Chicago-founded Katten Muchin Rosenman unveiled a major rebranding effort this week, embracing a shortened moniker, recasting a key practice area, and rolling out a redesigned website.

Already referred to by many in the industry as "Katten," the firm has leaned into the abbreviated name and will now operate under the domain "Katten.com." It will still be legally known as Katten Muchin Rosenman.

"The brand refresh was a perfect opportunity to make Katten our official market name," Roger Furey, chairman of Katten, said in an email. "It is a nod to our proud history and at the same time more practical and straightforward, much like the business-minded counsel we provide, leading our clients to commercially viable solutions."

Other elements of the rebrand, according to a firm press release, include "updated attorney bios and practice descriptions and a redesigned, more mobile-friendly website."

The rebrand is part of a three-year strategic plan the firm's partnership approved in early April of this year. 

Along with the usual website and logo changes inherent to a legal rebrand, the firm also took the extra step of renaming one of its premiere practice areas, the financial services practice, which will now be known as its "financial markets and funds" practice.

Practice head Lance Zinman said the renaming was something that he had been thinking about for some time.

"It was a good name," Zinman said. "But my thought was, let's have a name that is more about precisely what we do," he said. He said the change does not reflect any change in the practice area focus but was tied to the overall firm rebrand.

"Just straight up being more direct in naming what we actually do," he said.

In general, Zinman said the practice group was having a good year, but that unstable markets can make things difficult.

"Our success is tied closely to our client's success," he said. "In this environment, some of our clients are doing well and some aren't. But overall, we are having a good year."

Although one of the largest firms to rebrand itself recently, Katten is hardly the only one. In June, Buffalo-based Goldberg Segalla, with over 400 attorneys across 20 offices, sprung a revamped image on its partnership. In the last year, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy jettisoned all but "Milbank" from its name; Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo became "Mintz"; and Bartlit Beck Herman Palenchar & Scott formally changed its name to Bartlit Beck.

Smaller, Richmond, Virginia-based Hirschler Fleischer joined the rebranding parade back in October 2018, marketing itself as simply "Hirschler." The firm, like many of the others that rebranded recently, kept its former title as its legal name.

Almost a year into the new iteration, Hirschler CMO Kristen Chatterton said that responses have been positive both internally and from outside the firm.

"Client feedback has been outstanding," Chatterton said. "We have been seeing seeing more leads through the website than we ever have. Referral sources are up, and internally it was a big boost."

She cited internal events and some little things that seem to have gone a long way as factors in the rebranding's success.

A "spirit day" (a rally themed in purple for the firm's color change and featuring an array of music by Prince), new, professionally done photos of attorneys, and renewed focus on the firm's core practice strengths made a significant positive impact on firm moral, she said.

Chatterton said the rebrand was driven by the firm's desire to make it's national client base aware that it is not a "sleepy Virginia firm."

She said the firm used to be known mostly for Virginia real estate, but it has evolved to have practices in litigation and business that rival its real estate group, and giving those practice areas more weight was a goal of the rebranding effort.

"When we are pitching national clients," she said, "we feel like we can go toe to toe with national competitors."

|

Read More

Milbank, 'Not a Wall Street Firm Anymore,' Takes New Name