ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL law firms in the United States, Shernoff, Bidart & Darras specializes in prosecuting unfair insurance practices on behalf of individual as well as corporate policyholders. With the hip world of brandmaking converging inescapably upon the stodgy legal profession, the SBD partners asked Mitchel Design to give them a contemporary image and a unique, robust website in order to ensure the firm's continued success in the digital era.

There was a lot of pressure on us, not least of all because the clients were, well, lawyers. We ultimately created a solid yet elegant visual identity, with the initials of the two younger partners serving as “bookends” in the visual pyramid to the initial of the senior founding partner. Each partner also got his initial in his favorite color (well, almost).

Working with a crackerjack tech team, we then set about building an unusually artistic, fully content-managed website with a seemingly unending stream of user-friendly features, from online case submissions to free book orders to video lectures to searchable libraries.

With its new boutique megasite and its complement of branded templates for briefs, pleadings, memos and press releases, not to mention its personalized identity materials, the SBD law firm finally got down to making some serious money.