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  Admin 8:59 pm on March 19, 2012 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment
  Tags: 2012 ( 12 ), edition, Firm ( 110 ), More ( 22 ), Taglines ( 2 )   

  101 More Law Firm Taglines – 2012 Edition 

  Back in 2009, Stem Legal published our list of 101 law firm taglines. At that point, many online pundits were quick to point out the terrible ones (no need to name names) as well as some rare gems that seemed to fit their firms well. Are law firm taglines still valuable? It’s a good question. Some are indeed terrible, but others are well conceived and through a short snippet of text, convey something positive about the firm’s brand.

  We wanted to revisit the topic, so we started by checking the 2009 list to see if it was worth updating. But guess what? Most taglines hadn’t changed, and some firms had eliminated their tagline altogether. So instead, we decided to add to our original effort, and sought out 101 more taglines! (See the list below.)

  It turns out that many firms are still using taglines that do little to set them apart from competitors or communicate core values. In “Is your law firm committed to mediocrity?“, Ross Fishman (of law firm tagline generator fame) bemoans the fact that so many firms choose taglines that really don’t say anything about themselves. Fishman says that effective taglines “help define the firm internally and externally.  They set the tone and help the firm stand out in a meaningful way. They give the lawyers something to say in new-business meetings when the prospects ask, “How is your firm different?””

  Neil Rose of Legal Futures makes similar observations, acknowledging that some firms do manage to come up with a fantastic tagline, like Harris Beach’s “Lawyers you’ll swear by, not at”. But of this rare corporate humour, he wonders, “if that is reflected in the client experience – in fact, I wonder if any of these and many other claims are really in the DNA of the firms making them, given the contrary, individualistic, pig-headed nature of many lawyers. To use, reluctantly, a very modern phrase, do firms really live their values?”

  Amicus Creative offers some guidelines on developing a tagline. They warn, helpfully, that “taglines reached through consensus often tend to be bland and less creative” and that “alliteration can be good but it can also be overused”. Other advice is a little simplistic. For instance, using power adjectives is a tricky proposition. Jordan Furlong‘s advice on creating standout practice group descriptions and resisting the temptation to oversell can be applied to taglines, too.

  At any rate, back to our list. We figured that mostly rehashed taglines wouldn’t be particularly interesting, so we scouted out 101 new ones, adding a few Australian firms to the list.  Many thanks to all those who sent us their taglines (some, we had to leave out because they were included in our previous list). A a hat tip to Ross Fishman and Neil Rose for the examples in their posts, some of which are included here.

  American law firms:
  

