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Publishing Hubs for Legal Professionals

December 18, 2021

Publishing hubs for lawyers have traditionally been larger legal publishers, independent law journals and reviews such as law reviews and bar associations.

Perhaps I am missing some of the traditional publishing hubs. During the time I practiced the only published writing I did was a chapter in Mathew Bender’s trial advocacy series.

The model of such hubs was submitting content to the publisher or being requested to write an article or publication. No matter what, the publisher held all the cards, they were the gatekeepers.

Publishing hubs have changed dramatically with the advent of the Internet.

Lawyers with a niche focus don’t need a publishing hub in the traditional sense.

Blogs have democratized publishing. Legal professionals and their publishing don’t need to be approved by gatekeepers. Let alone, giving their content to publishers and having them sell it.

Today, it’s get on the net, write in an engaging fashion and you’re there.

The hurdles are a good publishing platform and knowledge of how to write and network through the net in a manner that will get you seen and enable you to build a reputation and relationships.

Thinking about a publishing hub for legal professionals, today, I think of a community of blogging legal professions.

  • Blogs and bloggers indexed by subject, location, schools and associations
  • Profiles of blogs and bloggers for engagement of each other and by the public
  • Educational information on blogging and networking through the net
  • Easy way to follow/subscribe to blogs and subjects
  • Viability via a community site and via niche publications
  • A managed WordPress platform for those bloggers who don’t already have a good publishing platform

The visibility and reputation enhancement from independent publishing/blogging and such a publishing hub would be many times greater than the traditional publishing hubs of days past.

An effective hub such as this means not giving your content to someone to have them sell it, and not having to pay someone to distribute your content.

The open web can work well for publishing legal professionals with a hub that reflects the web versus the physical traditional world.