Naming rights

Sometimes it takes an outsider to give the world a shake-up so this morning I take off my helmet to salute White Dalton Motorcycle Solicitors.

Yes, you read that aright. At first I thought that “Motorcycle” was a faster-than-the-speed-of-light name partner in the firm. Not a bit of it. Motorcycle work is what this firm specialises in, so it has put it clearly on the packet.

Now, strictly speaking, WDM — closely allied, you might imagine, to WD40, the engineering lubricant — is not a City firm. In fact it revs up in Leighton Buzzard. But don’t hold that against it. These guys mean business and have more than a thing or two to teach fancy City marketeers. Its website (www.whitedalton.co.uk) is undoubtedly one of the best and most effective I’ve come across and the cover shot of them all astride their machines is a triumph of market positioning. As they say, loudly: “Our practice, set up in the 1960s, has total motorbike experience.”

Alas, many of its cases are tragic and the issue that brought the partners to my attention last week was no laughing matter whatsoever. But if your cause involves two wheels and an engine and you want serious commitment then these look the kind of guys you would want on your side of the ignition, all leathered up with withering looks.

Totalled up

As it happens, I wrote a little article a couple of years ago urging niche firms to be more upfront about their specialisms so I am delighted that WDM is a textbook example of what I had in mind. But what other examples might we have?

Well, what about this? Last week I received lots of stuff about Withers’ new office in Hong Kong. Now Withers, as you may know, prides itself on being “the world’s leading law firm for high net worth individuals” and specialises in the “wealth planning needs of entrepreneurs”.

So surely it should rebrand as Wealth Withers! Add that: “Our practice has totalled high net worth.” I tell you, it cannot fail.

Power gen

You may have gathered that this job comes with lots of perks and I’m pleased to report that the heftiest of all arrived last week (just in time, in fact, to cure those worst-days-of-the-year blues). Yes, you have guessed. Courtesy of my good friend Mark Saunders, a partner at Berwin Leighton Paisner, a copy of Electricity Regulations 2008 arrived on my doorstep.

Now, BLP had contributed the chapter on the UK and you might well ask, how can so much be written about so little? But as Saunders commented in his attached note: “The enclosed may be useful.” And so it proved as I fed its many pages into my withering fire to keep the electricity bill down.

Act now

“The recent problems in the City will inevitably lead to a rash of class actions,” announced Brian Raincock, executive chairman of LawAssist last week. “One wonders what shareholders in Northern Rock are thinking. Surely they have every right to say: ‘Why am I suffering loss, what were the directors doing with my money?’ ” So whither are we heading? Surely it’s time to turn LawAssist into ClassAct?

edward.fennell@yahoo.co.uk

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