To restore one’s image

La Rochelle, august 2015.

It’s summer time. The sun has been shining for several weeks, and a thin layer of dust covers the different professional nameplates of this notarial office. Cleaning these golden signs is part of the housekeeper’s work. She removes the dust accumulated during the previous days with a cloth and a proper product. Clean nameplates is a means to attract attention of any passerby, in expectation that she will become a potential customer. Like in other business situations, judgments about the high professionalism start at the doorstep. And every notary having her nameplate in the forefront of a building knows how much it equals a particular workload. Not only she endorses judicial responsibilities with regard to all citizens, but the acquisition of a notarial office also amounts an important bank loan. Simultaneously, each nameplate circumscribes a peculiar territorial jurisdiction. But the recent reconsideration of this regulated profession in France results in an hardening competition among professionals. So, cleaning nameplates is not enough. To get a place in the sun in this new free market, nameplates have to sparkle.