Thousands of attorneys in San Francisco and New York received a call to arms recently when they found a manifesto on the state of the legal profession tucked into their morning newspapers and displayed on their car windshields, courtesy of new-model firm Axiom.
The manifesto read: “We want it all….We want to be David and slay Goliath in court, but we also want to be spouse, parent and individual.”
For Axiom, a firm that focuses on the high-end legal market, the manifesto represents a precursor to a series of events in San Francisco and New York designed to illustrate for attorneys that there is a better way to practice law -- One that allows attorneys to be “passionate about practicing law, not billing hours.”
The effort, entitled “What’s Your Axiom?,” involves a number of initiatives designed to generate awareness around the need for change in the legal profession and alternatives, like Axiom, for attorneys and corporate clients.
What’s Your Life’s Axiom?
Life at Big-Law can be an unpleasant experience. In exchange for high salaries, associates endure unending stress, pressure to bill hours and little opportunity for life outside the firm. Partners have such demanding financial commitments that there’s little time or energy left for family activity or general wellness.
Axiom employs a different strategy: facilitate more control and self-determination, remove needless overhead expenses, and watch talented attorneys rediscover the affinity that drove them into the profession in the first place.
This unconventional model is becoming enormously disruptive within the legal industry. While industry consultant Hildebrandt International expects law-firms to experience smaller revenue increases in 2008 than in previous years, Axiom expects to nearly double its annual revenue.
The mere existence of Axiom as a firm has prompted a large amount of discussion on various legal blogs and headlines that state “Why Being a Lawyer Doesn’t Have to Suck.”
The company is not muting its passion for changing the legal profession. Their viral efforts include:
- Manifesto inserts in 10,000 newspapers distributed in front of top law firms in New York.
- Copies of the manifesto distributed on thousands of car windshields at top law firms in San Francisco.
- A disheveled attorney (in a wet suit!) staggering through the crowd in the background of The Today Show.
- Direct mail inviting 16,000 attorneys to attend events at Top of the Rock in New York on September 18 and the Ferry Building in San Francisco on September 25.
This aggressive campaign will target talented attorneys at top law firms and top companies.
An Excerpt from Axiom’s Manifesto:
We reject the belief that you can have a career, or you can have a life, but you can’t have both. We believe these two parts of us can not only co-exist, but can inspire, edify, and strengthen each other. We are attorneys who are passionate about practicing law, not billing hours.
There are a limited number of media invitations to the September 25 event. Please contact Aaron Schoenherr at aschoenherr@greentarget.net for further details.
About Axiom
Axiom is a new-model firm that empowers its attorneys and clients by changing the way they work together. Alumni of the nation’s best law firms and corporate law departments, Axiom Attorneys work in a uniquely integrated way with large companies. In Axiom, they’ve found variety, close client relationships, an element of self-determination, and the chance to be a legal pioneer. To learn more, visit www.axiomlaw.com.
Contacts:
Aaron Schoenherr
312.252.4103 (o)
312.286.6630
(c)
aschoenherr@greentarget.net
