Image Is Everything: What Your Law Firm Website Says About You

When someone lands on your law firm website, what do they find? Are they greeted with outdated imagery, old technologies and broken links? Do they find years-old news items as the most recent headlines? When they search on a mobile device, does the site even work or are they greeted with outdated Flash, which is incompatible with Apple devices? And when they visit your attorney bio pages, do they find one full page of names and single-paragraph descriptions with no professional headshots? If you have answered yes to any of these questions, I can just about guarantee that your lost opportunity costs are through the roof.

Image Is Everything: What Your Law Firm Website Says About You

When someone lands on your law firm website, what do they find? Are they greeted with outdated imagery, old technologies and broken links? Do they find years-old news items as the most recent headlines? When they search on a mobile device, does the site even work or are they greeted with outdated Flash, which is incompatible with Apple devices? And when they visit your attorney bio pages, do they find one full page of names and single-paragraph descriptions with no professional headshots? If you have answered yes to any of these questions, I can just about guarantee that your lost opportunity costs are through the roof.

A Top Banker’s Image, Clouded

But the dying words of a distraught subordinate may prove the most damaging.

Shortly before Pierre Wauthier, a 53-year-old father of two, took his life on Monday in a placid lakeside community south of Zurich, he wrote a letter blaming pressure from Mr. Ackermann for his despair.

Mr. Wauthier was the chief financial officer of the Zurich Insurance Group. Until his resignation on Thursday, Mr. Ackermann was the chairman and was forcefully trying to lift profits at one of the world’s largest insurers.

Mr. Ackermann’s abrupt resignation a few days after Mr. Wauthier’s death interrupted a career spent fearlessly shaking up the European business world and advocating American-style standards of corporate performance. For many Europeans, the suicide raised questions about how far hard-charging captains of industry should go in their quest for profits.

“There is no doubt that these tragic events have cast a shadow over Zurich,” Tom de Swaan, who was named acting chairman of the insurer, said on Friday in a conference cal l with analysts.

Mr. de Swaan confirmed the existence of a suicide note by Mr. Wauthier that alluded to a tense relationship with Mr. Ackermann, and he said the board would look into whether the chief financial officer had been under undue pressure. Mr. de Swaan added, though, that there was no indication Mr. Ackermann had behaved inappropriately toward Mr. Wauthier or anyone else.

It is not the first time, though, that Mr. Ackermann, 65, has been at the center of the debate over how to reconcile European values of social equality with the need to remain competitive in the global economy.

As chief executive of the German giant Deutsche Bank, a post he held for a decade until last year, Mr. Ackermann was vilified by left-wing politicians for being Germany’s highest-paid corporate executive. He was even prosecuted for his role in awarding what prosecutors considered an illegal bonus to the executive of a German mobile communications company. Mr. Ackermann, who was on the supervisory board of the company, eventually settled the case by paying a fine.

Mr. Ackermann grew up in a small town in Eastern Switzerland before departing for Zurich, where he rose to be president of Credit Suisse. He then moved to Frankfurt, where he won plaudits for leading Deutsche Bank to the upper ranks of global investment banks.

But since Mr. Ackermann’s retirement from Deutsche Bank, his legacy has suffered. The bank, Germany’s largest, continues to struggle with many lawsuits from aggrieved investors, as well as official investigations related to conduct that took place before the beginning of the financial crisis, when Mr. Ackermann was in charge.

And Deutsche Bank continues to face criticism that it takes too much risk, a practice that stems from Mr. Ackermann’s determination to equal the profitability of Wall Street titans like JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs.

Mr. Ackermann’s sudden departure from Zurich Insurance puzzled insiders and seemed only to heighten stress on a company already rattled by Mr. Wauthier’s death. Martin Senn, the chief executive, struggled on Friday to try to convince analysts that Mr. Wauthier’s suicide did not signal deeper problems at the company.

“I want to make it crystal clear that there is no link between this news and Zurich’s business and financial results,” Mr. Senn said in a brief conference call on Friday with analysts.

