Nigel Boardman, head of corporate at top City law firm Slaughter and May, which prides itself on having no marketing department, recalls the firm's last change of title.

'In 1956, I believe we switched from an ampersand to "and" in the middle,' he says.But as if to reinforce the firm's insouciance on the issue, he adds: 'I could be wrong about that.'The decision of the Law Society Council to pare to the bone the practice rule on law firm names will, subject to the approval of the Master of the Rolls, Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, allow firms with connections with non-legal businesses to reflect the link in their names among other things.

Garretts -- which is associated with Big Five accountants Arthur Andersen -- has indicated that it will change its name to Andersen Legal.But for all the growing emphasis on bran ds, stand-alone law firms -- even those with a more adventurous attitude to image than Slaughter and May -- are conservative when it comes to altering their names.A Society rule change two years ago dropped the requirement for a firm's title to include the name of a current or former partner.

Anything that does not bring the profession into disrepute or mislead the public is allowed, says Edward Nally, chairman of the Society's regulation review working party, which put forward the latest rule change.Gillian Khan, marketing director of City firm Berwin Leighton Paisner, explains the conservatism: 'Once you've built up a name and goodwill, it's quite dangerous to ditch that.

You'd have to be careful how you do that.

It's not in my plans at the moment.'Her firm underwent a re-branding early this year for what is still the commonest reason: merger.

The cost of the re-branding and associated advertising based on anagrams of the name was estimated at £150,000 to £200,000.She says the cultures of both Berwin Leighton and Paisner & Co, essentially non-formal, would have lent themselves to a less formal style of name.

Berwin Leighton Paisner has what she describes as 'quite a young buzzy culture' and at the time of the merger, the idea of an unorthodox name was even considered by some partners, but set aside for the time being.Since the first solicitor partnerships were formed, there have probably been gentlemanly disputes about the order the names should go, and when to stop adding partners to the name of the firm.Slaughter and May was formed in the late 19th century when two articled clerks left Ashurst Morris Crisp, according to Mr Boardman.

'Mr Slaughter was the man with the brains and the drive, Mr May had money and contacts.'With a merger, the combined name itself and which names stay or go is part of the negotiations between the parties, Ms Khan says.She says brand values are not the only considerations in choosing a name after a merger.

'My view is the last thing you want to happen is for the name to become something emotional, which takes over the more important issues when two firms are merging.

You get a better buy-in from all the staff and partners involved.

So I'm relaxed about the name we arrived at.'There were two or three options, and I said any of them would be acceptable.

They were a bit long but I thought we could address that later if we needed to.'Names are only one of the ways solicitors' firms define themselves as a brand, for they change their notepaper logos and corporate colours, too.

Recently, Leeds firm Lupton Fawcett introduced a squared symbol above the letter 'o' in Lupton.

Richard Marshall, the firm's partner responsible for marketing, explains: 'It symbolises squaring the circle, which is what we do.

We are not just experts on legal issues; our real function is to help clients achieve their goals.' That explanation, reported in the Gazette, found its way into 'Pseud's Corner' in Private Eye.In Lupton Fawcett's case, the aim was to differentiate the firm in a crowded local market.

City firm SJ Berwin dropped the '& Co' from its title this year, to emphasise that it had become a European firm, with the justification that 'Co' meant nothing to clients outside the UK.In 1998, Birmingham firm Edge Ellison -- in the days before the merger with Hammond Suddards -- became edge ellison, with an Internet-style lower case 'e' overlaid with a scribbled version of the same letter, to represent the disciplined and creative sides of the brain.

Cameron Markby Hewitt and McKenna & Co led the way on go ing lower case though, with the post-merger name (but no longer) spelt as 'cameron mcKenna'.Clifford Chance, the world's biggest firm, is embarking on a review of its brand values and strategy to see whether it needs to change in any way.The predicament of law firms is that their products do not differ hugely one from another, says Simon Slater, strategy director of Bristol-based Osborne Clarke -- another firm which re-branded nearly five years ago.

'Lawyers do bear a remarkable resemblance to each other in terms of their qualities.

They're trained in a certain way, they are generally risk averse.

They challenge things, look for the downside.'Having said that, I think there's the most fantastic opportunity to offer an experience to clients that is actually different -- just by different behaviour, style and approach,' he says.He defines a brand as something much deeper than the 'visual image' of the logo and the slogan.

'It is really down to the behaviour of the people to their clients and, as importantly, to their colleagues.

The very best marketing strategy for any law firm is recruitment and retention.

Those people are the product and they deliver the experience.'Mr Slater concedes that virtually any slogan used by any law firm could be used by any other.

All firms think they are innovative, all firms think they are businesslike, use the latest technology, offer the best quality, are accessible and unstuffy.He says his firm has resisted any such strapline, but admits to admiring one used by the accountants Ernst & Young, 'from thought to finish'.

Though on reflection, he says he can see that this could be claimed by any law firm.

He notes that Ernst & Young's associated law firm, Tite & Lewis, has not adopted the slogan so far.Mr Slater says: 'The problem with any strapline is that with something as complicated as law as a product, it will never tell the whole story.'Like Berwin Leighton Paisner's, his firm's re-focussing of the visual image was designed to reflect the corporate values.

It did this by adding a big cat to its logo, arguing that it was unexpected.Ms Khan says research has shown that brand differentiation among clients is generally not sophisticated.

'They know the big five, and they will know certain firms are good for certain areas.' This explains why the big five 'make less noise' in the market than the firms lower down.And even Slaughter and May, contrary to reputation, works to build its brand.

'A policy of measured organic growth sustained by lawyers, recruited, trained and developed within the firm, has long been one of our hallmarks,' it claims on its Web site.

'It has enabled us to maintain an integrity of purpose and uniform, professional quality throughout the firm.'It used an outside designer for the Web site, and prints a corporate brochure, for which it used another external designer.

Slaughters plans to rationalise the two designs, and the rest of what a marketing department would call 'visual identity' when it moves to new offices at the end of this year, though Mr Boardman says: 'Don't expect a revolution.'Crystal ball-gazing law firms predict that there will be a growing trend to rebrand over the next five years or so, but that it will probably stop short of a widespread introduction of wholly new names such as Corus for British Steel, Consignia for the Post Office and Accenture for Andersen Consulting, names which all came in because the ownership or nature of the organisation had changed.Mr Slater says: 'Professional service firms are actually much cuter in the way they va lue the ancestry of a name.

For example, Linklaters had gone through some minor identity changes [associated with its European alliance], but has always maintained the identity Linklaters.'I think Clifford Chance with its various overseas mergers has done exactly the right thing, to call itself Clifford Chance Rogers & Wells in the US, or Clifford Chance Punder in Germany until such time as everybody in those jurisdictions is happy that it has become just Clifford Chance.'As Mr Slater says: 'Clients want the assurance of longevity from their law firm.

If they can have that along with a dynamic modern organisation, then they have the best of both worlds.'And as all the marketing experts know, the best-laid plans can go awry when a carefully chosen name is used wrongly.Birmingham-based Wragge & Co is known to be irritated every time it is referred to as 'Wragges' -- going so far as to put a plaintive plea in press releases that it is referred to in full -- possibly because of the connotation of rags to riches.Slaughter and May knows it is often referred to as 'Slaughters', and is reconciled to the idea, though the full title is always used internally.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is similarly strict internally, but known as Freshfields by most outsiders.And, probably, some people even forget to square the circle when they write the word 'Lupton'.