Goodbye, Garbo

"The world . . . no longer has any tolerance for - let alone fascination with - people who aren't willing to publicize themselves."

So goes the lament in a recent think piece from Ben Brantley of The New York Times.  For a guy who normally writes theater reviews (extremely well, by the way), he proves himself to be a pretty interesting thinker about public relations.

His piece is titled "What Ever Happened to Mystery?," and Brantley notes with some sadness that a figure like Greta Garbo - whose fame blossomed from the very distance she kept from the world - could never exist today. "Figures swathed in shadows," Brantley says, "are démodé in a culture in which the watchword is transparency."

That is true for celebrities, yes, and it's equally true for professional service firms.  Look what's happening at Cravath, perhaps the closest analog BigLaw has to Greta Garbo.  The Cravath name is gold, and that used to be enough.  But according to The American Lawyer, Cravath is hiring four new marketing employees (two replacements, two new positions), and will reportedly be pitching stories to magazines and vying for awards rankings.

Today, smart actors know that keeping their distance is a ticket to irrelevancy.  The smartest ones stay engaged with fans (not via drunken escapades on TMZ, mind you, but in positive forums like Twitter).  It's the same thing with the smartest law firms. Just look at Cravath.  Even they have realized it's 2010, and they've got to get out there and make a name for themselves.