In the past, the the six large firms that dominate the Australian legal market, each more than a century old, haven’t felt the need to advertise. But this spring Mallesons Stephen Jaques broke with tradition, and in a big way. The Sydney-based firm, which merged with China’s King & Wood on March 1, trumpeted its new nameKing & Wood Mallesonsin a splashy ad campaign that spanned Asia.
The two firms combined under a Swiss verein structure in which the Australian and U.K. operations (the old Mallesons) are financially separate from the China operations (the old King & Wood), but their Hong Kong offices are fully merged. The name change alone would have required an advertising campaign, says Mallesons marketing manager Murray Prior. But the novelty of the Sino-Australian tie-up, involving more than 2,000 lawyers, called for something radical. So the firm put aside the tired old tropes of legal advertising: scales, gavels, stacks of books. Instead, it went with hoverbikes.
