We wanted to differentiate between trial experience and litigation. Shook, Hardy has tried to develop its campaigns around messages it perceives clients want to hear, says Dale Chaffin, the firm's chief operating officer. So the firm has avoided hyperbole claiming it is the biggest and the best in favor of addressing clients' concerns over increasing work and rising fees. The hope is that the advertising will make members of the business community more receptive to the firm when its attorneys present their credentials. But the name recognition fostered by advertising might be helpful.
Some firms advertise with more specific goals than increased name recognition.
Cozen and O'Connor decided to advertise after partners became frustrated that word of the firm's recent expansion efforts was not reaching the business community. So far, the feedback from clients and prospective clients has been positive, says partner Joseph A. Gerber, who chairs the firm's client relations and business development committee. According to the ABA's Hornsby, the jury is still out on the future popularity of large-firm advertising. For one, there remains an institutional suspicion of the medium. Most lawyers were taught that advertising is an unethical thing to do.