In today’s law firm market, perception is never standing still.
Whether you invest in it or not, whether you define it or leave it undefined, your organisation already has a brand. It has a reputation. It has a culture. The only real choice is whether you shape those forces intentionally or allow someone else to shape them for you.
We tend to talk about brand, reputation and culture as separate ideas, often owned by different functions. But clients, recruits and the broader market are experiencing them all together as one continuous signal. Every interaction (an RFP response, a conference/event, a deal closing, a news mention, a lateral hire, a website visit) adds to the narrative.
So what’s the difference?
- Brand is what you say about yourself. It is your articulation of ambition, capability and purpose. It is the story you tell about where you play and how you win.
- Reputation is what others feel about you. It is shaped by experience, reinforced through feedback and validated (or challenged) in moments that matter – client conversations, referrals and independent assessments like Chambers.
- Culture is what your people do. It is how decisions are made, how teams collaborate, how leaders show up and how consistently their values are lived.
The risk of standing still
The risk comes when firms treat these elements as optional or disconnected.
Because even in the absence of intentional effort, the market is still forming an opinion. Clients are still comparing experiences. Talent is still making judgements to join. Competitors are still telling their own stories about differentiation.
Ignoring brand, reputation or culture does not make any of them disappear. It simply means you are not in control of them. That’s a strategic vulnerability.
The more effective approach is to recognise that these elements reinforce one another and to manage them with the same rigour applied to any core business function.
Listen before you speak
An important starting point is clarity.
A strong brand is not about clever language or visual identity alone. It answers fundamental questions allowing you to focus: What problems do we solve? For whom? Why are we uniquely positioned to do so? And why should anyone believe us?
Our recently revealed Powering Progress campaign was built on that premise. It was not just a tagline. It was a framework for aligning what we do with what our clients are trying to achieve. It connected our work across industries to a broader narrative about transformation, innovation and forward momentum. Most importantly, it provided a consistent, shared language that could be applied across media, digital platforms, client conversations and practice groups.
But clarity without validation is fragile. That is where reputation comes in.
The most reliable insights into reputation rarely come from a single source. They come from patterns. What are clients saying in feedback interviews? What language appears in emails after a matter concludes? How do referral sources describe your strengths? What themes emerge in submissions and interviews for rankings? How are you appearing in media stories and more recently, generative AI search results?
Too often, organisations treat these inputs as episodic and something to only review once a year or when preparing award submissions. The better approach is continuous listening. Capture the signals. Compare them over time. Look for consistency (or lack of it). And then act.
If your brand says one thing and your reputation says another, the market will believe your reputation every time.
Culture as the multiplier
What determines whether brand and reputation are aligned?
It is easy to underestimate culture because it is harder to measure. But it is often the most predictive indicator of long-term performance. A strong culture creates alignment. It ensures that people understand expectations and have the support to meet them. It drives consistency in how clients are served and how colleagues collaborate.
I’ve written before about the importance of culture as a strategic asset, not just an internal priority. Culture shapes experience, and experience shapes reputation.
It also shapes resilience. In periods of change or pressure, culture determines whether an organisation fragments or pulls together.
The same principle applies to content and communication around a brand.
In a crowded market, volume is not differentiation. Value is. A steady cadence of thoughtful, relevant insights (grounded in what clients care about) builds credibility over time. That requires discipline: staying close to the issues shaping your clients’ businesses, reading broadly, engaging with the market and continuously evaluating what resonates.
The organisations that stand out are not necessarily the loudest. They are the most consistent.
They understand that every piece of content, every media interaction and every digital touchpoint reinforces – or undermines – their broader narrative. They measure what works. They adjust what doesn’t. And they remain anchored in a clear point of view.
Three ways to move forward
So what can leaders do?
First, start. It doesn’t matter whether your organisation is early in its journey or decades into it. The market already has a perception of you. The only risk is waiting too long to engage with it.
Second, move with intention, not speed. The pressure to launch quickly to refresh a brand, push out content or respond to competitors can be intense. But rushed work is often misaligned work. And misalignment is expensive to fix. Taking the time to get it right – to listen, to test, to refine – pays dividends over the long term.
Third, put culture first. You can recalibrate messaging. You can refine positioning. You can rebuild elements of your reputation. But culture is the foundation that makes all of it sustainable. When your people are aligned, supported and clear on what matters, they will always be your most credible ambassadors. They deliver the experience that turns a brand promise into a lived reality.
The market will form an opinion about your organisation whether you participate in shaping it or not. The opportunity is to build that perception with intention, consistency and a culture strong enough to sustain it over time.
The question is not whether you are listening. It is whether you are shaping that perception with purpose or leaving it to chance.
Allan Schoenberg is the chief communications officer at Vinson & Elkins.
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