Morrison & Foerster has fully embraced the moniker MoFo. And now the firm appears to be embracing a WTF theme for its website.
MoFo rolled out the new website recently. Tipsters say the new site took years and many dollars to create. The design budget is rumored to be $1 million. (We’ve asked the firm to comment on the cost, but it has not responded.)
The site, however, doesn’t look like a million bucks. Multiple readers have checked it out and sent us emails like this one:
It looks like someone hacked their site, or that they delegated web design (and authorship) to a 13-year-old kid learning HTML. Truly dreadful.
Most Biglaw websites are pretty staid. MoFo is seriously rocking the Biglaw boat with this redesign. There are mind games, sound effects, and optical illusions. We give you a tour after the jump.
Here’s the site’s new American Apparel-esque welcome page:
If you click on Imagination, MoFo tells you:
We’re rarely at a loss for words. But sometimes showing beats telling.
We suspect the designers are fans of the puzzles of Myst. This page left us more perplexed than the space-time continuum questions raised by the Lost season premiere last night:
It turns out to be a fun little game. These shapes represent MoFo’s characteristics. Click on a shape to see what two characteristics MoFo combines! Try to figure out what it means! Then click on the little comment cloud on the left for the answer. Here are some examples.
MoFo wants this to illustrate “Acuity and Diligence.”
This said to us: “We will solve your puzzles and clean up your sh**.”
This is supposed to suggest that MoFo is “Predictable and Unexpected.”
It said to us: “We are some crazy MoFo’ers, and we wake up hella’ early.”
This is meant to illustrate that MoFo is “Imposing and Agile.”
It said to us: “We like animals.”
If you’re not tired of MoFo’s mind games, surf on over to Innovation. This page hurts my eyes and my brain:
And then MoFo doesn’t even give you the answers to the optical illusions. It colorfully explains:
Why do clients have to solve the puzzles themselves? Isn’t that why they hire lawyers? Are their prospective clients really supposed to be conversant with the rule against perpetuities? That’s like Daniel Faraday expecting the rest of the Lost characters to understand his physics equations and why the Island can move through time.
We checked out MoFo’s Commitment and wondered if this is really the image one wants for conveying how “special” the firm is:
Apparently, the website designers were not committed to proper spelling:
Finally, if you click on This is MoFo, you’re taken to a page with ‘25 reasons why you should choose MoFo.’ Reasons include #2 – Diversity, illustrated by a box of chocolates and #12 – Kumbaya, because MoFo is good at executing M&A transactions filled with peace and harmony:
It’s hard to focus on the “peace” part of this, because every time you click on those numbers, it makes a gunshot noise. Exploring the page feels like being in a drive-by shooting.
Rather than thinking about the “25 examples of what makes MoFo different,” the page made us think, “This is MoFo. Hire us or we’ll put a cap in your a**.”
Morrison & Foerster [official website]
What the 1st?
MoFirst
nicely done, kash. ask elie to explain the rule of perpetuities to you, though.
“We will solve your puzzles and clean up your shit.”
An succinct statement of BigLaw.
It might help to attract tech start ups to be “different.” There is an, at times, crushing emphasis on “sameness” at the upper echelons of top law schools and at Peer firms. Of course, that sameness also keeps out undesirable elements like rabble rousing founders of their schools “first journal dedicated entirely to dovetailing transgender studies and the law” or hipsters with blue hair. Get ye to hughes hubbard or somesuch!
HYS SECURE
every time you click ona number – it sounds like a gun shot. SCARY!
Crazy MOtherFOckers
“…not all of us can necessarily solve all of these puzzles within a life in being plus 21 years.”
What the hell does this mean? Is figuring this sentence out part of the puzzle?
“…not all of us can necessarily solve all of these puzzles within a life in being plus 21 years.”
What the hell does this mean? Is figuring this sentence out part of the puzzle?
I admire them for trying something different.
That said, law firms always seem to fear things that are new and strange. It wouldn’t surprise me if when some partners get wind of the changes, it ends up being neutered somewhat shortly.
I think within the next month MoFo will have a relatively standard law firm website up.
Head-scratchin’ silly. Close friend is a Mofo’d CA partner: word is Mofo hired a famously inept West Coast marketing crack-pot at a tag of 500K, fired her, fired her agency, dumped their work then started from scratch. $1mm is low-ball estimate for this. Pass those costs on to the clients please!
The combination of the piggy bank + the tree=money for weed.
-MoFoshizzle.
So more fun stuff here… I especially like the comparison of law students to pigeons:
http://www.mofocareers.com/
So more fun stuff here… I especially like the comparison of law students to pigeons:
http://www.mofocareers.com/
The name “MoFo” was cool before the firm adopted it. Now it’s just fucking lame.
