In contrast, many law firms print collateral materials that are tedious lists of the firm's practice areas or long accounts of court decisions rendered in legalistic detail.  The typical marketing approach presents a law firm talking about itself, its personnel and its history.  These marketing materials read like an actuarial firm describing the advanced degrees and calculating skills of its professionals. 

That's what makes the Mayer Brown approach different.  "What clients do is far more interesting," said Jonathan Asperger, Director of Marketing and Communications.  "We celebrate client activities in which we have a part, instead of talking about ourselves.  We mention the firm once in the stories and never mention the attorneys by name.  We focus on the client and want to keep our presence understated."

The stories are presented in the larger context of the event, such as what the outcome meant to a sports league, a city or an industry.  The copy was written by John Vicars and Asperger.  Russell Freund headed the internal design team, working with Gary Young of X-15 Creative Marketing in LaGrange, Illinois.

Fine-arts magazine

The Retrospective is an oversize, 13 by 9 ½ inch publication, resembling a fine-arts magazine with its heavy glossy paper, large colorful photos and minimal text.  The storybook is perfect-bound in a navy matte cover, with the title and firm name subtly embossed.  It won the 2003 Your Honor Award from the Legal Marketing Association in the promotional collateral category.  The category attracted 50 entries, making it tough for the judges to pick a winner.

Each story covers a two-page spread.  The left page shows a full-page graphic with a pull-quote that indicates the substance of the story.  The right page has a second, thumbnail picture adjacent to the text, which runs from 300 to 400 words.  The text is written for a lay reader and is designed to be skimmed informally.

At first glance it looks like an annual report.  But it is a biennial storybook, which gets the Mayer Brown marketing staff out of the December-through-March pressure cooker of producing an annual report.  (Having gone through the annual report production ordeal myself, I suggest the firm's marketing team re-name the publication "Client Retrospective" and drop the year it is published).

Journalistic approach

Collecting the case histories is no problem.  "We know what the big mergers and Supreme Court cases are -- size matters," Asperger said.  "We hear about them by preparing content for our newsletters and Web sites.  But we're looking for an interesting story.  It must be important and affect other people."   There is no formula, like having a story from each practice group.  The marketing team picks U.S. Supreme Court cases, big merger and acquisition deals, and cases from Europe and Asia, reflecting the firm's global presence. 

"Beyond that, we take a journalistic approach," he said.  There is a mix of intellectual property, arbitration, real estate and pro bono cases.  "Some cases are very interesting, but we can't use them because of client confidentiality."

Your Honor Award Chairperson Diane Hamlin said the judges were impressed by the account about the firm's work for the Goodman Theater.  Instead of dwelling on the real estate work the firm did during the restoration of the vaudeville-era theater, the story describes the revival of theater in Chicago.  The text quotes Mayor Richard M. Daley saying, "Chicago is defined by its artists, not just by its businesses and politics" and compares him to Austria's Emperor Joseph II, who funded Vienna's artistic renaissance in the 18^th Century.

"Pennies from Heaven" is a story about a quiet, self-effacing IRS employee who converted his modest income into a stock portfolio worth $100 million.  "Mr. X found a use for his money in 1993, when he was diagnosed with cancer.  He called Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw and arrange that his fortune be used to fund an anonymous trust to benefit children," primarily through bequests to parochial schools.  So far more than 60 organizations have received bequests, including St. Thecla's Parish in Chicago, which got money for a gym and community center.

Another story about winning $50 million for Dairy Queen franchisees in a class action lawsuit gave the excuse to use a vintage DQ poster hanging in a  partner's office.  "These are fun things," Asperger said.

"Paper Tiger" recounts the grandiose plans of Asia Pulp & Paper's Chief Executive Teguh Widjaja to become "the self-anointed crown prince of paper."  The company ordered huge paper-making machines to be built by the Beloit Corporation but didn't make a $180 million payment, forcing Beloit into bankruptcy.  The law firm went to a Singapore arbitration forum and recovered $183 million for Beloit.  The story is illustrated with a cute tiger cub.

In "Banking Takes Off," the firm helped MetLife become the first insurance company to acquire a bank, taking advantage of a historic change in federal finance laws.  This corporate tale is illustrated with a fanciful MetLife blimp hovering over a baseball field, with a surreal hand placing a quarter in a coin slot in the blimp.

"The attorneys appreciate the Retrospective," Asperger said.  "You can tell your family what a difference you made.  Attorney satisfaction is minimized if they feel they are cogs in a machine.  When you relate their work to the bigger things in life, that's where the satisfaction is. 

You can view an online version of the Retrospective on the Web by visiting http://www.mayerbrownrowe.com/2002retrospective/index.html.