Another month, another round of partner and lateral hire moves. Will the UK hit the 546 partner moves we saw last year?

Another merger announced – as firms build up their capability both sides of the Atlantic.

Another discussion about rebranding – straight from a recent PM Forum session.

And we couldn’t let you go without mentioning the subject of values!!

Rebranding that resonates

We attended a great PM Forum session, wonderfully chaired by Charlotte Sansom, with a delightful panel of Craig Annis from A&O Shearman, Katherine D’Urso from Freshfields and Natasha Davies from PwC.

Lots of insights from these three recent rebrands, including:

• Stakeholder management – don’t be afraid of co-creation with senior leadership, it ensures buy-in from the get-go.
• Be clear about your motivation for rebranding – whether it’s a merger, a new strategy or about opening up opportunities. If it’s not an imperative, don’t do it.
• The ppt deck is often what the majority of people want and need.
• A rebrand is a chance to re-energise the business, and align everyone to the firm’s strategy – and even take a look at the values and behaviours once again.
• The client experience will take longer, as you bed in the brand strategy and work with the team to deliver on your client promise.

Law firm values

There’s hardly a law firm out there that doesn’t proudly set out its values on its website.

Not surprisingly, many firms out there share similar values – and often expressed in very similar ways. While this is not uncommon in different sectors, it is even more acute in law. It’s easy to say that law firms are very similar, and there’s of course comfort in being familiar and aligned.

However, potentially firms are missing out on a special ingredient. In our work across various sectors and organisations, we’ve seen the power of a stand-out value (or even better, behaviour) that is a lightning rod internally for colleagues and externally for talent. We’ve seen ‘Wonderfully Weird’ win over colleagues and new hires for a tech business; we know how provocative “Don’t be evil” as a mantra was when it first surfaced at Google; “Bring your A-game” has become a stand-out value for one financial services firm; and a tech firm had ‘Work with not for’ which was often quoted in meetings.

Essentially what we are saying is that not all values are born equal – and that’s not such a bad thing. Whatever you do, make them memorable and make them actionable.

What’s in a name?

The merger of Ashurst and Perkins Coie has raised the naming structure once again for law firms. The new entity will be called ‘Ashurst Perkins Coie’ – and commentators are saying that essentially in the US, it will still be known as Perkins and in UK, it will be referred to as Ashurst. Possibly.

Although how many of you knew that the Coie in Perkins Coie is pronounced ‘koo-ee’ rather than ‘koi’?