Innovative, but sadly, also ugly and user-unfriendly. Places form over substance, and cliches dominate over the basic facts one would want to learn from browsing to a law firm website.
9-10: You obviously never went to law school. Or, like the rest of us, you promptly completely forgot about that stupid rule and never thought of it again as soon as the bar was over.
I actually quite like this – so much more interesting than the standard firm website, which is about as bland and vanilla as you can get. And have you seen Cravath’s? Granted it’s not as “fun”, but if you think this is bad, WTF is that about?
btw no.9 and 10, I’m assuming that’s supposed to a humorous reference to the rule against perpetuities. Lawyers (or their web designers) obvi don’t make good comedians.
What the Asslobster?
When I first saw it, I actually thought it was still under construction and they were still working out the HTML kinks.
The great irony here is that just a couple of years ago — before the great crash — the powers that be eliminated all reference to “MoFo” from our advertising materials because the New York partners thought it sounded “too Californian.” Fast forward through one East-Coast-dominance-emasculating financial crash, and all the sudden “Californication” is back in vogue, at the cost of several annual salaries of laid-off attorneys and/or staff.
19, my property professor skipped the rule of perpetuities completely because he said we would all get it wrong anyway.
Why do people go to law firm websites? To play games and solve puzzles and listen to cha-cha music? I have AddictiveGames.com and Lala.com for that. There are far more interesting time-wasters. Just get me in, get me the guy’s phone number, and get me out. This is navel-gazing and or worse, a circus stunt.
Kashmir is one of the funniest bloggers writing these days.
interesting website. cool idea. meh execution.
i think they can tweak it a little to make it much better.
Does the website tell you what’s inside the Hatch or who Jacob is?
Has MoFo ever heard of the idea of being “too cute for your own good”? There’s a difference between standing out from the crowd and looking silly. This website seems to border on silly with it’s jarring design and too many weak attempts to be clever/humorous.
Looking at mofo.com, I have to ask: is this a practical joke? Comrades, I’m not laughing.
There’s something to be said for “breaking all the rules” in good web design, but this dead communist thinks you need a good reason to break all the rules. Particularly when your business is based around helping people work within the rules. What that site says to me, visually, is: “If we treat your eyeballs like this, dear client, then you just know we’ll take a dump on your opponents desk after a night of Indian take-out. Mofo in the house!”
Jabbing people’s eyes with pointy contrast and annoying fonts is not an inviting experience. It doesn’t take an ice pick in your head to realize that.
Trying too hard to be cool is so…uncool. Turned it off. It gave me a headache.
Wow – what I can’t get over is how the font is so large it seems to be screaming at you – my head started to hurt after looking at it for just a couple minutes, and I’m a potential client – not good.
Trying too hard to be cool is so…uncool.
I can tell you that the website for Rick’s Cabaret looks much more sophisticated and appealing to the vistor’s eye than this non-peer’s site. I can also assure you that Rick’s Cabaret did not pay a million for its site. A million dollars for this site? It seems to me some web developer laughed his way to the bank while displaying a smirk that says “I just ripped off a bunch of ’sophisticated’ lawyers.”
Here is a suggestion for this website:
Chicken + my penis = KEEP FUCKIN’ THAT CHICKEN!
CommiTTTment, indeed.
A picture is worth a thousand words. That being said, this is what I think of this non-peer firm and its website:
http://www.freewebs.com/welcometolemora/Dirty%20Toilet.jpg
I couldn’t be more relieved to see a law firm website that is not the same as all others. Law firms are lemmings. Lawyers fear change. This design is beautiful, the industry is just years behind.
The 25 reasons thing reminds me of an advent calendar. — a scary one where you click on a number and there is an old black and white guy holding a giant watermelon instead of a piece of candy!!
Why 25 reasons? Isn’t it usually 7 or 10.
Actually much better than most law firm websites. Most are really boring. It’s nice to see one that’s interesting, it’s sad that people fear change, especially in an industry that so desperately needs it.
The 25 reasons thing reminds me of an advent calendar. — a scary one where you click on a number and there is an old black and white guy holding a giant watermelon instead of a piece of candy!!
Why 25 reasons? Isn’t it usually 7 or 10.
Doughnut + abnormal cat scan = Elie
What’s with the pics of attorneys on the website? They’re all fuzzy.
What’s with the pics of attorneys on the website? They’re all fuzzy.
is #29 an actual non-shtick registered poster??? weird
“Shiny ball!” Look over here! No look over here! Click on this! No, click on that! Hahahah isn’t this fun? We’re clever! We’re wordy! We’re obtuse! We’re Mofo dammit!
