Who Cares About Law Firm Branding?

Your short answer may be “not me,” and that’s fine. Lawyers don’t have to care about branding — but the most successful ones recognize that their audiences do.

Indeed, branding resonates with the people who matter most to your firm’s success, among them:

Business Clients

Whether it’s “boardroom cover” or simple affinity, Thomson Reuters reports that law firms with “strong, favorable brand perceptions” earn an average of 38 percent more of their clients’ external legal spend.

Thomson Reuters uses the example of Baker McKenzie. When asked to simply name law firms — a pure open-ended question — more than 18 percent of global legal buyers named Baker McKenzie. Then, later, 80 percent said they consider the firm for their cross-border litigation needs.

Simply put, the firms that stay top-of-mind get more opportunities.

Consumer Clients

Perhaps your clientele is more on the consumer side. Here, branding also matters, and as Clio’s Legal Trends Report shows, there’s an interesting breakdown along generational lines.

Nearly half — 45 percent — of Gen Z clients care about a firm’s brand and image, followed by 36 percent of Millennials. That number drops to 28 percent of Gen X and 19 percent of Boomers.

Specifically, for these rising clients of tomorrow, your online brand presentation is key:

• Gen Z and Millennial clients care more about a lawyer’s website (49 percent and 48 percent, respectively) than Gen X and Boomers (34 percent and 21 percent, respectively).
• Gen Z and Millennial clients are nearly twice as likely to value online reviews.

Meanwhile, Clio’s numbers start to show the traditional pipeline of referrals may be slowing: While referrals are valued by 60 percent of Boomers and 56 percent of Gen X, that drops to 46 percent for Millennials and 47 percent for Gen Z.

It’s important to note the oldest members of Gen Z are now nearing their late twenties. These are no longer the “clients of tomorrow”; many are your prospects of today.

New Hires

Both lateral partners and new associates seek out employers with established, professional brand identities.

Lateral partner candidates shop around, as demonstrated by research from mega-recruiter Major, Lindsey & Africa. Two-thirds consider more than one firm, with 29 percent scouting four to five and 9 percent reviewing a whopping seven or more.

These moves aren’t always motivated by a desire to “swim upstream”; 44 percent will go to a firm with similar or lower profitability. What does move the needle? While brand wasn’t a specific option in the survey, it manifests in two of the top three answers:

• Practice support, including marketing
• Effectiveness of management
• The firm’s culture and reputation

(For the record, “anticipated compensation” ranks sixth.)

Meanwhile, if you plan to hire associates, take heed: In a survey of summer associates by the National Association for Law Placement, nearly half — 47 percent — of respondents said that if given two or more offers, they based their decision on the “reputation, ranking or prestige of the firm.” This outpaced firm culture (41 percent), type of work (33 percent), location (27 percent) and compensation (13 percent).

And on a less human, but no less impactful note:

The Bottom Line

Altman Weil cites a United Kingdom study that concluded brand recognition in professional services firms is worth a 10 to 20 percent premium in fees.

Law firms with strong brands will get more opportunities in the market; position themselves more effectively to capture work from future generations; attract quality laterals and new associates; and make more money.

Harnessing the power of effective law firm branding doesn’t hinge on having the size and scope of Baker McKenzie (or even a fledgling interest in fonts). The journey to a strong law firm brand just takes many of the skills your legal career already has cultivated: You will call upon your ability to strategize to define a position; your ability to persuade to claim it; and your ability to make a case to provide evidence you’re the best choice.