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Portland鈥檚 burgeoning population of small creative businesses, ranging from graphic designers and photographers to musicians and artists, is carving a practice niche for new and solo attorneys who practice intellectual property law.

Intellectual property is a booming specialty area nationwide. The American Bar Association as well as several legal career websites place IP law at the top of the list for practice areas that continue to perform strongly, both in terms of client demand and job potential for new attorneys.

Portland solo Josh Barrett is among the small-firm practitioners filling the niche. He practiced IP law in a medium-sized firm for about 15 years before deciding to open his own firm, Create Legal, last September.

Barrett says his dual hobbies of photography and designing websites drew him to IP law and Portland鈥檚 hub of creative companies. The father of two young children, Barrett frequently meets other parents who work as website developers, architects, graphic designers and other creative professions.

鈥淚 was helping some of them with their legal services and I recognized that Portland is a hub of creativity, so I decided to focus my marketing directly to that type of group,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 turned out really well and seems to resonate with people.鈥�

His services range from licensing and protecting intellectual property to drawing up business contracts, representing companies in contract disputes and advising clients on the use of independent contractors.

Barrett says that while several of the city鈥檚 larger law firms have strong IP departments, there are benefits to being a small firm in this practice area.

鈥淎 lot of these creative companies are small firms that don鈥檛 have very many legal needs, so a small law firm is a good match,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 think my clients find my size and marketing focus much more relatable than in the past.

鈥淚 think it also reflects the fact that the economy is recovering,鈥� Barrett adds. 鈥淎 lot of my smaller clients have had their heads down for the last few years, but the larger ones are starting to pick up more business and hire more people, and that trickles down to my firm as well.鈥