Personal Branding Vs Law Firm Branding

A name is your law firm’s identity. It is the brand through which the law firm will be recognised and identified. As such, before embarking on naming your law firm and building a brand, you must understand which way you want to go – do you opt for personal branding or choose law firm branding?

Personal branding or Law firm branding

The process of naming and creating a brand takes into account the decision making process of ‘Who is well known?’ If the answer is ‘the lawyer’, the firm takes after the name of the lawyer and personal branding comes into play. If it is the other way round, it would be better to invest in the branding of the law firm. `

For example, if you are an established lawyer with a highly successful legal practice to your credit, it would be beneficial to name your legal firm after you. You are already a brand and people recognise your name and associate your worth with that name – when you name a firm after you, that credit and goodwill is automatically transferred to the legal firm and people will associate the respect, trust and reputation they associate with you with the legal firm. 

The shortcoming of this brand investment is that the entire brand is sustained on the name of a single lawyer and after a time interval (retirement or death of the lawyer), the brand will cease to exist. There is no scope for the succession of the brand.

There is also a third possibility that combines the advantages of both the branding options.  

You can use a part of your name, say just the surname and combine it with the name of the law firm and create a brand that can endure. This is personal + law firm branding. 

There are many advantages to be gained by investing in branding of your law firm. A few major ones are 

1. Instant recognisability

A brand offers instant recognition. Prospective clients can remember and recollect the brand for a longer time than just remembering your name.

2. People hire lawyers, not law firms

It is true that people hire lawyers and not law firms. Therefore, it would be to the added advantage that personal plus law firm branding is chosen. This gives clients a chance to associate you with your law firm and help bring in more clientele to the law firm.

3. Credibility

Having a recognised law firm gives instant credibility. People associate trust with credibility. It is needless to mention that trust brings in more prospective clients to your doorstep!

4. Creates value

A brand creates value. It is often associated with trust and reputation. Having a branded law firm is an advantage and gives you instant recognisability and helps your firm stand apart.

Conclusion

Creating a brand out of your law firm requires thought and research. It is a one-time process, therefore evaluation of pros and cons must be dealt with thoroughly. In this digital era, having a brand offers many advantages – it gives you better reach, recognisability and credence