What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
Romeo & Juliet, Act II, Scene II

A name says a lot. Just ask the folks whose name are on the door of your firm (or whose names are not). A new name signals a change, a new beginning, or perhaps an end.

Yesterday many of us received notice that Jaffe Public Relations has rebranded itself Jaffe PR … the R now standing for Reputation.

Reputation management is not a new term in the corporate arena, but one that has not been front and center within the legal marketplace. However, managing a firm’s (and it’s attorneys) reputation in today’s 2.0 world should be the focus of every marketing and PR professional servicing a law firm

According to Jaffe,

Law Firm Public Reputation encompasses all of the promotional work a law firm needs to do, in various combinations, to sustain a reputation and build more business.

It is the blend of law firm public relations disciplines, including: advertising, media relations, face to face and social networking, optimized content, Web sites, online marketing, crisis communications, legal rankings, speaking engagements, strategic planning and brand recognition now being recognized as law firm Public Reputation Management.

Building a solid reputation involves more relationships with more constituents than ever before.  A law firm’s audiences now span much wider than ever before:  prospects, clients, referral sources, laterals, employees, bloggers, journalists, rankings publishers, event organizers and more.

I would like to wish the best of luck to our friends at Jaffe with their new brand and focus.