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Chicago's Sachnoff & Weaver just published its always-superb annual review.  Copies of 10 years of reviews are viewable online.  The impressive 48-page, 2005 glossy brochure recounts 22 major client stories, followed by bullet points of other cases in the same practice area. (Click on the picture at the right to see it full-size.) The review by the 145-lawyer Chicago firm hits the mark in several ways:

• Client testimonials are interspersed with the success stories.  For example, Earl Matzkin, President of Geneva International Corporation, is quoted saying "What I value most about my relationship with Sachnoff's attorneys is the deep interest they've taken in my business." Illustrated with oil-painting pictures, the review also quotes clients Debra Koenig, CEO of VICORP Restaurants, Joel Solomon, GC of Corus Bank, Mark Rogers, Corporate Counsel of Insight Enterprises ("I knew that Sachnoff was a definite keeper"), Jill Murphy, Associate GC of Aegon USA ("Sachnoff has the depth of talent you'd expect from a large, multi-office organization") and Noel Elfant, GC of Zebra Technologies Corp.  Wow -- it doesn't get better than this.
• "Happy Talk" is kept to a minimum.  The intro page from the CEO and President is restrained to one page and runs an amazingly concise 244 words.  This is a model for law firms everywhere!
• The headline also summarizes the success story, which is the zenith of succinctness.
• Color pictures jump off the page, enlivening the stories about battles over wheat beer and copper mining.
• The annual report can serve as the firm brochure.  There's just no need to say anything else.

Kudos, once again, to Jason Isadore, Senior Client Services Manager, and his boss, marketing wizard Dean Harakas, the firm's Vice President-Client Services and Strategic Planning.