Firm Brands Itself a “Law-Native Law Firm” and Claims to Be First in New Category

Alderwick March has unveiled a new brand positioning itself as the world’s first law-native law firm.

The phrase appears on the firm’s website, office walls, recruitment materials, conference lanyards and a 90-foot projection visible from the motorway.

“We are not a technology company that discovered law,” said managing partner Eleanor March. “We are not a consultancy that acquired lawyers. We are a law-native law firm, meaning law is native to us.”

The firm’s brand agency says the category is designed to distinguish Alderwick March from firms that are merely law-adjacent, law-enabled, law-forward, law-aware or law-curious.

A diagram divides the market into four groups:

1. Traditional law firms
2. Technology-enabled law firms
3. Law-tech platforms
4. Alderwick March

The firm has filed a trademark application for Law-Native™, although its lawyers have advised that the term may be difficult to protect because it consists of two ordinary words arranged in an order that has not previously been used on a billboard.

A rival firm, Pemberton Rook, says it has used the phrase internally since 2018. Its evidence consists of a slide deck titled Becoming More Native to Law, which was never presented because the partner responsible moved to another firm.

Bellwether Voss says it is “law-native in substance, if not in typography”.

Alderwick March has rejected the suggestion that the category is simply a new label for being a law firm.

“Being a law firm is an organisational fact,” said March. “Being law-native is a strategic identity, a cultural operating system and a premium signal to clients who want to know that their lawyers understand law at a deeper level than firms that also understand law.”

The firm’s new logo consists of the words LAW-NATIVE LAW FIRM in increasingly smaller type, followed by a symbol resembling a legal document entering a cloud.

The rebrand cost $6.4 million. The firm says this is an investment in differentiation and not a marketing expense, although the invoice was sent to marketing.

Recruitment materials now ask candidates whether they are “native to law” or merely “comfortable operating near it”.

One associate said she had become concerned that her answer might affect her eligibility for promotion.

The firm has launched a certification programme for clients, suppliers and office plants. Participants who complete the course receive a badge reading Law-Native Ecosystem Participant.

The office plants have been certified first.

Alderwick March says the new category will help clients identify firms that understand the legal dimension of legal work.

A client asked whether this meant the firm would stop describing routine legal services as transformational.

The firm said it would consider the suggestion as part of a future brand refresh.