Engineering a law firm rebranding, which means a lot more than changing fonts and color schemes, is never easy. Try also keeping the details hidden from most of the partnership.

That's how managing partner Richard Cohen chose to approach the task at Buffalo-based Goldberg Segalla, a fast-growing firm that broke into the Am Law 200 two years ago.

“We have tried, like a lot of firms have, to do it by a 'committee of all,'” Cohen said, referring to getting broad input from the partnership. “We had some level of frustration trying to get our full ownership community totally reconciled with respect to the vision.”

In the end, the vision culminated in a new color pallet, new logo, new website, and a custom-made management structure for the rebranding effort.

Goldberg Segalla's redesigned logo.

Cohen said the 400-lawyer firm went through due diligence with outside branding consultants, eventually settling on an arrangement that would incorporate a small committee of three partners in leadership roles, the outside consultants and an internal branding group that would make the decisions.

“We believed they had a skill set and spirit and understanding of branding that quite frankly our ownership group, as lawyers, didn't necessarily have,” Cohen said, referring to the firm's internal branding team.  

Cohen equated the decision to defer to the branding and marketing teams to an advertising agency looking for legal advice. They would be better served asking a lawyer for guidance than, say, “Kevin” from graphic design. Cohen said the same logic could be applied for a law firm looking for branding advice.

The firm's old logo seen on its Buffalo headquarters. The firm's old logo as seen on its Buffalo headquarters.

Cohen said the firm was also prepared for the idea that not everyone was going to be on board with the process.

“It's human nature, particularly with lawyers, to have an array of differing opinions with respect to almost anything,” Cohen said. “We recognized that when we did unveil the concept to our ownership community that it was extremely unlikely that all of us would have the exact same vision. We were prepared for a wide array of reactions.”

Cohen said they were pleased, but not surprised, that the rebrand thus far has gotten a positive response.

As with most rebrands, the optics of the firm's defining colors and logo were changed. Gone are the traditional navy blue and white color scheme and oft-used serif font. In Goldberg's case, their replacements are a distinct black and red pallet and a much more visually complex intersecting of the “G” and “S” that compose the firm's logo.

Cohen said the color and logo redesign were meant to represent “who the firm is now,” and not who they were 18 years ago when they had seven attorneys and were first starting out.

Although Goldberg did follow the color change route well worn by other firms, it did not choose to shorten its firm name, which has been another trend firms have fallen into. The firm is also positioning the rebrand not as a retooling of core competencies and focus or to highlight the opening of a new office, but rather an emphasis on the values that the firm has attempted to uphold since its founding in 2001.

“We believe the new look conveys the dynamic strength, capacity, energy, and focus of Goldberg Segalla today—and well into the future,” Cohen said in a statement. “But more importantly, it captures why we have always called ourselves 'different'—and why that isn't going to change.”

Founded in 2001 in Buffalo with seven lawyers, Goldberg Segalla now has 22 offices in the U.S. and abroad. The firm ranks 175th on the Am Law 200 with revenue of $128.8 million last year.

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