Keeping it real

A recruitment campaign based around the use of bold colours and graphics and fuelled by feedback from law students, at international firm Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP. By Claudia Freeman.

As one of the oldest law firms in the US, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP has a long history both on Wall Street and in world financial and business centres. We have increased the breadth and depth of our services, successfully forging into new practice areas and further strengthening those in which we are already established. We have also expanded our geographic reach and currently have offices in Washington and Charlotte in the US; and overseas in London and Beijing.

During 2004 we implemented an ambitious branding campaign to ensure that all of our communications materials accurately reflect our constantly growing firm.

First, we called on attorneys and staff from each office to identify business objectives and marketing goals and to participate in consensus-building exercises. Based on the findings, a programme was created to define Cadwalader’s position, values and offerings; educate personnel; inform clients and recruits; and, integrate offices and communications.

Programmes such as this are not without controversy, particularly when working to hone the image of a firm with so much tradition and history.

A fresh brand image
Cadwalader’s branded materials, which were historically quite conservative, were infused with a more bold and creative character, while maintaining the firm’s prestigious history and professionalism. ‘Colour wrapped in black and white’ formed the basis of the design system, with black and white exteriors enveloping vibrant interiors. In 2005, to further this ongoing branding and awareness initiative, the firm redesigned its attorney recruitment materials to better communicate our culture and values to potential employees.

‘The Real Deal’
As a global firm, Cadwalader seeks to attract and retain the ‘best’ new hires from top law schools around the world. A new recruiting campaign was designed to appeal to individuals who were, first and foremost, concerned with establishing their career and doing high-profile work. As a result of such ambition they would be willing to work hard to succeed. We sought to position and differentiate the firm to this group by communicating several key messages about the firm:

From day one, Cadwalader attorneys are given substantive client work, client contact and serious responsibility;
Cadwalader’s carefully designed training programme gives young attorneys the skills that they need to perform at a higher level;
Building a career at Cadwalader brings with it benefits – the rewards of partnership or valuable experience should they decide to go in another direction, irrespective of future plans.

Law student research
In the past decade, Cadwalader’s recruiting materials swung the pendulum from broad overviews of the firm, our offices and the summer intern programme, to more detailed discussions regarding every aspect of life at the firm. In an effort to determine the level of information and format that would be most attractive to today’s students, we formulated a research plan in collaboration with our associate development and recruitment department.

We gathered and analysed feedback of our existing recruiting materials, as well as those of our competitors, from focus groups of junior associates drawn from a range of law schools, departments and offices. We also tapped into several years’ worth of surveys completed by candidates who had received an offer from the firm. These surveys have long been used by our recruiting team to assess candidate perceptions, whether or not they accepted our offer of employment, on a host of matters.

The research was instrumental in our conclusion that law students are simply overwhelmed with information conveyed to them by firms through a wide variety of media. We found that the vast majority of candidates looked for information about us first from our website, then from independently published reports about law firms. They also used a National Association of Law Placement compilation of law-firm responses to a generic questionnaire. Brochures, articles, message boards, and word-of-mouth were far lower on the list of valued resources. The feedback also indicated that students preferred a sophisticated and in-depth picture of the firm, rather than nice quotes and images.

One of our main challenges was to capture their attention, pique their curiosity and draw them in to learn more about the firm.

As a result, we determined that we would produce high-quality pieces that would reflect the firm’s premium nature, focusing the campaign’s printed materials on the wider message. All other details regarding our programme would be uploaded and displayed on a recruiting micro-website.

The recruitment programme
The recruitment process, which begins in April each year and continues over a 12-month period, consists of programme mailshots, e-mail campaigns, an e-brochure and recruiting microsite, branded gifts (for example, t-shirts and notepads) and monthly communications.

The Real Deal concept was designed to highlight that a summer experience at Cadwalader is a genuine ‘real world’ reflection of a career at the firm. The high-profile nature of some of our work requires significant contributions from personnel at all levels of the firm. The brand concept, therefore, presents us as prestigious, impactful and strong. This metaphorical ‘largeness’ is manifested by the weighty material, bold photos and format.

To make the image piece stand out from the crowd, we used images and other materials boldly imprinted with the concept name and focused on themes that we thought would resonate with our audience:

Real Bold – learning to be your best, proving yourself;
Real Work – playing vital roles on noteworthy matters and working with industry leaders;
Real Pride – accomplishments brought about by sacrifice, persistence and challenges;
Real Time – seizing opportunities and striving for long-term excellence.

The online campaign
The Real Deal microsite and e-brochure are similar in look and feel to the print materials, but convey much more detailed information and testimonials about our practices, people and processes. They are separate to, but accessible from, the firm’s main website and content is geared towards law students. It is divided into four principal sections – each with a bold but playful landing page.

‘Real Work’ provides insight into everything a recruit needs to know about being an associate at the firm. This covers all areas from brief practice descriptions (which are less complex than those on the main website), to hiring practices, pro bono and diversity).

‘Real Choices’ offers tips for making career choices that match candidates’ interests and ambitions, choosing the right law firm and writing a resume.

‘Real Life’ is a launch point to view the Cadwalader e-brochure, where candidates can see and hear more about life at the firm and the responsibilities and challenges of junior associates at a financial-services law firm.

Finally, ‘Real Summer’ details specifics of the summer programme, including the schools we recruit trainees from, compensation, split summers and the offer process. Reinforcing the print piece, the central message conveyed by the microsite is that recruits are encouraged to choose Cadwalader for a real-world experience that can take them anywhere. The site also uses a black background with a simple backsplash of city lights, a graphic element that is non-intrusive and subdued, but creates a sense of energy and movement.

Real Deal e-brochure
An e-brochure enables recruits to see and hear first-hand, from six Cadwalader associates, what it is like to be a lawyer at the firm. Each profile focuses on an issue we determined was of particular importance to our candidates. One vignette explains an associate’s role in a complex securitisation/structured-finance transaction, while another discusses the responsibilities of a tax associate on a high-profile mergers and acquisitions deal. The others focus on cross-border collaboration between our US and UK offices, associate responsibility and client interaction, training and pro bono.

Finally, no campus visit would be complete without giveaways. In keeping with the overall concept, gifts of pencils and Post-It note pads were labelled ‘Real Sharp’ and ‘Real Smart’, respectively.

Cadwalader’s marketing team, in close collaboration with our designers, recruitment manager and hiring partner, has created a campaign that has received rave reviews from not only our legal marketing and recruiting peers, but from candidates, who have commented favourably on the look, feel, distribution methods and value of the information, which combine to give them a realistic view of the firm.

Claudia Freeman is director of marketing and communications at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP. She can be contacted at: claudia.freeman@cwt.com.