Page 27 - Leaders in Legal Business and The 1000 Leaders and Influencers - Draft 1
P. 27
reduced the barriers to entry for legal news providers, given the possibility of accessing readers
without the need to print and distribute a magazine. The U.K. site RollOnFriday, which was set
up in 2000, and the U.S.’s Above the Law, which was in launched in 2006, are two prominent
examples of online-only news sites.
What do these media outlets cover? The same principal outlined by Brill when he struck
upon the idea of founding a magazine covering legal business applies today as it did then. While
all the world’s legal business magazines and websites have their areas of specialty, the common
denominator between them is that they provide news, commentary, and analysis about the
business of the law. Typically, there is a focus on the activities of law firms — information about
the work that they are undertaking, the strategies they are pursuing, and their financial
performance. There is also coverage about the markets in which law firms operate that seeks to
identify trends, opportunities, and threats. While recent years have witnessed an explosion in the
number of legal blogs that provide commentary about the legal market from all sorts of angles,
there remains a need for a body of trained, professional journalists whose job it is to seek out the
information about law firms and their markets that bloggers use as material for their blogs and
tweets.
Given the plethora of legal business magazines and websites plying their trade, and the
even larger number of bloggers writing about the market, large commercial law firms employ
public relations teams to manage their relationships with the media, thereby maximizing the
benefits of positive news about and minimizing the impact of bad news. While smaller firms,
which lack the resources to run their own media departments, may live in fear of a negative story
making the headlines, arguably it is the lack of positive coverage about the good work they do
that has the biggest impact on them. There are, however, plenty of examples of smaller firms that
have successfully raised their profile by generating positive publicity in the legal and national
press. Such success is invariably hard earned, reflecting a conscious decision to regard media
relations as a central part of a firm’s strategy. Firms that are serious about gaining positive media
coverage need to do their homework. They need to research the legal business media in their
jurisdictions, decide which outlets they want to target, and then get to know how they operate, a
process that should include, if possible, meeting reporters and editors, and seeking to gain an
understanding of the kind of news in which they are interested. Pitching an inappropriate piece of
news to a magazine is not just a waste of time, but can also be counterproductive.
Ultimately, though, it is difficult to see how firms can thrive in the field of media
relations without the help of regular professional advice and training harnessed to a genuine
desire from key partners to engage with the media. The good news for those firms that do
succeed in getting it right is that most firms — certainly in jurisdictions with which I am familiar
— do it badly. This means that law firms that strike on the correct formula can gain a significant
advantage. And while the legal business media market continues to evolve, there seems little
doubt that it will also continue to thrive.
13
without the need to print and distribute a magazine. The U.K. site RollOnFriday, which was set
up in 2000, and the U.S.’s Above the Law, which was in launched in 2006, are two prominent
examples of online-only news sites.
What do these media outlets cover? The same principal outlined by Brill when he struck
upon the idea of founding a magazine covering legal business applies today as it did then. While
all the world’s legal business magazines and websites have their areas of specialty, the common
denominator between them is that they provide news, commentary, and analysis about the
business of the law. Typically, there is a focus on the activities of law firms — information about
the work that they are undertaking, the strategies they are pursuing, and their financial
performance. There is also coverage about the markets in which law firms operate that seeks to
identify trends, opportunities, and threats. While recent years have witnessed an explosion in the
number of legal blogs that provide commentary about the legal market from all sorts of angles,
there remains a need for a body of trained, professional journalists whose job it is to seek out the
information about law firms and their markets that bloggers use as material for their blogs and
tweets.
Given the plethora of legal business magazines and websites plying their trade, and the
even larger number of bloggers writing about the market, large commercial law firms employ
public relations teams to manage their relationships with the media, thereby maximizing the
benefits of positive news about and minimizing the impact of bad news. While smaller firms,
which lack the resources to run their own media departments, may live in fear of a negative story
making the headlines, arguably it is the lack of positive coverage about the good work they do
that has the biggest impact on them. There are, however, plenty of examples of smaller firms that
have successfully raised their profile by generating positive publicity in the legal and national
press. Such success is invariably hard earned, reflecting a conscious decision to regard media
relations as a central part of a firm’s strategy. Firms that are serious about gaining positive media
coverage need to do their homework. They need to research the legal business media in their
jurisdictions, decide which outlets they want to target, and then get to know how they operate, a
process that should include, if possible, meeting reporters and editors, and seeking to gain an
understanding of the kind of news in which they are interested. Pitching an inappropriate piece of
news to a magazine is not just a waste of time, but can also be counterproductive.
Ultimately, though, it is difficult to see how firms can thrive in the field of media
relations without the help of regular professional advice and training harnessed to a genuine
desire from key partners to engage with the media. The good news for those firms that do
succeed in getting it right is that most firms — certainly in jurisdictions with which I am familiar
— do it badly. This means that law firms that strike on the correct formula can gain a significant
advantage. And while the legal business media market continues to evolve, there seems little
doubt that it will also continue to thrive.
13