  1. Allen Matkins: Challenge. Opportunity. Success.
  2. Arent Fox: Smart in your world (R)
  3. Aronberg Goldgehn: We Take It Personally (R)
  4. Arnstein & Lehr: Mid-market value. Large firm expertise.
  5. Bailey & Galyen: Solving your Legal Puzzle. (TM)
  6. Bean, Kinney & Korman: Getting It Done. (R)
  7. Bone McAllester Norton: Law. Life. Passion. (R)
  8. Bowman and Brooke: From boardroom to courtroom (R)
  9. BoyarMiller: Practice with Purpose
  10. Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck: Always There (SM)
  11. Bryant Miller Olive: Our name is easy to remember. Our work is hard to forget.
  12. Chamberlain Hrdlicka: Your Goals. Our Mission.
  13. Chapman and Cutler: Focused on Finance (R)
  14. Chuhak & Tecson: Right there with you. (SM)
  15. Cox Smith: Practice Advice for the Real World.
  16. Dinsmore: Accomplish more. (SM)
  17. Dunkiel Saunders: Making a difference is our practice.
  18. Fennemore Craig: law that leads (TM)
  19. Finnegan: protect. advocate. leverage. CHAMPION YOUR IDEAS. (R)
  20. Fisher & Phillips: Solutions at Work (R)
  21. Ford & Harrison: The Right Response at the Right Time
  22. Gallagher Sharp: Solutions. Not Surprises. (R)
  23. Garson Claxton: Quality. Responsiveness. Results.
  24. Goldberg Simpson: A law firm that really moves. (TM)
  25. Gordon & Rees: Responsive. Resourceful. Results (TM)
  26. Gray Robinson: Extremely Floridian
  27. Greenberg Glusker: The Counsel You Keep. (TM)
  28. Herrick: Committed to Your Success.
  29. Hodgson Russ: Where value is law.
  30. Hughes Hubbard: Critical matters. Critical thinking.
  31. Hymson Goldstein & Pantiliat: Our Business is Your Peace of Mind (R)
  32. Ice Miller: It’s a Complex World. Be Advised. (TM)
  33. Jackson Walker: Texas Based, Global Read.
  34. Klein DeNatale Goldner: Results. Period.
  35. Kleinbard Bell & Brecker: Our Most Important Partners Are Our Clients
  36. Kutak Rock: National Resources. Local Results. (R)
  37. Lanier Law Firm: Redefining Legal Care
  38. Levenfeld Pearlstein: Unusually Good.
  39. Lewis and Roca: Focus Forward
  40. Lewis Wagner: Skilled Advocacy. Practical Solutions. (TM)
  41. Massey & Gail: Fewer Lawyers. Bigger Impact.
  42. Mayer Brown: Global Solutions, Local Strengths
  43. McCarter & English: Our clients do great things. We get the assist.
  44. Much Shelist: Thinking business, practicing law
  45. Murphy & Hourihane: Ready for Trial!
  46. Novack Macey: Small but mighty.
  47. Owen & Owens: Every Client Matters
  48. Pratt Attorneys: Experience. Integrity. Results.
  49. Rothman Gordon: Just right.
  50. Russ August & Kabat: Wise Counsel. (TM)
  51. Ryley Carlock & Applewhite: The Business of Solutions (R)
  52. Sandberg Phoenix Von Gontard: Seriously Unbelievable Client Service.
  53. Segal McCambridge: We make the complex simple. (TM)
  54. SettlePou: Big firm expertise. Small firm attention. (SM)
  55. Schopf & Weiss: Bigger is good. Smarter is better. (SM)
  56. Shefsky & Froelich: Putting imagination to work (SM)
  57. SmithAmundsen: Top flight counsel. Bottom line results.
  58. Soden & Steinberger: Changing the Way People Think About Attorneys, One Client at a Time (R)
  59. Spector Gadon & Rosen: Practicing the Art of Law
  60. Sullivan & Brill: Personal Attention, Proven Results
  61. Taylor Duane: Quicker. Smarter. Better.
  62. Unique Law: Illuminating Solutions
  63. Vessa & Wilensky: Serious Lawyers…Serious Results
  64. Valorem Law Group: Results, not Hours. (TM)
  65. Warner Norcross & Judd: A Better Partnership. (R)
  66. Weiss Berzowski Brady: All Business.
  67. Williams Mullen: Where Every Client is a Partner
  68. Woodard, Emhardt, Moriarty, McNett & Henry: Make your ideas untouchable. (R)

  UK law firms:

  1. Azrights: Easy Legal not Legalese
  2. Bevan Brittan: The public services law firm
  3. Blake Lapthorn: the natural choice in law
  4. Clyde & Co: Altogether different.
  5. Eric Robinson: making law make sense
  6. Freeth Cartwright LLP: Answers not options
  7. Gordons: Let’s get down to business.
  8. Kennedys: Legal advice in black and white.
  9. Keoghs: …not your conventional law firm
  10. Matthew Arnold & Baldwin: Giving you a lot more than just law
  11. McGrigors: Driven by business. Powered by people.
  12. Mills Reeve: Infectious ambition
  13. Mischon: It’s business. But it’s personal.
  14. Nabarro: Clarity Matters
  15. Optima Legal: Specialist Lawyers to the Lending Sector
  16. Penningtons: fluid thinking. clear solutions.

  Australian law firms:

  1. M+K: Your firm.
  2. Middletons: Straight talking
  3. TressCox: connected talent

  Canadian law firms:

  1. BCF LLP : A Different Kind of Practice.
  2. Burchells: Just Right.
  3. Burchell MacDougall: Put experience on your side.
  4. Burnet Duckworth Palmer: Common sense, uncommon innovation
  5. De Grandpré Chait: Your best partner! (TM)
  6. Dust Evans Grandmaitre: A people practice.
  7. Fillmore Riley: Decisive. Direct.
  8. Galbraith Family Law: Resolving Family Conflict With Heart
  9. McLennan Ross: Ability to see beyond the law
  10. McMillan: Where deals get done.
  11. Pushor Mitchell: Leave The Hard Work To Us
  12. Stikeman Elliott: Canadian Leaders in Business Law. Worldwide.
  13. Thomson Rogers: Your advantage, in or out of the courtroom.
  14. Weltman, Bernstein: Lawyers you can trust. (TM)

  Which are your favourites? Let us know in the comments.

