Formerly a generalist commercial practice based on the Gold Coast, the firm expanded into Brisbane, which is now its primary office. It also made a concerted effort to significantly narrow its focus and the firm now specialises predominantly in corporate and community title work. Reflecting this change of direction, the firm’s new vision is to “be the best specialist firm law firm in Queensland”.

“We had a choice a number of years ago because we’re competing against the national practices,” the firm’s managing partner Robert Hynes said. “If we were going to compete with the same value proposition we really needed to grow to become a firm of 300 to 400 staff in the Brisbane market.

“That’s the size you’d need to be a full service firm — or you’d have to completely differentiate yourself, and you’d have to make it very clear to everyone — staff and clients — that you’re not one of those firms.”

A decision was made to take the latter approach and the firm reinvented itself as a specialist firm, referring on work that falls outside its areas of focus.

In an effort to better reflect its new market positioning, the firm’s logo has been completely revamped. The bright colours and capital lettering of the old logo have been replaced with black, lower case, linked lettering.

“It was really time to shed the old image and get a new image which was a lot more consistent with what the firm has become,” Hynes said. “We tried to become a little more sophisticated and a little more understated with what we do.”

Hynes explained that the firm engaged external consultants for the project, and spent a lot of time trying to crystallise the key message it wanted to convey to clients. “It was really [that we’re] an organisation which is approachable and very down to earth.

“We’re not elitist, we’re easy to deal with and we want to create a relaxed, comfortable feel for people,” he said. “So whether they’re clients or coming on board as staff, they feel welcome and at home.”

The rebranding coincided with the renovations being undertaken on the firm’s Brisbane office, providing an opportunity to incorporate elements of the new brand into the office space. The gold coast office has also now been retrofitted to reflect the new image.

Hynes estimates that the process — from the initial decision to rebrand to the official launch to staff — took about a year. Hynes described it as a “massive undertaking” which involved, among other things, revamping all marketing and relaunching the website.

Though the new image has not yet been officially launched to clients, Hynes said that the informal feedback has so far been positive. “The general response has been that it’s far more sophisticated,” he said.

“A number of people have also said that it’s very unlike a legal practice, so I was very happy with that. That was what we were looking for — a differentiation strategy.”