10 questions. A Shot of Law and a Beer

• Author: Jenny B. Davis
• Pages: 12-13

PHOTOS BY LAUREN CARTER

IT’S NO SURPRIS E there’s a lawyer

behind the Legal D raft Beer Co.,

a microbrewery and ta proom in

Arlington, Texas . The corporate

mission statement is ca lled “The

Beeranda Rights ,” and it begins with

the line, “You have the right to dri nk

great beer.” The taproom calls it s

frequent customers “Repe at O enders,”

and the beers carry name s such as

Presumed Innocent IPA, Hung Jury

Hefeweizen, Accused A mber and Bock

Trial. There’s even a nonalcoholic

o er ing called Moot Beer.

That lawyer—the one whose o cial

title happens to be “chief just ice”—is

Greg McCarthy. He and his neighbor

co-founded Legal D raft in 2015, and

they’ve been succes sfully pouring on

the legal humor to a grow ing audience

of Texas beer drinkers ever si nce.

You and your business part ner had

been talk ing about going into the

craft beer bu siness for years before

you actual ly launched Legal Draf t.

Was having a legal theme al ways part

of the plan?

No. We actually went through th ree

or four themes. Arlingt on is a baseball

town, so we thought about bas eball.

We thought about calling it something

about Arlington it self, but we found it

hard to keep the intere st going with

those themes. Our marke ting director

is the one who fi rst came up with the

idea of using law as our brand. Up until

then, I thought branding was w hat you

did to cattle. She told me th at the name

has to tell a gre at story, and everything

you do has to help with the tel ling

of that story. Bless her for doing that

because who knows what w e would

have come up with without her.

Law is defi nitely a great t heme

when it comes to fun ny names and

phrases! I would tot ally buy a Mrs.

Palsgraf Pale A le or anything w ith

Freestone Rider or Fee Si mple

Absolute on the label. How do you

come up with Lega l Draft’s clever

beer names, and i s it a di cult

process?

We do occasional brainst orming

sessions. Sometimes I’ ll be reading a

book, and something w ill prompt me to

consider a name for a beer. But naming

is actual ly a di cu lt thing in the beer

business. There are 7,000 breweries i n

the United States, a nd you can run into

some intellectual pr operty problems.

We thought of some great beer names,

but our lawyer was like , “Great idea,

but it’s taken.”

Obviously law yers get the refer-

ences, but have you ever had lay-

people who didn’t quite u nderstand

the beer names?

Most people get it. I think t here’s

more confusion around the be er than

A Shot

of Law

and a Beer

Texas attorney masters the

craft of a legal-themed

microbrew business

Legal Draft co-

founders Curt

Taylor (left) and

Greg McCarthy

12 || ABA JOURNAL MAY 2019

Opening Statements

10 QUESTIONS