It can be hard to be different when everyone else is trying to do the same thing. The legal industry churns out volumes of content every year, but any casual reader could be forgiven for thinking that law firms essentially say the same things. This is curious for an industry which relies on the mastery of words and their interpretation. Standing out does not necessarily require creativity with language, but it does require substantive, compelling content focused on the key audience at hand, namely the client.
Indeed, Lucy Kellaway, writing for the Financial Times, recently reminded us of the potential pitfalls of creative language geared to a wide audience, letting rip against “corporate claptrap,” a wonderfully English way of describing jargon. She ended her 25-year battle against corporate nonsense-speak with a hard-hitting article that was as humorous as it was pointed. Lucy’s examples were wide ranging and entertaining, one favorite being Uber’s recent admission to having “underinvested in the driver experience.” Another winner? The attempt by a professional services firm to rebrand “downsizing” into “strengthening our alumni network.”
