No one seems entirely sure what LawVest, the new DLA Piper-backed alternative business structure (ABS), does.
“It’s the fixed-fee package that is the key to the LawVest sell,” writes Catrin Griffiths, mystifyingly, in The Lawyer.
It’s a “groundbreaking business law firm operating entirely on fixed fees and featuring a mix of leading barristers and solicitors” says Legal Futures.
Whatever it does, LawVest is a shit name.
Of course, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. In the realm of shit names, the legal profession is truly peerless. Here are Legal Cheek’s top five:
1. LG. Until 2007, LG was known as Lawrence Graham. Then, in order to confuse itself with a well known electronics manufacturer, it changed names to LG, tumbling down the Google rankings forever.
2. Memery Crystal. “Are you sure that thing works?” a client was heard to ask recently as a Memery Crystal solicitor retreated behind a purple velvet curtain to consult a glistening rock.
3. New Street Solutions. The unforgettable name of Taylor Wessing’s document review business immediately etches itself into clients’ consciousness.
4. Moon Beever. The name of a London law firm. Really.
5. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. “I thought Freshfields was a supermarket when I got here,” an American lawyer in London confided to me recently.
Speaking of America, here are a few choice law firm names from the States – including the brilliant Payne & Fears and Low Ball & Lynch.