When you’re starting up a firm, there are a thousand decisions you have to make. What sort of firm structure will you use, what practice area will you focus on, and how will you market your new business? But one of the most important decisions you’ll make is what you’ll name your firm.
Choosing a law firm name can be an intimidating prospect. Below, we walk you through each step of the process, as well as what factors you should consider when choosing a name.
How Do I Name My Law Firm?
There are several steps you should take when choosing a name for your law firm.
Brainstorm
The first step in deciding on a law firm name is to brainstorm potential names.
During this stage, don’t make anything off limits. Consider both trade and traditional names, and don’t be afraid to put ridiculous or obviously bad firm names on the table. Giving yourself that freedom can help you come up with some of the best potential names.
We’ll talk more in a bit about different components you may want to include in your name, but briefly, you may want to consider family names, your practice area, your company values, and so on.
Once you’ve got a long list of options, comb back through them with a more critical eye. Make a short list of your favorite potential names, but save the longer list in case you need to do more brainstorming later.
Get Outside Opinions
With your short list of potential firm names in hand, it’s a good idea to go get some outside opinions. After all, you need to make sure your name will connect with a wide variety of people.
Pick a few people whose opinion you trust; you may select your partner, any mentors you have, or even competitors you’re on friendly terms with. Send them your short list of names and ask which is their favorite.
Be careful when you’re selecting the people you ask for their opinions on this. A few good opinions can help you make the best decision; dozens of mediocre opinions can just make the process more confusing.
Check Availability
As we’ll discuss more in a moment, it’s very important to check that there are no existing trademarks that use your potential firm name.
Of course, you’ll need to check that you don’t have any competitors by the same name. But depending on the nature of the name you’ve picked, you may also need to look for businesses in other industries that have the same name. You wouldn’t want to end up with the same name as a plumber in your area purely by coincidence.
Potential Name Components
Once you decide whether you’ll use a traditional name or a trade name, it will be time to start brainstorming names. There are several places you can look for name ideas.
Family Names
Of course, if you decide to use a traditional name, you won’t have so much a brainstorming process as a decision to make.
If you have more than one partner in the firm, will you use everyone’s name, and if so, will you continue adding partner names as your firm grows? If not, how will you decide who makes the letterhead and who doesn’t?
You may also want to give some brief consideration to any unintentional meanings your names might hold. After all, if Jane Bigg and John Butts go into practice together, they may both be fantastic lawyers, but a simple traditional name may not be the route they want to go.
Practice Area
You may also want to consider adding your practice area to your firm name, whether you’re using a traditional name or a trade name.
Including “Personal Injury Lawyers”, “Family Lawyers”, “Criminal Defense Lawyers”, and so on can help the right class of clients find their way to you. This naming convention can also be great for your SEO, since leads searching for your particular practice area may be more likely to find your name.
Geographical Location
In some cases, including your geographical location in your firm name can be helpful. Clients may search terms like “Tampa personal injury lawyer”, and having that term in your name can help you rank.
The biggest thing you have to worry about with this kind of name is making sure no one else has taken it or that you have other unique elements to set your law firm’s brand apart from your competitors.
Company Values
Your brand name can also be a great way to start to introduce some of the values your company holds. Are you compassionate and caring, tough and tireless, or thorough and detailed?
If you’re planning to use a trade name, brainstorm three to five adjectives that best capture the essence of your firm. Play with trade names that convey those values and can act as a strong introduction to your brand.
Types of Law Firm Names
There are two classes of names you can choose for your law firm: traditional names and trade names.
Traditional Names
Traditionally, law firms have been named after founders or partners in the business. We’ve all seen a thousand of these names – “Smith and Associates”, “Williams, Williams, and Blake”, and so on.
As the firm grows and more partners get added, their names may get added to the end of the existing firm name. Or the firm may choose to keep only its founders names on the letterhead, no matter how many partners get added.
Pros of Traditional Names
The legal field is a traditional one, and to a certain degree, clients want their lawyers to be traditional. They look for well-established, expert, reliable lawyers who they can trust with some of the most high-stakes situations they will ever face.
These names are also easy to come up with and come with a ready-made representative of the company. No need to come up with a mascot or cutesy logo – the lawyer whose name is on the letterhead will be the literal face of the company.
Cons of Traditional Names
One of the biggest cons of traditional law firm names is that they can quickly get out of hand. It can be hard to decide which partners deserve to be part of the letterhead and which don’t, which is how we end up with law firm names like “Ziffren, Brittenham, Branca, Fischer, Gilbert-Lurie, Stiffelman, Cook, Johnson, Lande & Wolf”.
These names also tend to be easy to forget. Because they’re so common and because they don’t communicate anything about the firm, these names may not stick in clients’ minds as well as strong trade names do.
Traditional names also require one or more of the named partners to dedicate a significant portion of their time and energy to being the face of the company. If they aren’t willing to do the work of networking, taking marketing photos, and so on, it can be hard to establish a solid identity for the firm.
Trade Names
Trade names are a separate brand for your firm that aren’t connected with your or your partners’ names. These are closer to traditional brand names you see in most other businesses and should be chosen using the same kinds of criteria.
Pros of Trade Names
One of the biggest pros of a trade name is that it helps to set your law firm apart.
So many law firms have names in the format “Name and Name, PLLC” that they tend to all run together in clients’ minds. A good trade name can be much more memorable.
A trade name can also help to convey some of the values or selling points of your firm. Think about brands like “Whole Foods” and “Thrive Causmetics”. Just by looking at their names, you can get a sense of both what they sell and what makes them stand out from their competitors.
