Practical Law

The brainchild of two former Slaughter and May lawyers, Practical Law is an online legal know how service. It provides rigorous peer reviewed resources, such as practice notes, current awareness and standard documents to help lawyers work smarter and advise with confidence.

It started as a magazine publisher of information and insights produced by lawyers for lawyers. Somewhere along the line, it rebranded and operated as PLC – which is how it was known when we were briefed to review the positioning and identity, ahead of a campaign to promote the service against growing competition.

We interviewed lawyers and other users of the service and looked deeply into the competition. Although many didn’t know what PLC was or what it could do for them, we also found that changing the brand was not a popular strategy with everyone, especially the founder who had advocated PLC. However, with the objective of growing the business through signing new clients, business developers found that the three letter acronym was not a good start to sales introductions.

As is often the case, the answer was there in the very thing we were questioning. The service provides guidance for practicing lawyers, written by lawyers. We deconstructed the acronym, renamed the business Practical Law and in that instant, reinforced the positioning and opened up a route of naming the propositions they took to market. It was also a successful outcome for the founders. They sold the company to a major, global information business, who continue to operate that part of their business as Practical Law.