With 60,000 employees and revenue last year of $73 billion, Zurich is one of the world’s largest insurers. It earns about half its revenue in the United States through subsidiaries like its Farmers unit.

Mr. Ackermann has not spoken to reporters, but in a statement on Thursday, he suggested that he had resigned as chairman, a part-time supervisory post, because after the suicide he would no longer be able to push for change as forcefully as he was accustomed.

“I see the possibility of a continued successful board leadership to the benefit of Zurich called into question,” Mr. Ackermann said.

He also alluded to accusations from Mr. Wauthier’s widow that he should take some blame for the suicide but called them “unfounded.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: August 30, 2013

An earlier version of this article misstated the surname of the acting chairman of the Zurich Insurance Group. He is Tom de Swaan, not de Swann.

Reporter's Notebook: Pro Bono Program May Help Traffic Court Image

As part of reporting a story on the future of the Philadelphia Traffic Court after allegations of ticket-fixing have become widely publicized, I learned about an upcoming program that is aiming to help ex-convicts set up payment plans for past traffic infractions in order to get their driver's licenses restored.

Wal-Mart Hires Former Bush Aide as Chief Image Maker

The company, the nation’s largest retailer, announced on Wednesday that Dan Bartlett, an adviser to President George W. Bush, would be its new executive vice president of corporate affairs, starting in late June.

The vague-sounding role in fact has a wide mandate, overseeing corporate communications, government relations, sustainability and the Wal-Mart Foundation. It is in essence Wal-Mart’s chief image maker.

Mr. Bartlett replaces Leslie Dach, who announced his resignation in March. Mr. Dach, an ex-Clinton aide, helped create Wal-Mart’s sustainability push, its $4 generic drug program and its healthy food program after years in which Wal-Mart had been battered by politicians and the media. “What’s happened over the last several years, clearly here in the United States and around the world, it’s become easier to site a Walmart and we have become more accepted by the community,” Mr. Dach said last year, describing the effects of those programs on Wal-Mart’s business.

Under President Bush, Mr. Bartlett oversaw the White House press office and was an adviser on his campaigns for governor and president. More recently, Mr. Bartlett was chief executive of the United States division of Hill&Knowlton Strategies, a communications firm.

Nicolle Wallace, a Republican strategist who was White House communications director under Mr. Bartlett, described him as “low-key, very unflappable, he’s the ultimate team player.”

“He was just really excited about being part of a company that, while it has an image and an identity as just a giant corporate leader, it’s also very important in all the communities in which it exists,” she said. At the White House, “he operated at that intersection of public policy and communication and really confidential counsel to the executives.”

While his work in the White House, obviously, focused on a Republican agenda, “in the private sector he’s given advice to people of all political persuasions,” she said.

Today, Wal-Mart is facing several reputational issues. It was linked to garments produced at the building in Bangladesh that collapsed last month, killing more than 1,100 workers. Wal-Mart has declined to join other large retailers like H&M in a pact to improve safety standards in Bangladesh, instead saying it would pursue its own safety program.

Wal-Mart is being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department on potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and is also conducting an internal inquiry and compliance review. The New York Times reported last year that executives at the company’s Mexican subsidiary had bribed officials to smooth expansion, and that executives at the company’s headquarters had known about the bribes and declined to take action. In the most recent quarter, Wal-Mart spent $73 million on costs related to those reviews, much higher than the $40 million to $45 million it had expected to spend.

And Wal-Mart has faced issues in its stores, including slower-than-expected sales, problems in keeping shelves stocked and complaints from unions about how it treats workers.

Image Is Everything: What Your Law Firm Website Says About You

When someone lands on your law firm website, what do they find? Are they greeted with outdated imagery, old technologies and broken links? Do they find years-old news items as the most recent headlines? When they search on a mobile device, does the site even work or are they greeted with outdated Flash, which is incompatible with Apple devices? And when they visit your attorney bio pages, do they find one full page of names and single-paragraph descriptions with no professional headshots? If you have answered yes to any of these questions, I can just about guarantee that your lost opportunity costs are through the roof.

