Smokeball, an AI legal practice management software, has unveiled a new global brand identity, developed with Sydney and London based brand agency, Frost, and built around the idea of powering people-law.
The refresh comes as Smokeball continues to scale across Australia, the US and the UK, and as AI changes the way legal work gets done – making it more important than ever to keep the human side of the profession front and centre.
The brief was to build a brand that reflects the deeply human work sitting behind every legal matter. The first home buyers, the families navigating separation, and the people seeking justice that lawyers show up for every day, without losing the trust Smokeball has built with more than 7,000 law firms over more than a decade.
“We want our brand to reflect the incredible community we serve,” said Hunter Steele, Smokeball co-founder and chief executive.
“As we’ve grown into a global business, our brand hadn’t kept up with the value we provide. ‘Powering People-Law’ is a clearer expression of the purpose that’s guided us from the start. This isn’t a reinvention – law has always been, and always will be, a people business. Our role is to power the lawyers behind that work, giving them more time to focus on the people who need them most.”
The new identity puts the people Smokeball serves at its centre. A new flag-inspired logo nods to advocacy and equal access to justice, with its S visualising an equals sign. Smokeball leans into authentic photography that features real clients, team members and community members in place of stock imagery, and a warmer visual system designed to feel distinctly human.
“People-law was already there in how Smokeball’s clients talk about their work – we just gave it a name, and a brand confident enough to carry it,” said Nicola Mansfield, head of brand, Frost and Anthony Donovan, group creative director.
The positioning has already struck a chord beyond Smokeball’s own channels. Bob Ambrogi, lawyer and journalist behind the LawSites blog, put it this way: “I’ll confess a soft spot for the ‘people-law’ positioning. Legal tech vendors and customers get so focused on technology and innovation, on the shiny objects, that we can lose touch with what this is all about, with why lawyers went to law school in the first place and who it is they serve.”
