At the Law Firm Marketing Summit, Nadine Gibbons (Director Of Business Development & Marketing at Forsters) and Rebecca Price (Co-Founder of Frank, Bright & Abel) delivered a masterclass in modern brand building and why, in an AI-saturated moment, people remain the decisive differentiator.

Nadine set out the challenge. Forsters began life in 1998 as a Mayfair real-estate boutique. Fast-forward: the firm is now ~70% full service and ranks among the UK’s top 100 firms but its visual identity and brand proposition hadn’t moved since the 1990s.  When Nadine joined, there was no codified proposition, no unified story, and an increasingly competitive market hungry for clear differentiation. The brief was deceptively simple: build a brand that works for clients and lawyers alike.

Rebecca then took over to talk through how Frank, Bright & Abel delivered the project.  Start with people not pixels. Price framed the central question: in a world obsessed with tech and AI, what about your people? Top clients still buy judgment, experience, and partnership. Technology reassures, but humans engage. That insight shaped the entire project: brand and employer brand (Employer Value Proposition) designed together, not as separate tracks run by different departments. Rebecca urged the audience to think of them as two sides of the same coin:

• Brand = the experience and outcomes you deliver to clients.

• Employer brand = the experience and career you offer your people. Alignment here isn’t cosmetic, it’s how a firm’s promise is kept consistently across every touchpoint.

Find real differentiation (don’t invent it). The team went deep: client and recruiter interviews; one-to-ones and focus groups across the firm; a firmwide survey; competitor and language audits; and reviews of strategy and communications. Two governance features were pivotal, 

1) a steering group empowered to decide, and 

2) a consultation panel representing diverse voices to pressure-test ideas early. 

The aim wasn’t slogan-hunting; it was to surface the authentic “diamond” already in the firm’s hand.

The outcome: “Closer connections. Exceptional results.”

Closer speaks to colleague-to-colleague collaboration and proximity to what matters for clients.

Exceptional doubles down on client experience and employee experience. Narratives and proof points were built at practice level; EVP was tailored for partners, associates, trainees, and business services. Values followed (memorably, “We take happiness seriously.”) and a distinctive design system translated the idea visually: geometric forms that connect in multiple ways, plus imagery that signals excellence (think hummingbirds over sparrows).

Rebecca used the phrase- Launch and embed. A year on from launch, Forsters has focused on qualitative adoption: offsite briefings, cascading the proposition into performance and partner reviews, and aligning everyday behaviours to the promise. Measurement matters, but brand metrics aren’t a media dashboard. Look for consistency, coherence, and lift across hiring, retention, client feedback, traffic and engagement — and, above all, whether teams use the language to make better decisions.

Five takeaways for firms looking to go on a rebrand now:

• Design brand + EVP together to avoid a split personality.

• Do the hard listening  (clients, partners, business services).

• Govern for speed and trust: clear decision-makers; a representative test panel.

• Prove it in operations: map journeys (onboarding to billing) and fix pain points.

• Embed before you advertise: put the promise into reviews, hiring, training, and BD.

• In an era where automation eats the routine, human becomes the premium tier. Build your brand accordingly.