Shorter is better.

While Arkansas is part of the national marketing trend among colleges and universities, our legal community has been behind the marketing curve.

Now Mitchell Williams Selig Gates & Woodyard PLLC of Little Rock, which last March hired its first marketing specialist, is turning up the heat as it kicks off a new branding campaign today that features an updated Web site and--thankfully--an abbreviated name.

MITCHELL || WILLIAMS

Andrea Morrissey, who spent more than three years at Stone Ward, the state's second-largest ad firm, joined the law firm last spring as director of marketing and client relations. Morrissey said that though the firm will keep its extended name for official purposes, all branding starting today will now simply be Mitchell Williams.

"For many years, we have been known in the community as Mitchell Williams," Harry Hamlin, managing director, said in a press release. "As a practical step, we feel it is the right time for us to acknowledge the trend corporate America has created in streamlining identities by shortening long company names for branding purposes, and to create a new look that clearly communicates the momentum of innovation and progress within our firm."

The new logo, Morrissey said, was designed by an undisclosed local ad firm. The Web site being launched today, www.mitchellwilliamslaw.com, was created by Flex 360, a division of Arkansas Business Publishing Group. (Believe it or not, Outtakes didn't realize that until last week.)