For more buzz, name your firm after a celebrity. For more Google hits, change yours!
by Tony Wilson

One of the perks that go along with being a franchise and trademark lawyer is that I seem to act for more restaurateurs than anyone else in the province. I draft (or review) their franchise agreements. I vet and register their trademarks. And despite my advice for them to see branding experts about their business names, they seem to rely on me for this, perhaps because I speak English good. Thus I have named at least five restaurants in Vancouver during my long and uninsured career as a wanna-be branding guru. Many of you will have eaten in “my” restaurants, but as there is no wall plaque celebrating my achievements, my life’s part-time work goes largely unnoticed.

Of late, I have been helping lawyers re-brand. This involves words, names, image, spin, BS, and all those ephemeral things branding guys get paid for, but lawyers don’t. Often, I suggest strategic mergers to give law firms a more recognizable name. For example, if Vancouver lawyers Bruce Preston and Gavin Manning combined their real estate and patent practices together under one roof (an unlikely merger, I’ll admit), they could call themselves Preston Manning and get free publicity every time the founder of the Reform Party got on television.

Better yet, if Vancouver lawyer Mark Hilton merged his practice with Ontario lawyer Neil Paris, not only could they create another National Firm in Canada (Lord, do we really need another one?) but they could call it Paris Hilton and get instant publicity every time the nonebrity hotel heiress got in the newspaper, appeared on a grainy Internet sex video, or got thrown in jail. The Paris Hilton firm could appeal to a hipper, more celebrity driven clientele than the Preston Manning firm. It could also offer a line of clothing on the side through the firm’s website. In the same vein, Vancouver lawyer Jim Spears could merge with Alberta lawyer Paul Brittany to form Brittany Spears and live off misdirected Google hits. Every time the real Brittany Spears got in the paper for shaving her head or doing something bizarre (every day, I suppose), they’d get called for interviews on Entertainment Tonight! Alternatively, you could simply recruit new lawyers based solely on last name combinations. Just make an offer to Max Pink and Harry Floyd, tell them they’ll be named partners in a new firm called Pink Floyd.

But why hire a Pink and a Floyd when you don’t have to? To get more media buzz and to elevate your ranking in Google, don’t change the firm name. Change yours! If celebrities like Bif Naked, Prince, Sting and Faith Popcorn can sacrifice their previously dull and boring names on the altar of business promotion and buzz, why can’t you?

I for one am changing my name from Tony Wilson to Vancouver Franchise Lawyer. Not only will people in the office have to call me Mr. Lawyer (“Oh… do call me by my middle name, ‘Franchise’”), but by changing my name like this, I’ll slant Google’s search algorithms, get more “hits” from clients looking for a lawyer in my practice area and get the firm prize for “wackiest marketing idea of the year.”

I may not be the first though. Apparently, some of my colleagues are planning to change their names from something droll and forgettable to “Really Excellent Lawyer,” “Tough Family Lawyer” and “Winning Criminal Lawyer.”

I can hardly wait for the family reunions.

Vancouver Franchise Lawyer practises Franchise Law with Boughton. He is the lawyer previously known as Tony Wilson, and has yet to tell his wife and children about their new last name.

Tony Wilson is a Franchise, Trademark and Intellectual Property Lawyer at Boughton in Vancouver. Vancouver Franchise Lawyer Tony Wilson has written for the Globe and Mail, Macleans Magazine and Canadian Lawyer. twilson@boughton.ca

Web: www.boughton.ca/people/lawyers/tony_wilson

This article was published in the October 2007 issue of BarTalk. © 2007 The Canadian Bar Association. All rights reserved.