Repositioning a law firm for a new generation
Professional services — Positioning & brand
A successful mid-sized international law firm needed a new website, but the real task was broader: to articulate the culture, identity and ambition of a new generation of partners in a way that would resonate more clearly with clients and future talent.
The challenge.
The firm had grown successfully over several decades, largely through client referrals. With a new generation of partners coming through the business, its 12-year-old website and existing messaging no longer reflected the firm it had become or where it wanted to go next.
The brief was not simply to modernise the design. The partners wanted a website that was easier to use and a clearer, more distinctive narrative that could move beyond traditional legal language without losing the credibility and professionalism of the firm.
What we did.
We began with interviews with the equity partners to understand what they believed made the firm distinctive, which elements of its culture they wanted to preserve, and how they wanted the firm to evolve.
That work became a communications brief built around the needs of different audiences and what the new positioning, narrative and website should make them feel, think and do.
We then developed four creative directions, ranging from more conservative to more adventurous, making different positioning and brand choices tangible and helping the partners align around how far they wanted the firm to evolve.
The selected direction brought together a clearer positioning, a new narrative and copy platform, a refreshed visual identity and the website concept through which those elements would come to life.
What changed.
The work gave the partners a shared way to articulate what made the firm distinctive and how they wanted it to evolve. That positioning was then carried consistently through the narrative, visual identity and website, giving clients and prospects a clearer sense of the firm behind the legal expertise.
It also helped the firm present its culture more compellingly to the next generation of legal talent and show why they might want to build their careers there.
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