Two venerable institutions are working on re-branding.

In this new promo video, Venable wants to clarify that its name starts with a "V."

From their marketing firm's website comes this insight into the new image:

Working with Greenfield/Belser, we sought to create a visual identity for our firm that best represented our firm’s personality:

* proud but not boastful
* self-assured but not cocky
* confident and competent but not arrogant
* decisive and resolute but flexible and adaptable
* enduring, built for the long haul but evolving with changing needs

We also sought to reinforce to existing clients and convey to prospective clients, the attributes that we are known for (in the view of our clients):

* a firm that gets what’s really important to me
* the best of both worlds, quality and excellence at a fair price
* real human beings, not robots
* genuine interest in me, my business and my concerns
* they tackle our problems like they’re their own
* they’re confident, determined, authentic, resolute, innovative and respected

Our New Brand

V is the first letter in the word “Venerable,” and “Victory,”and “Vision,” and…Venable. We have made very minor modifications to our logo. But we will now also incorporate a strong visual element throughout our materials – The Venable “V.” “V” is a powerful letter and we want to own it. It is strong and unique.

Very vinteresting.

The second re-branding campaign has been discussed before in these pages. Berkeley has issued a press release clarifying their name. An excerpt:

Names

* Our official name is the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. With external audiences, we will use our official name in full or in one of two abbreviated forms: UC Berkeley School of Law or Berkeley Law.
* We will continue to use the name Boalt Hall with alumni and with the internal law school community.

Approved
University of California, Berkeley, School of Law
UC Berkeley School of Law
Berkeley Law
Boalt Hall (within the “family”)

Discouraged
Berkeley School of Law
Berkeley Law School
Boalt Hall School of Law (or other permutations)

Please notice the Boalt logo at the top of the press release page. Mixed messages... we're confused...

Berkeley paid a public relations firm $25,000 to come up with the brilliant new moniker, UC Berkeley School of Law. We wonder why they didn't take ATL readers' (free) advice and call it the White Guys With Asian Girls School of Law.

Relax, folks. We are aware that the 2009 law school rankings of U.S. News & World Report have leaked, in advance of their official Friday publication date. They're all over the blogosphere and the message boards (links collected below).

We've been sitting on this item for a little while -- coordinating with our other posts this morning, taking into account our traffic patterns, etc. There is a method to our madness.

Ideally we'd hold this item even longer (which would allow us to do a more detailed write-up). But it's clear that you're all dying to talk about the rankings RIGHT NOW. And we don't want to get any more emails and comments of the "why aren't you writing about U.S. News" variety.

So here you go. Rankings and discussion, after the jump (i.e., click on the "Continue reading" link below).

Dean Christopher Edley, listen up. The people have spoken, and here is their verdict. UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall should be renamed... the White Guys With Asian Girls School of Law!

Don't like this idea? That's okay. At least we didn't charge you $25,000 for it.

UC Berkeley dropping Boalt Hall from law school's official name [San Francisco Chronicle]

Earlier: Renaming Boalt Hall: Please Cast Your Vote
Hey ATL Readers: Help Rename Boalt Hall!

As we mentioned last week, U.C. Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law hired a brand consulting firm to come up with a new name for the school. The effort ended somewhat anticlimactically. Boalt paid $25,000 to Marshall Strategy Inc., which came up with this brilliant new moniker: "UC Berkeley School of Law."

Oh well. But since we already took the time to read through hundreds of suggested new names for Boalt Hall, we're going to conduct this reader poll anyway.

Cast your vote, after the jump.

* U.C. Berkeley has settled on a new name for its law school. Check it out, it's quite brilliant. [Blogonaut]

(But we'll probably still conduct the reader poll mentioned here, just for the heck of it.)

* Strained attorney-client relations between Britney Spears and Anne Kiley? Apparently Brit has "trust issues" (in addition to that whole missing-panties problem). [OK! Magazine]

* Wow, this guy is quite a tool. Thankfully he's not a lawyer -- which you could infer from the facts that (1) he lives in Atlanta and (2) he brags about his compensation. [Gawker; follow-up here and here from DealBreaker]

* Judge of the Day. [St. Petersburg Times via Blogonaut]

* Exciting happenings this weekend: (1) the CSPAN rebroadcast of the Clarence Thomas book party, and (2) the nuptials of the Wall Street Journal's Peter Lattman. Congratulations and best wishes, PL! [WSJ Law Blog]

Attention, ATL readers -- your wit and wisdom are needed. From Cal Law (via Blogonaut):

Boalt Hall School of Law has hired San Francisco brand consulting firm Marshall Strategy Inc. to poll students, faculty, alumni and others in aid of devising a “single brand” name for the school, a Boalt spokeswoman said.

San Francisco Bay Area locals call the school Boalt Hall. But outside of California, that colloquialism often draws blank looks. Thus, what has been dubbed the “identity project”—to come up with a more readily identifiable name for the prestigious law school.

The school officially goes by University of California, Berkeley School of Law, according to spokesperson Susan Gluss. But in its its newsletters, Web pages, and other places, there are "about a dozen different names and iterations."