The Cirque Du Soleil of law firm websites. And I hate Cirque du Soleil.
YLS diploma + Goatse = Lat
is #29 an actual non-shtick registered poster??? weird
Who approved this terrible campaign? Garbage like this will never get your name on the door.
Who approved this terrible campaign? Garbage like this will never get your name on the door.
Yep, 53, I post using my legal name. Crazy but true.
Why not call your firm Mother Fucker, or MoFo for short.
it’s about TIME. seriously.
The site did not take YEARS, it only took a few months. Maybe 4 or 5.
Surely when spending this much on a web campaign a firm would edit out sentence fragments? Annoying, incorrect, fragments. Like this. No good for PR. Or briefs.
Were I an exisitng client, I’d be upset that the $500+ hourly rate I pay was portioned off to subsidize this mess of a website. As I client, I’d want to pay for quality legal services — not this trash. What this website tells me is that MoFo charges its existing clients far too much, if the firm can afford both this dumb website redesign and top-of-the-market PPPs. Bad call, MoFo marketing department.
I spent about ten seconds on this website before I started to get a headache. Seriously.
And as for commiTTTment, if I’m a potential client what do I care if these MoFo’s do pro bono?
29, just be truthful and say you want to do her.
I can’t remember the last time I was on a website as slow as MoFo’s – probably when I had to dial up through my modem.
And don’t get me started on the lawyer pictures – horrible! Don’t any of them smile?
Well, I’ll say one thing, the site is ripe for hilarious parody. Sadly, no one will be able to tell the difference between the parody and reality.
Sitting here blushing with embarrassment as I click thru my firm’s new website, reading this utter TRIPE + thinking about some of my associate friends who were laid off last year — did their salaries go to pay for this???!
Well speaking of photos, why not spring for all black suits, shirts, ties and hats for the photos in keeping with the B/W graphics and Mofo mode?
Well speaking of photos, why not spring for all black suits, shirts, ties and hats for the photos in keeping with the B/W graphics and Mofo mode?
I’m a MoFoer and am officially mortified.
What did you expect from a firm that permits lesbians and blue jeans in the workplace?
I think you speak from the heart MOFOers, but I say to myself this management at MOFO — your boss — he has ‘chivatos’ like that designing your website and working for him, his judgment stinks. So I think to myself, what other mistakes have these MOFO management guys made, how can I trust this organization…hunh? You tell me Tony.
- Sosa
I think you speak from the heart MOFOers, but I say to myself this management at MOFO — your boss — he has ‘chivatos’ like that designing your website and working for him, his judgment stinks. So I think to myself, what other mistakes have these MOFO management guys made, how can I trust this organization…hunh? You tell me Tony.
- Sosa
Brilliant post, Kash.
I’m struck by the mind-numbing volume of verbiage. It’s like the ‘Blah Blah Blah Ginger’ cartoon of law web sites. Who did they imagine was going to sift through all this self-laudatory back slapping? Clients??? Mary, please…
A web site by designers, for designers, designed to win design competitions. Or something. Damned if I know.
61 – This had nothing to do with marketing, or MoFo’s fine marketing department. This, alas, is the result of one overbearing lawyer run amuk with way too much power, time, and ego + lame ideas = MoFoers know who I’m talking about!
61 – This had nothing to do with marketing, or MoFo’s fine marketing department. This, alas, is the result of one overbearing lawyer run amuk with way too much power, time, and ego + lame ideas = MoFoers know who I’m talking about!
Yes we do know who you mean — and maybe that “person” (note gender neutrality – so Mofo!) will have some billable hours this year instead of spending all of her — or his — time writing valentines to his or herself.
Did they forget they’re in the business of selling judgment? This isn’t an exemplary example of that judgment.
Did they forget that they’re in the business of selling judgment?
This isn’t an exemplary example of that judgment.
“Yes we do know who you mean — and maybe that “person” (note gender neutrality – so Mofo!) will have some billable hours this year instead of spending all of her — or his — time writing valentines to his or herself.”
Agree with 78-79. Why would a client trust this firm with important matters when it shows such poor decision making on perhaps the most visible advertisement for its services? I know many MoFo attorneys and let me say this, your firm screwed up. It took me longer to find what I needed on your firm’s website, so I will cease visiting it. I don’t need to be bombarded with crap advertisements when I go to MoFo’s website. I already decided to visit it, so why make a site to reduce navigation and encourage me to leave?
I do not think the redesign will reduce the number of existing MoFo clients, as those clients already know which attorneys to use. But for new clients, the website is a definite navigate and says, we are MoFo, we are arrogant and oh so stylish – but good luck trying to find any useful information on what we do. Grats on the redesign FAIL.
