Strategic marketing case study – Brand at Mishcon de Reya

November 13, 2025|Kim's Blog, Lawyers, Marketing, Strategy|

At the 30^th Annual PM Forum Conference, Elliot Moss | LinkedIn shared law firm Mishcon de Reya’s growth story leveraging strategy, brand and advertising (see 30th PM Forum Conference – Beyond Boundaries). His humility was touching – considering he is widely considered the poster boy of professional services marketing. Our brand and marketing hero. I’ve summarised the key points from his keynote presentation – which showed the firm had it all: creativity, tenacity, track record, coherent campaigns and astonishing results. Strategic marketing case study – Brand at Mishcon de Reya

He started by acknowledging that winning new business is getting harder and harder. “You need to be commercially aware – the Board don’t care about your brand. They are interested in revenue and profit – reputation, ROI and clients. Quoting the ex-Managing Partner of BDO, you need “big thoughts and little actions”.

About Elliott Moss

Elliott is an extraordinary person – former AdMan, part-time radio presenter on Jazz FM and an accomplished senior marketing professional. Not a typical professional services marketer.

He is partner and Chief Brand Officer at Mishcon de Reya. It’s business. But it’s personal. Where he has worked since May 2009.

Amongst his firm’s many successes:

Winner of FT law firm innovation in brands 2017
First non-lawyer to be named in top 10 most innovative individuals in law across Europe by the FT in 2012
Business Development team of the year, runners up in marketing team of the year plus shortlisted law firm individual of the year at Lawyer Management Awards 2013
Marketing and Communications team award in 2014

He is also a Trustee and strategic adviser at a variety of children’s, religious and music charities. And a judge for Inspirational Women in Law Awards

He was formerly the Managing Director and then Non-Executive Director at leading advertising agency Leagas Delaney. And before this, he was Client Service Director at Leo Burnett advertising agency.

How the brand drives growth

Using the familiar reputation, relationships and revenue (3R) model he outlined the steps in how brand drives growth:

Disrupt the market
Articulate difference
Drive awareness
Drive salience
Drive consideration

Mishcon de Reya’s story

I’ve expanded the firm’s brand story that he shared.

Victor Mishcon (born in 1915) started the firm in Brixton, South London when he was just 22. Victor Mishcon & Co started in small offices above a bank in 1937.

By 1961 the firm had outgrown its Brixton office and needed new, bigger premises. A central London location was chosen and Victor Mishcon & Co, with its 15 employees, arrived at 125 High Holborn.

In 1988, Victor Mishcon & Co encountered old city firm, Bartletts de Reya. There was a meeting of minds, a sharing of visions, and a merger

By 1992, now up to 120 employees, it was time to move again and new premises were found on the other side of Kingsway. In 2002 the firm moved into Summit House. By 2015 it moved from Red Lion Square to its current home, Africa House at 70 Kingsway. (I remember being blown away when I visited these offices in 2016 to write a case study for The Lawyer magazine’s Real Estate Report).

In the last 15 years, the firm has grown from a few hundred people to over 1,450 people – and grown from 60 to 250 partners

Amongst the firm’s most notable work and milestones:

The Wolfenden Report – published in 1957 paving the way for decriminalisation of same-sex activity in England and Wales in 1967
For his own contribution to public and political life Victor was rewarded with a life peerage, and in 1978 took his place in the House of Lords. He remained active in politics until his death in 2006
The 1994 Jordan-Israel Peace Treaty
The divorce of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1996
On April 11, 2000, judgment was delivered in the Irving v Lipstadt case. Historian and author Professor Deborah Lipstadt was represented by Mishcon lawyers Anthony Julius and James Libson
In 2009, the firm was famous for having 95% private clients
In 2017 Business owner Gina Miller turned to the firm twice as she challenged the legality of the British Government’s implementation of Brexit
In 2020, Mishcon Purpose was launched, the first purpose-oriented business established by a major law firm
In 2023, it merged with Taylor Vinters, continuing to expand international footprint
In 2024 it launched the Impact Department, a seventh core legal service.

Elliot described how the firm succeeded in volatile times – at the edge of what’s possible. The firm’s services are now aligned around: business, dispute, innovation, private and real estate

There is also more complexity – for example: Mishcon Academy (1,300 courses) and 50 services – including new ones such as MDRI, MDR Mayfair, MDR Lan and MDR One.

You can read more about these and other developments at Mishcon de Reya which I have followed with interest for many years

Being more strategic – Case studies and insights (Ireland May 2023) June 2023
Book review – Managing Brands May 2023
Case study (Law firm marketing) – Mishcon de Reya – Kim Tasso April 2013
Mischcon de Reya – a law firm that seems to have got it right? – Kim Tasso July 2012
Marketing of family law services – Mischcon de Reya case study January 2012
Legal marketing case study – Mishcon de Reya – Kim Tasso May 2011

The Mishcon de Reya brand model

He outlined the Mishcon brand model – encompassing both narrative and behaviours

Purpose – to enable our clients and our people to shape the world’s possibilities
Principles – Enlightened tenacity, substance, brevity, coherence, innovative, unconventional, bold, engaging
Proposition – It’s business. But it’s personal

Brand strategy

Mishcon’s strategy was neatly summarised as:

Awareness

Brand partnerships: The Economist, Jazz FM, British Airways’ High Life
Advertising: Harvard Business Review, Business Insider, Financial Times (he mentioned, in passing, over £1m spend with FT and Jazz FM sponsorships)
PR: Actively engage with national and international media to position lawyers as experts
Content: YouTube, Instagram, Soundcloud, LinkedIn

Connections

Foster connections to clients, intermediaries, experts, academics and other lawyers who could instruct, refer work or help clients in other ways
100+ events
7,500 live attendees
94,000 video views

Service

Designed to help lawyers deliver the brand promise through excellent client care and service
Client feedback survey every two years
74% Net Promoter Score (he noted that 73% is achieved by a world class brand) Client satisfaction benchmarks – How do you measure up?
CARE – for largest clients, partner led
Leap Framework – for growing clients, M&A led

Astonishing and impressive marketing results

Access to an incredible array of data makes it possible to identify detailed insights through the awareness, consideration and purchase stages of the sales funnel.

On reputation, Mishcon de Reya leads Top of Mind (ToM) awareness with Phronesis Brand Tracking 2024 data from 2024 (Question: For each of these three practice areas can you share the names of law firms in the UK that come to your mind – you can name up to three firms for each practice area)

Mishcon de Reya 30%
Herbert Smith Freehills 25%
Macfarlanes 18%
Hogan Lovells 17%
Taylor Wessing 14%
Withers 13%
Lewis Silkin 11%
BCLP 11%

Consideration to purchase measure – from the same tracking study

Awareness of the brand – 87%
Familiarity showing a potential client knows about the firm – 66%
Favourability (a sentiment measure indicating how much they like or approve of a brand) – 22%

Client loyalty (Change Agency 2024 survey results from 300 clients)

Likely to use again	2019	2022	2024
Likely/very likely	94%	95%	94%
Neutral/ unlikely/very unlikely	6%	5%	6%

Elliott shared logos of some notable clients: Brookfield, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, Nintendo, Iceland, Ocado, Sainsbury’s, Gamesys, Telefonica and Sky

On Return on Investment he shared Pearl Metrics Modelling statistics showing:

External brand communication lifetime billing ROI – £6 for every £1 spent
Business as usual lifetime billings ROI 2010-2022 – £13 for every £1 spent