Speaking of "a dozen different names," that's what we'd like from you. In the comments to this post, please offer suggested new names for Boalt Hall. We'll pick the ten or twelve we like the most, hold an ATL reader poll, and forward the winning nomination to the Boalt Hall administration, for its consideration.

Our personal nomination: the Marsha Berzon School of Law, named after the distinguished and delicious Ninth Circuit judge (and Boalt Hall alumna). But whether our pick prevails will be up to you, the readership, when we hold the poll. We look forward to receiving and reviewing your nominations.

P.S. While we're talking about Boalt Hall, an ATL shout-out to the talented (and handsome) Josh Keesan, Boalt '09, who composes and performs clever songs with legal themes. From a tipster:

Forget Nixon Peabody, Boalt has the newest singing sensation. Check it: www.joshkeesan.com.

This kid is the love child of Oliver Wendell Holmes and John Mayer. Plus, in the aftermath of the Nixon Peabody atrocity, your readers need something to cleanse that awful taste in their mouths/ears.

He's taken Boalt by storm. The screams of his groupies at the annual public interest auction last year were deafening. So, give the West Coast some love, and post it!

More about Josh Keesan from the WSJ Law Blog. Maybe Boalt Hall could be rennamed the "Josh Keesan School of Law"?

Boalt Hall School of Law Will Change Name by January [Blogonaut]
Boalt Hall Looking at a Name Change [The Recorder via Yahoo News]
Law Blog Rocker of the Day: Boalt Hall’s Josh Keesan [WSJ Law Blog]

This was forwarded to us by a tipster:

April 25, 2007

To: Boalt Community

From: Dean Christopher Edley, Jr.

It has been a week since the distressing events involving a Boalt student’s threat —a hoax — against the community at Hastings College of the Law. I am writing to let you know that all our actions following the incident have been taken with the intention of securing the safety and well-being of our community and that at Hastings, while respecting the procedural rights of the student.

On Wednesday, April 25, 2007, the Law School filed a complaint with the U.C. Berkeley Judicial Affairs Office against the law student who claimed responsibility for posting the threat on a website. We, the administrative leadership of Boalt, believe that the student’s action is clearly in violation of a number of regulations detailed in the Student Code of Conduct. The case will be adjudicated by Judicial Affairs according to campus regulations. Those regulations prohibit us from disclosing the name of the student against whom we are proceeding.

Based on the facts as we understand them today, we have recommended expulsion. This is based not only on the intrinsic wrongfulness of the act itself, but also the disruption, turmoil and emotional toll on the Hastings community and, to a more limited extent, the Boalt community as well. I have received ample evidence of this through a great many emails, some of them painful to read.

This incident has once again confirmed for me the strength and qualities of the Boalt community. Even in this challenging circumstance, you have engaged in thoughtful and productive discussions. We should all take some pride in this, imperfect though we are.

Christopher Edley, Jr.
Professor of Law and Dean

Does the punishment fit the crime here? Judging by some of the comments to this thread, some readers think expulsion would be an overreaction. Pre-Virginia Tech, what kind of behavior would get you expelled from law school?

A Boalt law student could be facing criminal charges after allegedly posting online threats toward Hastings:

UC Hastings officials were alerted on Wednesday afternoon of a blog post threatening a copycat murder-suicide in reference to the events at Virginia Polytechnic Institute Monday, said UC Hastings spokesperson Lorri Ungaretti.

"The threat did not specifically reference it, but it felt clear that that was what it was," she said.

UC Hastings officials contacted the San Francisco Police Department as well as the San Francisco branch of the FBI, and cancelled classes for the rest of the day, Ungaretti said.

"The FBI investigated and found it was a student at Boalt and that it was a hoax," she said. "Classes resumed as usual (on Thursday)."

Read the text of the threat, after the jump.

Actually, make that the "Very Bad Ideas" file.

Our personal preference is to ignore such people and things (which is what we've been doing until now). But several of you have emailed us about this incident, which has been covered in the MSM; so interest in it is obviously high.

Here's what one source had to say:

As you may know, Hastings College of Law was evacuated [on Wednesday] as a result of an asinine post on autoadmit threatening Virginia Tech like violence, which, it turns out, was posted by a Boalt 1L. It turned out to be a tasteless joke, but the problems it has created seem to be never ending, including an ID checkpoint in front of the campus, the cancellation of numerous events including a journal symposium, and now, unacceptably, our bi-monthly ration of free beer and the Law Revue that was to follow it.

So read the links collected below, and discuss in the comments if you're so inclined. Thanks.

Autoadmit (aka the Ciolli/Cohen Discussion Board) "Strikes Again" [Brian Leiter's Law School Reports]
Lockdown: Virginia Tech Copycat Threat Causes Hastings Evacuation [Hastings News]
Hastings Scare: Threat on Web Shuts Law College [San Francisco Chronicle]
Copycat Threat Shuts Hastings Law School [San Francisco Chronicle]
Threats Taken Seriously at SF Law College [Bay City News Service]