Gail Koff, who began her legal career at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and went on to cofound personal injury powerhouse Jacoby & Meyers, died late Tuesday from complications during treatment for leukemia, according to an obituary appearing in Thursday’s Wall Street Journal.

Koff was an early pioneer in law firm advertising, the WSJ reports. Jacoby & Meyers, which was founded 38 years ago in Van Nuys, Calif., by name partners Leonard Jacoby and Stephen Meyers, sought to bring low-cost legal services to middle-class customers.

The WSJ reports that at its peak the firm had more than 150 offices throughout the country. But competitors gradually eroded Jacoby’s market share in the 1990s as offices closed and the partnership began fighting over finances.

Koff left Skadden and joined the firm in its early days after meeting Meyers at a law conference in New Orleans, according to The WSJ. Just as Jacoby & Meyers started to grow nationally, Koff became the firm’s third partner, opening and managing 14 offices in the New York metro area.

“She said she thought she had been on the wrong side of the table, defending corporations,” recalled Jacoby to the WSJ. “She was energetic and charismatic. Meyers always said she was unflappable.”

Koff’s name never made it onto the Jacoby & Meyers shingle–Jacoby told The WSJ everyone agreed it “wouldn’t be right to change the brand”–but she was a prominent face of the firm, which was famous for its television ads. (Click here, here, and here for some classic Jacoby & Meyers commercials, and see below for an ad featuring Koff herself.)

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