When they first approached us, Jerome Merchant + Partners were known as P&C Legal. The five partner practice was officially the Mumbai office of a Bangalore-based firm called Poovayya & Co, hence the P&C name.
While this relationship had worked for them in the past, the partners felt that the time had come to assert their own identity. That’s where we came in. Impressed by our work for small but high-end firms like their own, the partners asked us to develop a visual and verbal brand identity for the newly rechristened Jerome Merchant + Partners.
JM+P specialise in private equity, M&A, real estate and technology. The five partners came together from India’s most elite firms, bringing with them clients like Facebook, Deutsche Bank, KKR and Indian giants like Tata, ICICI and the State Bank of India. Their young partnership stands out from the conservative Indian mainstream with an approachable attitude, an eclectically decorated open-plan office, and a promise of one-on-one partner attention to every client matter.
Like many smaller firms in India, P&C Legal, with only five partners, struggled to set itself apart from the competition. Those who did know P&C knew about their stellar partners and the personal attention they pay to clients. Those who knew P&C even better knew about their experience with working for some very impressive clients indeed.
But many simply hadn’t noticed the firm, or assumed that their small size reflected small ambitions.
With the JM+P team sitting in Mumbai, we had to spend countless hours on Skype and GoToMeeting to understand which of their many attributes they wanted their new brand to convey, and work through the tension at the heart of the firm. On the one hand, they are young, innovative, partnership with an approachable personality. At the same time, they are deeply professional, highly experienced and of the same calibre as even their most august competitors.
Too much of a focus on the young, vibrant nature of the firm would make them look too much like underdogs compared to the established players. Something too restrained would undermine their ambition to get noticed in the crowd. We devised a visual identity with bright bursts of colours breaking through refined black and white spaces, conveying both refinement and innovation.
They were delighted, and so were their clients.
The rest of the market took notice too. The Society of Indian Law Firms recently signalled that the country’s previously closed legal sector might imminently be opened to foreign competition. When it does, Indian firms will need to bring their branding up to international standards. There’s no doubt that firms there are looking Jerome Merchant + Partners’ bold new brand as sign of things to come.
Exciting times indeed.