Your legal ally, offering personalized support and guidance for your legal needs.

Melissa Hall

Personal Attorney

(She/Her) WSBA # 51167

The idea of a personal attorney started in a courthouse.  I was helping my wife do a legal name change, an important step in her transition.  The form was confusing and I helped her sort out a few small questions. 

I was glad I was there, but it made me wonder:

What happens to people who don't have a lawyer in their life?

It became clear that as a profession, we did not have a good model for delivering legal services to people unless they were in a special situation.  The kind of general help I was offering was called "cocktail party law" and mostly featured in stories about the annoyances of being an attorney.

I had to look back in time to find a model for giving people general legal advice and still supporting yourself as an attoney. 

I am inspired by the small town general practice attorney.  The small town isn't for me, but what I really want is the commitment to a community of people and their understanding that I will be there for them when things are confusing or scary.

This is the heart of my practice and why I have chosen a community supported model.  I want people to feel like they have back up in a world where lawyers are too often a tool used against them.

I am a personal attorney.  I am mostly here to help diagnose legal problems, generally I recommend self care, but occasionally someone really does need the services of an expert, when that happens I try to find the right help.

Being a generalist is my specialty.  

My Promise to You

I will do my best to keep myself up to date with ongoing education.

I will be as transparent as possible about what I know, what I need to research and when you really need an expert.

I will never accept payment for referring my clients.

I will respect my clients right to self-identification, to make their own choices and to disagree.

I will always try to support and empower my clients. Sometimes that is by telling them that they have reached an end and need to stop fighting, but even when I have to do that I will respect their battle.

I will respect my clients’ feelings and experiences.

Empowered people are in the best place to make effective decisions. I strive to remove fear and confusion so clients can understand and make informed choices.

I am successful when a client is comfortably and knowledgeably empowered to make their decision, not when a client makes the choice I would.