On July 1, two top-tier law firms, Hogan Lovells, and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft officially combined over 3,200 lawyers and 400 years of combined legacy, marking the largest law firm merger in history.

Between the firm-wide announcement of intent to merge, and day one of Hogan Lovells Cadwalader left six months for Jim Ivey, Global Head of Corporate Communications, and Jennifer Brooks, Global Head of Marketing Communications to launch a new global brand, connecting thousands of professionals across practices and 30+ offices. As the host firm for the LMA Mid-Atlantic conference, Jim and Jennifer shared the seven key strategic decisions they focused on, and what other legal marketing, business development, and communications professionals could learn from their experience. They were upfront that this was not a playbook for all to follow, since each merger's leadership and market is unique.

1. Where do you start?

Jennifer opened with a show of hands: brand, senior stakeholders, digital or internal alignment? The room split across all four. Jim's answer was "all of the above." With a six-month runway, there was no option to pick one lane and finish it before moving to the next.

2. Prepare in uncertainty, or wait for certainty?

Most marketing and communications teams are used to getting stakeholder buy-in before committing to a direction. Jim explained that the timeline did not allow that in every case, so the team had to wait for certainty on some things while preparing in advance on others.

The brand could not wait for the April vote. The answer was sequencing: identifying which decisions had long lead times, starting on them early, and being explicit about what was still subject to change. The messaging was a work in progress, tested and refined as it went, rather than held back until everything was approved. The lesson Jim drew was to be explicit about the decisions you need to unlock downstream work.

3. Preserve familiarity, or signal something new?

On brand, the instinct was clear: new day, new firm. But Jennifer said they quickly learned that with that much legacy, clients and people needed to see two legacy brands reflected in the new one for it to feel credible.

The logo is where that balance is most noticeable. The all-capital letters are a nod to Cadwalader, whose legacy brand used them. The overlapping "W" signals heritage, the kind of letterform you can picture chiseled in stone. The typeface is a hybrid, neither serif nor sans serif, which reads as modern. The lime green square remained as Hogan Lovells' most recognizable brand asset, to add some brightness to a classic look.

The brand promise came out of a partner-led advisory committee. Conversations about heritage mattered, but the differentiators emerged when people talked about the future: shared ambition and a distinctive approach to client service. That became "the decisive edge," the competitive edge clients need in highly regulated markets. Making the brand usable meant more than handing out guidelines. The team ran seminars, brand and messaging workshops, internal videos and a roadshow so partners understood not just the elements but the thinking behind them.

4. Lead with scale, or lead with difference?

Post merger, the firm was around $4 billion in revenue and more than 3,000 lawyers. However, size alone does not explain the value. The lasting story had to be about clients: complementary strengths across finance, corporate, regulatory and disputes, and greater depth in key markets, especially the New York to London corridor. Scale earns attention, client value sustains the story.

5. Dictate the narrative, or crowdsource it?

Before the vote, the firm needed to win hearts and minds across the partnership. The question was how tightly leadership should own the story and how much to let partners shape it. They did both. Fifteen roadshows around the world brought leaders from both firms to each market with messaging tailored to its practices and sectors. Then they made it a two-way conversation, listening to where partners pushed back and what they added, from life sciences strengths to specific regional capabilities. That feedback made its way back into the story, and it let people at every level own it.

6. Perfect integration, or day one readiness?

With six months, there was no way for them to plan every integration perfectly. Jennifer noted that firms with 12 to 18 months should absolutely have that conversation, but they had to focus on the essentials. Their test for what counted: what do our people touch, send, receive and experience, actively and passively?

That meant the website, which drew 30,000 visitors on day one (the highest traffic day in the firm's history), with a new homepage, bios, careers section and case studies from both legacy firms side by side. It also meant the internal experience from day 1: building signage, a branded water bottle and notebook on every desk with a welcome card, new login screens and video backgrounds, even new mugs in the kitchen. Likewise, graphic templates and communications from the CEO down to team managers needed to be mirrored externally for clients.

7. Big bang, or pragmatism?

The final decision was how to mark the moment itself. Jennifer framed it not as a binary choice but as a spectrum between belief and behavior. On the belief side, the numbers showed people wanted to be part of it. On day one, the firm had 311,000 LinkedIn followers, was tagged in about 1,000 thousand social posts, and its launch video drew 45,000 clicks. On the behavior side, a microsite gave lawyers merger talking points for clients, more than 500 rebranded marketing materials and a relationship database to find the right colleague for a new opportunity. About 3,000 lawyers used it in the first week. 

Jim closed by asking the room which of these decisions would be hardest for their own organizations. For Hogan Lovells Cadwalader, the answer was never one side or the other, it was deciding where to put the emphasis. His closing point is one every legal marketer should keep handy: brand and communications do not sit downstream of strategy. Used well, they help people understand where the firm is going, own it, and turn two organizations into one.