Just Want to Talk to a Lawyer?

What we talked about.

Sunny Ray talks with Craig Rashkis, a lawyer who spent almost 25 years in traditional practice before founding Legal HD, a standalone legal advice and counsel service. Craig explains that Legal HD lets individuals, families, and small business owners book short, direct sessions with a licensed attorney, ranging from about ten minutes to two hours, to get clarity on a legal issue without committing to a full engagement. He contrasts this with AI legal tools and with free consultations that traditional firms use mainly as sales funnels, insisting Legal HD is a genuine legal service delivered by real lawyers, not a technology company or a lead generation tool for his own practice. They discuss real moments people need a lawyer, from estate planning surprises to getting served with a lawsuit, and walk through exactly how a session is booked, conducted, and closed out. Craig also opens up about the harder challenge he did not anticipate, that the service solves access but now faces the slower work of creating public awareness of an entirely new category of legal help.

A 25-year lawyer explains why he built a service just for people who simply want to talk to a lawyer.

The questions, and the answers.

What is Legal HD and why should the average person care?

Legal HD Advice and Counsel is a standalone legal service where an individual, small business owner, or even spouses can connect with an experienced lawyer to talk through a legal situation and get initial clarity on what they're dealing with and what their options are. Once we identify that, we counsel them on their preferred direction based on what they actually want, financially and emotionally. The goal is delivering clarity and confidence so someone can make an informed decision.

After 25 years practicing law, what did you believe at the start that you no longer believe now?

I still very much believe in the traditional practice of law. But I came to a crossroads in my career, which is common, and started thinking selfishly at first about where I wanted my own career to go. I realized I'd always enjoyed real-time interaction with clients discussing their questions. When I began formulating Legal HD, I realized this wasn't just a career pivot for me, it was something nobody was doing and the need was vast.

What's the moment in a normal person's life when they need a lawyer for 20 minutes and have nowhere to go?

These moments are varied. A classic one is estate planning, like when a parent has a health event and there's no will, or the will exists but nobody knows where it is. Another is a business owner getting a vendor contract they don't understand. And a very common one everybody can relate to is getting served with a lawsuit, which is stressful because the average person has never dealt with it and doesn't know their options.

Is it kind of like a Harvey for the average guy?

No, I wouldn't say that at all. Harvey is an AI platform for lawyers, and Legal HD is not AI-based. We're a genuine legal service provided by real human lawyers licensed in their state. We do leverage technology, and honestly that's what made this model economically possible, since anyone who tried this before had the economics work against them. But at its core it's a human-driven service, not a tech tool.

You're explicit that Legal HD is not a lead generation funnel for a traditional practice. Why does that distinction matter?

In traditional practice, free consultations are really business development tools, and people don't always get to speak with an actual lawyer or get substantive advice. I wanted Legal HD to be a standalone service where people genuinely get advice and counsel, not a disguised funnel into my own traditional practice. When a situation does call for a full engagement, we refer clients out to other lawyers, we don't hesitate, because that's not our purpose.

Can you walk me through a session, from booking to meeting the lawyer and after?

It's all client-driven. You go to the website, click book my session, enter your name, email, and location, then pick a date and time on the calendar. There's a modest fee agreement and we authorize a card but don't charge upfront. At the session, you click a link for phone or video, sometimes in person, and talk with the lawyer. Afterward you get a closing email summarizing the discussion, time spent, and cost.

Your hardest problem isn't delivery, it's that nobody knows this kind of service even exists. How do you teach a new category?

I honestly didn't see this challenge coming. Discoverability for a brand new category is daunting. The usual things matter, ads, social media, content, but I think the real work is conversations like this one. Traditional practice has trained people for a hundred years to think their question isn't important enough to warrant a lawyer, because engaging one traditionally means a costly long-term commitment. You can't spend your way into shifting that collective mindset.