Reinforcing Lex Mundi’s legal brand with Equisphere.

Challenge

Lex Mundi had a very exciting concept to present to the market: A platform for legal services that would combine the strength of the world’s largest conglomeration of lawyers with the widest geographical coverage of any legal entity, for the benefit of any international client.

Presented as a single, bespoke entity with one point of contact, perfectly tailored to the client, and with complete transparency over budgets and workflows, it had the potential to be a game changer in the market for international legal services.

The ambition for the development of this platform was originally derived from the opportunity for new business expansion with the aim to make Lex Mundi synonymous with competitive, (tech-enabled) global solutions for cross-border work.

The challenge was predominately a saturated market with numerous firms and networks, multiple service propositions, countless technologies and processes on offer, and an expectation from clients that every organisation has a global client service platform.

Simplification and differentiation were crucial objectives to be met, while also creating a brand that complemented Lex Mundi’s current presentation. Visual representation of the platform’s speed, efficiency, versatility in application and ease of use were key.

“A combination of fantastic creativity and commerciality through the development of the Equisphere brand.”

David Sanders, Strategy and Marketing at Lex Mundi.

Action

In a crowded marketplace, the use of the generic term ‘Global Client Service Platform’ for Lex Mundi’s new solution was far from ideal. The proposition needed its own brand and identity.

The resulting sub-brand, Equisphere, simplified the relationship with the Lex Mundi masterbrand and focused on driving equity up to Lex Mundi.

We conducted workshops and collated stakeholder insights. Our recommendations included positioning Lex Mundi as a solutions provider rather than a referral network.

A suite of messaging was developed to be used by member firms in their presentations to clients and prospects, and a naming exercise was conducted, resulting in the name ‘Equisphere’. The construct of the name combines basic Latin roots: Equi = equal and Sphera = ball or globe. ‘Equi’ links to ‘balanced’ and the notion of ‘fairness’, and takes on the meaning of ‘a level playing field’ while the identity is based on the premise that Equisphere acts as a supercharged plug-in for business – the “Intel chip” that allows you quick and easy access to the Lex Mundi network.

The narrative behind ‘Equisphere’ is a better and more balanced way for clients to get the expertise they need anywhere in the world. ‘Equisphere’ is designed to figuratively remove the layers that often exist with cross-border solutions from large monolithic providers and gives clients access to a tailored and flexible solution. The notion of ‘equitable’ suggested in ‘equi’ connects to lighter, leaner, smarter processes.

Visual identity exploration was then completed, keeping the chosen design complementary to the Lex Mundi brand family but with its own unique identity, an identity that would work as a building block and the foundation architecture for new products and solutions releases in the future.

Guidelines were also produced to support this future application.

Simplicity, differentiation and clarity were ultimately the key requirements. The overarching strategy was achieved by creating a brand which visually demonstrated a solution which is easy to use, simple in design and with a close affiliation to the Lex Mundi parent brand.

“Gather provided us with the perfect branding to encompass and present the unrivalled capability of our new platform, allowing us to start to realise its potential.”

David Sanders, Strategy and Marketing at Lex Mundi.

Impact

Equisphere is immediately unique and distinctive and yet seamlessly fits into Lex Mundi’s brand portfolio as if it has always been there.

The logic of Lex Mundi’s client service delivery proposition is compelling. With that concept packaged, neatly and powerfully, as Equisphere, Lex Mundi has already managed to demonstrate some major client wins.

The Equisphere brand has only been in place for around five months now. Despite that, Equisphere materials have already been translated into Mandarin and Spanish and showcasing of the Equisphere concept to senior in-house counsel in every corner of the globe continues to be met with a great reception.

The Equisphere brand not only simplifies and succinctly packages the initial offer concept, but the professionalism of its presentation adds credibility and gravitas to the sales pitch, reducing the perception of risk.

“Gather captured the essence of what we were looking for succinctly and enhanced that idea with a distinct visual style that, while speaking to our ambition, remains complementary to, and reinforcing of, our existing Lex Mundi brand.”

David Sanders, Strategy and Marketing at Lex Mundi.

“We are delighted with the results and it was a joy to work with a team that was able to cut through all of the detail and noise, to get to the points that mattered.”

David Sanders, Strategy and Marketing at Lex Mundi.