been work done on the weekend, and they’ve been kind of text messages that I’ve ignored children to answer, and they’ve been telephone calls that I’ve asked, you know, passengers in the backseat of the car to be quiet while I accept,” he said.

Although there are other key pressure points to running a firm, d’Apice was optimistic about the future of Gravamen Law, whatever that may look like.

“The fact that I’m satisfied in the financial performance of a very new company over a very short period of time means that I don’t take any particular comfort from the most recent 12 months,” he said.

“And there’s no promise that future phases of the business are going to look similar to the recent phases of the business. And even though I’m very inexperienced running a business, I’m not so foolish as to say it’s going to be like this forever.”