  

  Law Firm Web Strategy

   

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  Admin 7:27 am on February 19, 2012 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment
  Tags: 2012 ( 12 ), Aspiring ( 4 ), edition, Fellowships ( 2 ), Professors ( 5 )   

  Fellowships for Aspiring Law Professors, 2012 Edition 

  Here.
  Brian Leiter’s Law School Reports

   
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  Admin 3:07 pm on January 28, 2012 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment
  Tags: edition, Jobs ( 6 ), Redux ( 4 ), Summer ( 8 )   

  Summer Jobs, U of C Edition, Redux 

  I jumped the gun a bit the other day, but now all the real data is on-line about summer employment. I’m particularly pleased to see…
  Brian Leiter’s Law School Reports

   
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  Admin 4:31 am on September 11, 2011 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment
  Tags: 2011 ( 97 ), Best ( 8 ), edition, Schools ( 18 )   

  50 Best Law Schools, 2011 Edition 

  As we’ve done before, here’s a new poll of the readership to assess the “50 best law schools” in the United States. I’ve cast the…
  Brian Leiter’s Law School Reports

   
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  Admin 7:07 pm on January 8, 2011 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment
  Tags: ahead, edition, Firm ( 110 ), publishing   

  How to get ahead in publishing (law firm edition) 

  
  
  

  It seems to me that for law firms, “content” — articles, papers, case law summaries, legislative updates, alerts, and so forth — is really just a lawyer byproduct, a side effect of lawyers’ efforts to stay informed about the law. That’s a critical aspect of lawyers’ primary function, of course, which is selling advice and judgment. But clients don’t pay lawyers for standalone legal knowledge — they pay for specific legal action and results, making content at best a tertiary product for firms.

  Nonetheless, there’s been a lot of discussion recently about law firms’ burgeoning roles as publishers of content, and what that might mean in this extraordinarily unsettled time for both law and publishing. Three articles in particular caught my attention:

  • 2011: The Year That Law Firm Websites Become Publishing Platforms, by Robert Algeri, sets the scene: “[T]he content on the firm’s website is often scattered throughout sections like ‘Multimedia,’ ‘Experience’ and ‘Publications.’ Very few prospective clients can be expected to bounce around the website looking for relevant content in all those different sections. The solution: a publishing platform … a website that is designed to showcase a firm’s content in a way that maximizes its ability to help generate business.”
  • Legal content on iPads and tablets: what’s the business model for publishers and law firms? by Kevin O’Keefe: “You [law firms] are in the media business, in that you share your intellectual capital via blogs. You’ve led with content for client development for years, and that will become increasingly important with the iPad and tablets. If you think you’ve seen wide distribution of your content via the Web and blogs, you haven’t seen anything close to what iPad, tablet, and other mobile devices are going to enable you to do as far as content delivery and distribution.”
  • Transformation, by American Lawyer Media CEO Bill Pollak (hat tip to Jason Wilson): “The new constraint will be content. We’re going to need to create, curate, license and otherwise gain access to the content we’ll need for our rapidly growing family of websites and data products. Some of that content may be ‘news’ in the traditional sense, but I suspect only a small part. More will be substantive, must-have information that our audience values, either on its own or when integrated with other content that makes it more valuable. “

  Each of these articles raises interesting and valid points, especially with regard to the impact of the mobile web on publishing of all kinds. Law firms, though, are still coming to terms with publishing on the immobile web. Firms have lots of content lying around, but it often seems they’re not quite sure why they have it or what they should do with it. So I’d like to consider the nature and purpose of law firm content — what is its practical purpose and point? What does it really mean for a law firm to consider itself a “publisher”?

  Almost all law firms answer those questions by treating content as marketing material, as a way to show off their knowledge and expertise in hopes of attracting and impressing clients. That would work really well if no other law firm anywhere was producing content of similar quantity or quality. But since every law firm in the universe does, this content comes across to clients in much the same way as firm-branded highlighters come across to trade show delegates: easily obtained, rarely used, easily discarded. Most law firm content is basically a commodity.

