What’s with the name?
What’s with the name?
We’re frequently asked why the name “ADVOS”.
Like so much about the nearly 10 year journey, it was a reaction to the way it has always been done, that then found a source of original inspiration and ultimately grew to have a much deeper meaning.
It started with not wanting the name of the firm to be a collection of last names, the way it has always been done. By design it was not intended to be about one lawyer or even a few lawyers, but about something bigger that could stand the test of time, embrace other lawyers who could develop the brand and last longer than the career of the founders.
If we know what it won’t be, that leaves a world of ideas of what it could be. Surveying clients and friends to unearth what was unique about our ethos, we heard: fierce advocates and strategic thinkers. We had a history of helping our clients position themselves well for the big goals they imagined, and we don’t take “no” for an answer.
→ advocacy + strategy → tada → ADVOS.
(Of course, we are lawyers, so we then did a trademark search to be sure the name was available and also searched to be sure it didn’t have a translation we would regret someday. Happily it didn’t have an unfortunate meaning and it is now a US registered trademark.)
Fast forward about a year when I was paying my property taxes, my ad valorem property taxes to be precise, and it dawned on me that AD VOS had to mean something in Latin. I had learned a little about Latin in high school and law school (but apparently not enough). It turns out “ad vos” means “unto you” – as in the Golden Rule – do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
We couldn’t have scripted it any better, as that is exactly the point of ADVOS.
Whitney and I had been buyers of legal services, had been in big law, had been general counsel, had been in operational roles. We had seen the role that law plays from inside and from outside the profession, had seen it through the client’s eyes, had reviewed invoices, reviewed time entries, seen where bills didn’t match our expectations. We had also learned how pricing works in so many other professions, where clarity removes obstacles in the relationship, and consistency and efficiency were the cornerstone of a healthy business.
We set out to build a firm that we would’ve loved to have hired when we were the client.
How can you know if you did what you set out to do? As business owners of a law firm, we find it incredibly important to measure what matters. If you want to learn more about how we measure whether we are living up to our Golden Rule name, check out this article on evaluating your client’s experience, this post on our NPS – or a bit about the feedback we receive.
This is the origin story of ADVOS – a name that encapsulates not just our services, or what we set out to build, but had a meaning so much greater than we ever imagined.
Here’s to your story of your #promance!
Gwen