Gibson Dunn & Out
Check out the revised Gibson Dunn Web site.
How refreshing! While most big firm sites are busy and much adorned, this site is relatively simple. It’s easy on the eyes: narrow columns of black, serif type set on a white background, like a newspaper.
Take a look at the home page. It’s clean and sparse. But then check the copy: a blurb (one of several) pitching some aspect of the firm. Here’s one:
The world of business and law is constantly changing. But the beliefs that enable a law practice to perform at the highest possible level — as well as the reputation — remain remarkably constant. In a world where change of virtually every kind is accepted as good, there is still a place for uncompromising standards, thoughtfulness and tireless pursuit of the best possible outcome.
I don’t know about you, but I’d not publish that blurb, not with that dangling aside in the second sentence.
Another blurb claims that information is a type of knowledge, and the best place to get it is in an office:
Information is the most valuable intellectual property. The best place to obtain such knowledge is in the offices of business and government where crucial decisions are being made. Our attorneys are leaders as well as lawyers. The intellectual property they are privy to can be turned into a powerful competitive advantage for our clients.
I’d not publish that one either, because it’s so silly.
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Form & Substance: Gibson Dunn came up with a potentially effective and distinctive design for its Web site, but the copy doesn’t follow suit. The site gives the impression of a newspaper — narrow columns appear where there’s room for much more — but the copy reads like it wasn’t written to complement the design, and it gets no more riveting than this:
Together, the lawyers of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s Intellectual Property Practice Group represent and counsel clients on a wide spectrum of intellectual property matters. The Practice Group’s litigators are additionally part of a Litigation Practice Group that has been a finalist in all three of The American Lawyer’s Litigation Department of the Year competitions since their inception in 2002.
In other places, it seems as if no one has looked at the copy at all:
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s Crisis Management Practice Group of-fers a vital and increasingly es-sential resource in today’s com-plex and threatening legal envi-ronment. The Group includes skilled and battle-tested lawyers with the experience to assist cli-ents facing a major, company-threatening crisis. Our lawyers have demonstrated their effec-tiveness in dealing with all three branches of the United States government, state law enforce-ment and regulatory officials, and international regulators.
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Function: See what happens when you look for a page at the firm’s site that doesn’t exist (i.e., generate a page-not-found error). See what happens when you look for http://www.gibsondunn.com/missing_page.
The revised site also offers some of the latest in law firm Web site technology: Recruiting Videos! One of them claims you can tell how smart people are by looking at their grades! (An oblique critique of President Bush? Or of Einstein?)
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Other large firms talk about how open they are to people who don’t all look, act, or think alike, but Gibson Dunn claims it’s an active advocate of real diversity: it’s representing — at no charge — John Langan (Langan v. State Farm), who is suing to have New York recognize his civil union (under Vermont law) to Neal Conrad Spicehandler as marriage.
If you’re a law student, if you want to work at a big firm, and if you like sleeping with people just like you, then you should check out this recruiting video (titled Out) from Gibson Dunn.