35 – brilliant schtick in theory, but you need to step your game up a notch. you can do it!
and yeah, this site is trying *way* too hard. (not that it wasn’t even before the redesign.)
77 – do tell.
76 + 77: can’t agree more with you. And gender neutrality is important because we are oh-so-PC here in New York and do not want to offend anybody, in particular no female partner…
I think you speak from the heart MOFOers, but I say to myself this management at MOFO — your boss — he has ‘chivatos’ like that designing your website and working for him, his judgment stinks. So I think to myself, what other mistakes have these MOFO management guys made, how can I trust this organization…hunh? You tell me Tony.
- Sosa
I think you speak from the heart MOFOers, but I say to myself this management at MOFO — your boss — he has ‘chivatos’ like that designing your website and working for him, his judgment stinks. So I think to myself, what other mistakes have these MOFO management guys made, how can I trust this organization…hunh? You tell me Tony.
- Sosa
What has long been suspected is now confirmed…MoFo has lost its MoJo.
Add a few rorschach inkblots and they can will be able to cure your daddy-issues, too.
Townsend called, and they want their design back: http://www.townsend.com/Who/OurCommunities
Compare to
http://www.mofo.com/about/community/ and
Design/branding for both MoFo and Townsend was done by Cahan & Associates. It sounds like $1 million gets you a recycled design/brand. Have to pony up $2 million for something original.
Townsend called, and they want their design back: http://www.townsend.com/Who/OurCommunities
Compare to
http://www.mofo.com/about/community/ and
Design/branding for both MoFo and Townsend was done by Cahan & Associates. It sounds like $1 million gets you a recycled design/brand. Have to pony up $2 million for something original.
Looks like for an extra mil, you get a serif font.
Ghastly waste of time and effort.
Functionally clunky. Visually repellant. And “populated” with remarkably inane “puzzles” and illustrations instead of useful data.
One wonders “Was this product subjected to any prior testing against the perceptions of those to whom the website is intended to appeal?” Which, one assumes, are not art dealers in Berlin.
The comments about this website, while off-the-cuff, seem more considered than the Wall of VooDoo concept of the site itself. Three dimensional fail.
As a former MoFo, all I can say is Jesus, God. Who the f*ck designed this monstrosity? And did they design the site for the blind? Or were the designers themselves blind? This is awful. Associating myself with this panty-waste marketing drivel totally degrades my resume. Thanks, a**holes.
I sent this to my mom and she has now added the phrase “What the MoFo?” to her daily lexicon. Everything from, “What the MoFo is this about an NFL lockout?” to “What the MoFo am I going to do about my messed up highlights?”
When a rogue partner (even a female NY partner) can get away with hijacking so much of a firm’s resources and money — without any knowing!!! — one has to wonder what else may be remiss and mismanaged within the firm. As a potential client, I would never trust them to manage my matters, based purely on the evidence this embarrassingly bad and useless, backfiring web site indicates about runaway costs, hideous judgment, and totally absent management oversight (or the cajones to stop this kind of recklessness). Stay away from my matters, please, or I might have a cow!
I met the firm’s chair at a LGBTG fundraiser in SF a couple years ago, when I was 2nd year @ peer BigLaw firm. He was completely bland, notably dapper, and oddly kind of out of it…maybe the place is on autopilot and it’s whoever grabs the throttle gets to fly the plane. Or the design the website.
So it only looks like their english site is on crack…maybe this is in keeping with their year of Asia or whatever plan…as in they will only try to maintain a professional appearance in Asian languages
Can someone explain what this even means?
“Ranking in the top 10 firms takes a little something extra something about a firm’s culture and it speaks volumes.”
- direct quote from square 18 of the advent calendar thing.
Please don’t tell me the “MoFo difference” is crap grammar and/or nonsensical reasoning.
they cut associate salaries for this??
Imposing + Agile = We’re fat as elephants and drive Jaguars.
#29 is a meta-shtick.
For the last several years Mofo management has been living under the delusion that they are becoming a major presence in NY, even suggesting that their headquarters would be moving there from San Francisco. It hasn’t quite worked out that way. In pursuing this folly they’ve gained a mediocre practice in NY while losing their edge in California. Certain NY partners have capitalized on management’s zeal by playing them like a Madoff violin, thus the new website.
As a partner in a design and communication firm I’m really surprised and disappointed by this site. Like most designers, I am familiar with Pentagram’s body of work and their many talented partners. How this slipped through the cracks I can’t frankly fathom? All the components of a strong site are missing; branding, messaging, navigation, consistency. To top it all off, the commitment to MOFO is a infantile choice for a law firm or any company that’s not in fashion, snowboards or surfing. Overall, this is an excellent example of name recognition beating common sense into submission.