Review of Legal Tech Branding 2019 – 2020
The journey so far
Keeping close to the corporate tone
Journeying to more stand-alone brands Eighteen firms (60% of the Top 30 UK law firms) have already created sub-brands for their collections of legal tech, innovation and resourcing programmes. With digitisation accelerating, and the appetite of firms and clients for digital services and technology whetted further by the Covid-19 lockdown, it’s a trend likely to grow. Other factors include increased regulatory demands on clients, the trend for clients and firms to pursue efficiency, and the continuing strength and growth of ALSPs and the Big Four. As a result, firms are under increasing pressure to develop and expand their tech stacks, resourcing solutions, programmes for innovation, and recruitment of non-lawyers. More firms, understandably, are using sub-branding for New Law services. Leveraging a law firm’s reputation and associations when selling new services and products makes cross-selling easier, but as law firms are the premier providers of legal advice (this is what they sell), many will find it hard to jettison this association. The challenge is to find an optimal balance between association and independence. Konexo is independent. It retains a light touch and connection to the masterbrand through endorsement (‘a division of Eversheds Sutherland’). By contrast, Ashurst Advance is hardly independent but retains a strong association to the masterbrand, using Ashurst’s name and visual identity. The degree of association between firms will vary, depending on individual strategy and aspirations. Keeping everything under the same roof will become, we believe, increasingly hard. The LLP model may be proven for delivering legal services, but it is not a tried-and-trusted model to deliver technology and digital solutions. We believe that over the next five to10 years, when freed to shape their own culture, develop innovation, create marketing and pursue long-term growth without the burden of a masterbrand and its changing priorities, more and more sub-brands will evolve into strong independent New Law brands. (Read more about this subject in our article ‘Pondering how to position legal tech?’ on page 26).
Few firms have pushed out the boat. Recent new brands and refreshes are largely extensions of the masterbrand’s corporate tone. Perhaps Kennedys iQ moved further away, using a large animated eye and ‘Kennedys, without the lawyers’. BCLP Cubed, with its idea of ‘three’ and cube animation, was also more adventurous, but the new stand-alone brand Konexo retains the same tone as its parent Eversheds Sutherland. Despite its tech-sounding name, Gravity Stack takes its cue from Reed Smith, and other brands (Fieldfisher’s Condor, DLA Piper’s Law&, Baker McKenzie’s Reinvent and Dentons’ Nextlaw) share an undeniably corporate feel. Hats off to Shoosmiths. Its new brand (or initiative) The New How (#NewHow) is refreshingly different. Its tone and style are certainly more consumer than big corporate law.
We’re all used to focusing on what & how. What is spotting that risk, drafting that clause, doing that deal. What is here to stay. But how is up for grabs... and at Shoosmiths, we care a lot about how. So, we changed how. There’s a new how in town... Smarter, faster, better.
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