The Contributor or the Legal Publisher: A Lawyer’s Choice

Imagine this scenario for a young lawyer.

• Graduate near the top of your class from a leading university.
• Get into Yale Law School.
• Make law review.
• Clerk for a respected federal appellate judge.
• Get recruited by—and accept a position with one of the most preeminent law firms in the country.
• Arrive at the firm ready to learn, work hard, contribute and build a name—and a career in the law.

All expected.

What you may not expect is being asked to use your knowledge, skill and passion in the law for content marketing.

• Visibility.
• SEO.
• Positioning.

And to be fair, this kind of writing does matter. Publishing updates on legal developments, communicating firm expertise, and staying top-of-mind with clients and referral sources—these are all essential to business development in today’s legal market.

But for many lawyers, especially those who view writing as a way to learn and contribute to the profession, the label “content marketing” can feel… limiting. Even off-putting.

No one talks about thought leadership as a form of contribution to the law. Or permanence. Or legacy.

It makes a lawyer wonder if they are working part of their time as as a content marketer—writing to keep a brand visible—versus a publisher: a lawyer who writes to shape legal understanding, participate in the law and to leave a legacy.

There’s a difference.

• A contributor shares. A publisher authors.
• Content may be seen—but legal publishing is seen, used in the law and remembered.
• Content is created to comand attention. Publishing earns trust.
• Publishing lives on—in legal research libraries and platforms, and is used and cited by lawyers, courts, the public and influencers.
• Publishing leaves a legacy, content may be hidden or deleted with a change in firm marketing, marketing platform or a change in firms.

This lawyer has the training, the voice, the passion and intellect to do more than content marketing—when it came to writing.

The choice before the lawyer wasn’t about putting in the time writing or not writing. It was about writing that would engage an audience, build a name, grow business for a lifetime and contribute to the law—long term.

Lawyers and lawyers should not forget:

• Publishers build names.
• Publishers build business—for their firms and themselves.
• Publishers shape the law and leave something behind.

You don’t need to content market to achieve this. You need to write like you care about the law—and your place in it.

Lawyers have always written to understand, to persuade, to contribute. Today, the platforms have changed, but the stakes haven’t.

Write to perform, and you’ll be read for a moment. Write to publish, and you’ll be read for a career—to the benefit of your law firm, your clients and yourself, as a lawyer.