A leadership transition to a new firm-wide office managing partner led Stoel Rives to retain Furia Rubel to craft and execute a communications strategy to broadcast and reinforce the firm’s focus on client value and its modernization of the law practice’s management. Our team remained PR agency of record from 2015 – 2020.
With nearly 400 attorneys operating out of 11 offices in seven states and the District of Columbia, Stoel Rives is an AM Law 200 business law firm headquartered in the Pacific Northwest. Stoel Rives is a leader in corporate, energy, environmental, intellectual property, labor and employment, land use and construction, litigation, natural resources, project development and real estate law. For five years, Furia Rubel provided Stoel Rives with Am Law 200 law firm public relations and communications services to support the long-term success of the firm’s strategic plan. Furia Rubel handled firm-wide media relations and strategic internal messaging for the chief business development officer, firm managing partner and office managing partners. One of the agency’s initial assignments was to craft a communications plan to announce that James E. Torgerson, a partner in the firm’s Anchorage office, would be taking the helm as firm-wide managing partner (FMP).
>9,300
Media mentions in 5 years
>4,000
Social media shares in 24 months
>6 Billion
Estimate reach of media coverage over 5 years
>$17 Million
Worth of media placements over 5 years
Jim Torgerson, the first Alaska-based managing partner of a major law firm in U.S. history, assumed the leadership role in January 2016. Furia Rubel executed an aggressive media relations campaign that resulted in feature stories in more than 30 prominent print and online publications such as Bloomberg Business, Reuters, National Law Review, American Lawyer, Above the Law, Yahoo Finance, Morningstar, Alaska Journal of Commerce, Alaska Business Monthly, Portland Business Journal, Greater Portland, Sacramento Business Journal, Seattle Business, Fox20 WFLX.com and the Portland Business Journal.
The transition to new leadership also signaled a sharper focus on the way the law firm was run and on the value it provides to its clients. Furia Rubel helps Stoel Rives communicate those messages effectively to internal and external audiences through various means, including internal messages from the firm managing partner to all staff; submitted articles on law practice management; press interviews regarding law practice management and changes in the firm structure; relocation of the firm’s headquarters into new, environmentally friendly and technologically advanced office space; changes in staffing structure; high-profile hirings and lateral moves, and more.
In 2020, Furia Rubel worked with Stoel Rives to create an advertising and new business campaign for the Agribusiness, Food, Beverage and Transportation Industry Group. That is where the “Deeply Rooted” campaign took flight. Here is just one of many campaign elements for the Am Law 200 law firm marketing opportunity.
An example of media coverage.