  The reason for this is simple: law firms don’t take the publishing of content seriously. Most firms collect whatever content lawyers feel like producing — the side effects of their own learning, the output of their own interests, the 30-page CLE paper that was actually written by a first-year associate — and offer them to the market; the market responds much as you might expect. Ask your clients how much of your content they’ve read in the past six months and how much they’ve acted on; the answer, in most cases, is not a whole lot. Most lawyers really produce content for themselves, not for their readers, and that’s why their readers (clients) mostly don’t care.

  Publishers take publishing seriously because it’s their livelihood, focusing completely on readers’ needs and interests, which is why they’re much better at this than law firms are. But law firms can take publishing seriously, too. In fact, I think they should: in an era when legal publishers are getting into the business of providing legal services, law firms ought to think seriously about returning the favour. I don’t mean that law firms should try to make publishing a profit center — publishers are having a hard enough time of that themselves. I mean that law firms can use content to drive real results in marketing, prestige and business development — if they are extraordinarily focused about content, and if they become ruthless about the process of acquiring and publishing it.

  Chief among the new rules of publishing is this: you can’t compete on volume, because the web will defeat you. No news publisher can beat Google, no bookstore can compete with Amazon, no record company can rival iTunes, when it comes to volume and size of selection; but all these companies are themselves up against the worldwide Web, great seas vying (probably in vain, long-term) with a vast ocean. Even the biggest law firm in the world will be only a pond by comparison. So law firms that take publishing seriously need to go in the opposite direction: ever more focused, ever more niched. They need to decide what specific area they want to occupy, and then they need to own it.

  In his book The Dip, Seth Godin talks about the importance of being the best in the world at what you do — “the best,” not “the best you can do,” and “the world,” meaning “the specific universe within which your buyers operate.” If you’re going take publishing seriously, then you need to be the best in the world at what you publish. If you’re going to publish about wrongful dismissal in New York State, then your publication should strive to be the comprehensive, unquestioned, nobody-else-is-close authority on the subject. People should say, of your publication, “That’s the Wall Street Journal of wrongful dismissal in New York State.” Powerful, reliable, influential, indispensable — these are the modifiers your content should be pursuing, because they’re also the modifiers your firm should be pursuing, no?

  How do you get to be the best? By being uncompromising about the creation and distribution of content. That means doing a lot of things that make law firms uncomfortable:

  • identifying a niche strategically critical to your firm’s objectives and going after it, guns blazing;
  • turning down proffered lawyer content because it’s not what you need or it’s not good enough;
  • requisitioning specific content from lawyers, and having the power to enforce those requisitions;
  • hiring professional writers and editors to create new content or greatly enhance existing content;
  • pouring money into design, so that you rival what professional publishers produce in look, feel and accessibility;
  • consulting professionals who understand both publishing and the law to provide strategic guidance; and
  • making the (expensive) effort to deliver your finished product in a customized, mobile, timely manner to the clearly identified audience(s) of your choice.

  Law firms that take publishing seriously adopt a strategic approach to it. They recognize that standalone content, produced more or less randomly and left to its own devices, serves little purpose. They also know that law firm content can’t be too useful, or else it becomes law firm advice and therefore a dangerous proposition. So they figure out what business development ends content can support, which specific firm or practice group goals it advances, and then they go get it. Specifically:

  • They create websites built around clients, not lawyers — a key difference most law firms ignore.
  • They blog about their specialty areas until they’re among the very few recognized authorities on the subject.
  • They use Twitter streams to establish themselves as invaluable suppliers of target industry know-how.
  • They build FAQ collections on their practice subjects so that web users seeking answers to their questions inevitably find them.
  • They pay close attention to design and to distribution, which matter far more than lawyers think.
  • They invest serious resources (money, time, personnel) equal to their serious ambitions.
  • They ensure support for their work at the highest levels and participation from the ground up.
  • They always, always, always ask: what does the client need and want? They find out, and they deliver it.

  In short, they act like publishers — as well they should, because to play in this league requires measuring yourself against the leaders and taking them on. Commit to publishing as a key element of your marketing, brand-building and professional development strategy, and you’ll get results commensurate with high expectations.

  For law firms, content is a means to an end, not an end in itself. Understand your end and commit the means: that’s how law firms can be publishers.

  

  Law Firm Web Strategy