The Brand - Thinking Conventionally Is Downright Reckless

Branding, like most everything else in BigLaw and all of business, is in-play. 

Proven masters of the branding game such as Cravath, Swaine & Moore presiding partner Evan R. Chesler know that.  In the January 12, 2009 edition of FORBES, Chesler published his opinion-editorial "Kill the Billable Hour: Lawyers should bill the way Joe the Contractor does." So much for the supposed correlation between top-of-the-industry fee levels and prestige branding.

Monday, THE AMERICAN LAWYER comes out with an  article  saluting the top litigation boutiques.  Its choice for Litigation Boutique of the Year is Bartlit Beck. That firm refuses to charge by the hour.  Yet, it is offered the plum assignments.  Bartlit Beck partner Don Scott is so iconic for his trial work in lead paint public nuisance that other attorneys travel to observe him in court.  When I was live-blogging the landmark Rhode Island version of that litigation, prominent lawyers, both defense and plaintiff, contacted me for info on when Scott would be doing a cross examination.

Recently that establishment pillar the American Management Association contracted with public affairs leader Bob Dilenschneider to publish a handbook on how the Internet is changing everything in business. 

During an exclusive interview with Dilenschneider on this book, due out in March, he noted that digital technology has taken the brand out of the once total control companies had or assumed they had over it. Now consumers, clients, enthusiasts, government, guerrilla forces, and much more co-create that brand identity 24/7.  No newsflash, the future of premium magazine brand VOGUE and its enduring brand representative Ann Wintour is uncertain.  Too many of those co-creating the VOGUE identity view it as "stale and predictable."

Therefore, I find it baffling that some are still struggling with branding issues within conventional frameworks.  For instance, in the Law Department Management Blog, Rees Morrison argues that discounting in elite branding can only be done indirectly.  Otherwise, the brand identity could take a hit. Even more puzzling, at least to me, Morrison cites two sources to reinforce his contention.

To me in these not-ordinary times when branding is in-play, organizations, be they law firms or multinational corporations, would be wise to listen to constituencies outside the organization, particularly to the voices on the web. And then proceed just-in-time, from there. This is or soon enough will be the situation, observes Dilenschneider, wherever the enterprise is: Manhattan, London, Singapore, Moscow, Istanbul, Calcutta, or Beijing.