Brooks Brothers Ad or Law Firm Website
by Kristine Lloyd
Thankfully, at most larger firms, the days when you’d see the managing partner in a Brooks Brothers navy suit (down South it’s seersucker) in a scholarly stance by some Fed 3ds, or a group of culturally diverse associates (also dressed compliments of Brooks Brothers) poring over a brief at a conference room table, are long gone. In fact, these days it’s just downright passé at the larger firms.
Back in the day, firm websites were meant to convey a reliability and an understanding of what kind of services you could expect from them. But nowadays, firms are desperate to break out of the mold, to stand apart from their competition and test the waters of creativity. Firm websites are using words like “creative,” “innovative” and “forward thinking,” and putting images like barley (for tilling the riches of the earth?), colored pencils (for drawing outside the lines?) and mountains being scaled (say no more), meant to convey exploration, vision and coloring.
Of course, a firm’s creativity may not always be well-translated in their web design. Take the Morrison & Foerster website that looks like it was designed by an 8th grader for his glaucoma-afflicted grandmother. And you know they paid top dollar. The Lawyerist recently published a list of the top 5 websites, and Axiom, at the top of the list, is a firm I’ll bet you’ve never heard of, with a name that doesn’t sound lawyerly, but is now a firm that everybody is talking about. Their website has a cool, architectural feel to it, with pictures of lawyers actually enjoying their free time. Which could be cheesy, but not when compared to the paper doll cut outs on the Van Winkle law firm website. Check out Armistead “Army” Long and what he likes to in his spare time. Now that is a site in desparate need of a makeover.
Themocracy
Fun article! I’ve always liked Bingham’s flying elephant. As far as Axiom goes, I think I’d take my chances with Anusha instead–that Army is a little intimidating!
The MoFo site is something else….
The MoFo site reminds me of an American Apparel ad! I half expect to scroll down and see a lovely young woman in a spandex unitard.
Good call, Robyn! Maybe they hired the same ad firm.
I actually love looking at ads and trying to figure out what is really selling. Selling a law firm or legal services via the ‘net is challenging at best. Thanks for sharing.
Can’t imagine selling legal services to a libreral audience using images of attorneys in their hunting “costumes”.