Advertising: Trying to Burnish Its Image, Johnson & Johnson Turns to Emotions

The company’s McNeil Consumer Healthcare unit recalled more than 280 million packages of over the counter medications like Motrin, children’s Tylenol liquid and Benadryl in 2010, and the same year, its DePuy Orthopedics unit recalled two popular artificial hip replacement models.

About 10,000 lawsuits have been filed involving those artificial hip devices and while a Chicago jury this month rejected claims of wrongdoing by Johnson & Johnson in one suit, another lawsuit in March yielded a less favorable outcome when a Los Angeles jury ordered the company to pay more than $8.3 million in damages to a Montana man.

In the midst of that turmoil — and perhaps to distance itself from the bad press of product recalls and pending litigation — the company on Thursday is introducing its first corporate branding campaign in more than 10 years. The company will announce the campaign, called For All You Love, at its annual shareholder meeting in New Brunswick, N.J.

The cornerstone of the campaign, a 60-second black and white video, begins with a shot of a sleeping baby about to get a gentle kiss from its mother. In the background, a softer, almost childlike version of the Guns N’ Roses song, “Sweet Child O’ Mine” plays.

“Love,” says a woman’s voice. “It’s the most powerful thing on the planet.” Happy clips from everyday life — a father bathing with his baby, a grandfather playing piano with his granddaughter and a teacher playing with her students — are seen during the spot, as is the occasional Johnson & Johnson product like Band-Aids and baby shampoo.

“Love is family,” says the voice-over. “Love is the reason you care for the tiny and the fragile.”

The campaign was created by TBWA/Chiat/Day, part of TBWA Worldwide, a division of the Omnicom Group. It is the first time the agency has worked with Johnson & Johnson.

“This is the chance to reassert this very iconic brand to the world,” said Rob Schwartz, the global creative president of TBWA Worldwide. The creative team at the agency was inspired by a company statement produced in 1943 that highlighted its responsibility to its consumers, employees, communities and stockholders. Mr. Schwartz described the statement as “one of the best corporate documents ever.”

Based on that, the agency created a manifesto about love that will appear in print publications, including The New York Times and People magazine on May 10. Television commercials and digital ads will begin appearing on May 6 during shows like “Modern Family” on ABC, “The Voice” on NBC and “American Idol” on Fox, and on Web sites like abcnews.com. The videos feature real people and real relationships, not actors, Mr. Schwartz said. Subsequent videos for the campaign will also focus on the philanthropic work the company supports. The campaign is estimated to cost $20 million to $30 million through the end of the year.

While a Johnson & Johnson spokeswoman declined to comment on the company’s recalls or the lawsuits it faces, Michael Sneed, the company’s vice president for global corporate affairs, said the goal of the campaign was “to continue to reconnect with all of the people who come into contact with J.& J. in their daily lives.”

A campaign focused on love creates a sense of trust with the brand, said Kapil Bawa, a marketing professor at the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College, part of the City University of New York. “Corporate branding tries to instill a sense of trust in the company and for J.& J., given the kind of products it makes, that trust is very, very critical,” Mr. Bawa said.

Mr. Sneed agreed. “I do think people want to understand what’s behind the brand,” he said. “They want to understand what they value.”

Many brand campaigns of late have included a major emotional hook, including a Procter & Gamble campaign from last summer’s Olympics about mothers and their athlete children and a Dove campaign about a forensic sketch artist drawing women based on their own descriptions. “They are trying to humanize the corporate entity,” Mr. Bawa said. “That’s why emotion is so important.”

Emotion was also present at the ad agency table, Mr. Schwartz said. “The smell of the baby powder, the scent of the shampoo, everybody got very emotional just from our meetings,” he said. “This is a very emotional brand, so we’ve got to deliver a very emotional idea.”

Reporter's Notebook: Pro Bono Program May Help Traffic Court Image

As part of reporting a story on the future of the Philadelphia Traffic Court after allegations of ticket-fixing have become widely publicized, I learned about an upcoming program that is aiming to help ex-convicts set up payment plans for past traffic infractions in order to get their driver's licenses restored.