Trade names also give you a degree of separation from the identity of your firm. As your business grows, you can add other partners without worrying about rebranding. And as you progress in your career and your life, you can adjust your role to meet your current needs without the reputation of your business suffering.
Cons of Trade Names
Of course, the trick to gaining all these wonderful benefits is picking a good brand name. And as we’ve seen so often in infamous business failures, there are lots of ways that can go wrong.
A bad trade name may damage your reputation with clients and even make you seem less trustworthy. If you choose to use a trade name, you should avoid anything cutesy, punny, or otherwise silly.
It can also be trickier to find a good trade name that someone else hasn’t already taken. Finding a website domain name can be particularly tricky, since your competition for that is every single other website on the internet.
And, by a double-edged sword, that separation from your brand that we just mentioned as a pro of trade names can be a downside as well. People like to hire people, and a trade name can make it more challenging to get leads to connect with your brand.
Factors to Consider for Your Law Firm Name
There are several factors you’ll need to consider as you start narrowing down your list of potential law firm names.
Regulations
First and foremost, you’ll need to make sure your firm name meets all requirements for law firm names in your region.
The ABA requires all law firms to have clear names that don’t mislead potential clients about their services. You also can’t have a name that could be readily confused with a government agency or partnership.
Some states also bar law firms from using trade names. Before you put in all the effort of coming up with a fantastic trade name, make sure they’re permitted in your state.
Scalability
Any time you’re making foundational decisions about your business, you need to keep an eye on the future.
What will you do if you get a ton of successful cases, hire in dozens of other lawyers, and name six or seven more partners? Will you limit who appears on the letterhead, or will you want to rebrand?
If you think you’ll want to rebrand at that point, why not go ahead and use that brand now?
If you do plan to limit who appears on the letterhead, deciding how you’ll determine who gets that honor now can make your growth easier down the road. You can let incoming partners know that they won’t make the letterhead, even if they have an ownership share, so they aren’t blindsided by that revelation once they’re already a partner.
Target Audience
As you’re brainstorming names for your law firm, it’s a good idea to keep your target audience in mind.
What sort of values does your target audience look for in a lawyer? What catches their attention, instills trust in them, and makes them willing to hire you to handle their case?
One of the advantages of traditional names is that they’re, well, traditional. That structure is familiar to potential clients and may make them feel like you’re a reliable expert who’s well-established in your field.
On the other hand, if your target customer wants someone willing to break with tradition and be creative in pursuing justice in their case, a traditional name can work against you. This audience may respond better to a good, catchy brand name.
Existing Trademarks
Of course, before you settle too hard on a law firm name (especially a trade name), you need to make sure that there aren’t existing trademarks under that name.
Your last name may be Morgan, and you may be going into business with your sibling (also named Morgan), but you certainly can’t name your law firm “Morgan & Morgan”. Likewise, if your name is McDonald, you may not be able to use your last name alone as your firm name.
Once you get a shortlist of potential names, run a search for them. If the name shows up on a quick search for you, you can be sure it will for your potential clients as well.
If you plan to trademark your new brand name, you may need to run a more thorough search as well.
Brand Clarity
As we’ve mentioned, the ABA has strict requirements for lawyers when it comes to brand clarity. You absolutely cannot mislead your potential clients or make it seem like you offer services other than what you do.
And regulations aside, it’s best to pick a firm name that makes it clear who you are and what you do. This will make it easier to market your brand and to make it in front of the potential clients who need your services.
You also want to be careful about adding words like “Group” or “and Associates” to your name, particularly if you’re a solo practitioner or a partnership of two attorneys. These terms can make your firm seem larger than it is, which may be against regulations.
Memorability
One of the most important things you need to consider when picking your brand name is its memorability.
You want your name to stick in clients’ minds so that when they find themselves in need of representation, they think of you. This is part of the reason you don’t want to add every single partner to the letterhead; you need your name to be something clients could easily google from memory.
Brevity goes a long way toward making your brand memorable, but it’s not the only consideration. You should also consider a brand name that’s snappy or catchy – something that will stick in clients’ minds.
Marketability
And finally, you have to consider the marketability of your brand. This is a particular factor if you’re looking at a trade name.
Does your potential brand name suggest any particular marketing imagery or schemes? Will it work well on a billboard, a website header, and a bus ad?
You may want to work with a brand consultant or graphic designer to mock up some marketing with your proposed brand name before you settle on it for good.
Importance of Your Law Firm Brand
Before you dive into picking a name for your law firm, it’s a good idea to have a good view of the role your branding will play in your firm’s success.
Your brand will become your firm’s public identity and can have a huge impact on how potential clients view you. A good firm name can lay the groundwork to convince a lead that you have what it takes to get justice in their case.
In addition, a brand creates an identity for your firm that’s separate from your personal identity. This can make you seem more legitimate and trustworthy to potential clients.
It also makes clients more willing to work with different people in the firm, as they don’t necessarily have the idea that there’s one person who really knows what’s going on.
Your brand will also play a huge role in your search engine optimization strategy. For instance, if you choose to name your firm “Johnson and Johnson” you’re going to have to fight an uphill battle to get your name to the top of the search engine results.
Put Your Brand to Work
Your law firm name is the public face of your business, and it’s important to choose one that will serve your firm well now and in the future. You may choose to use a traditional law firm name or a more contemporary trade name. Start with a brainstorming session, and then narrow down based on your local regulations, scalability, and memorability.
If you’d like to put your new brand name to work, LawRank is here to help. We offer legal marketing that works, including SEO, PPC, web design, and more. Contact us today and start getting honesty, transparency, and results from your law firm.
