Is There Still Room for Legal Publishing in Law Firms?

Has legal publishing lost its place in the modern law firm?

I ask in the sense of my long standing belief that there’s a difference, be it subtle at times–and that’s okay–between publishing to contribute versus publishing to market.

Legal publishing, in the sense other than primary law, historically came from lawyers interpreting, explaining, and advancing the law. Bar periodicals, bar publications, law journals and more. Some of which I used to explain to trial court judges how we should interpret an issue.

The rise of the legal blog in the early 2000’s not only democratized legal publishing for lawyers but provided timely, accessible, practitioner-led legal insight and commentary. More law on more topics for peers and the public.

Publishing lawyers, whether driven to build trust, credibility, serve others or build a strong book of business were doing so.

Publishing vs. Content Marketing

Seven to ten years after the advent the legal blog, the concept of “content marketing” came of age as part of digital marketing.

Rather than legal publishing driven by passion, sharing and building for the long-term, content marketing brought a strategy-led, metrics-focused approach that risks draining authenticity.

Genuine legal voices, the source of the first legal blog in many large law firms, was sidelined for polished, yet more diluted content–lack of opinions, story telling, and referencing the publishing of lawyers from peer firms. Length, be it too long or too short, and “appropriate” keywords and linking for SEO became tactics.

Many of the “first bloggers” in law firms, even large law firms, kept their publishing separate and apart from the firm’s content market initiatives. They didn’t want to dilute the impact their publishing was having.

Alarming Trend Not to Preserve the Law

Talking to law firm leaders, as part of LexBlog’s initiative to recognize and preserve the publishing of practicing lawyers over the last couple decades, I have discovered what I saw as some wild practices for the law–in which I include legal publishing that interprets and advances the law.

Some law firms treat legal publishing as disposable. Articles and posts are disposed after six years or so as the content is stale and/or because it may reflect negatively on SEO performance. Other law firms remove all publishing of the lawyers who leave the firm, as if their insight and contributions to the law didn’t matter.

The institutional memory of the lawyer and the law firm–and the law itself–is lost.

Why Legal Publishing Still Matters

Publishing for marketing and visibility has its role, but legal publishing by the practitioner is not solely about marketing, though it may achieve what we call marketing as a byproduct.

• Lawyers personally engage with the law in authentic, engaging and thought provoking ways. It’s how the law builds upon itself.
• This publishing serves peers (especially when it engages the publishing of peers), clients and prospective clients, the courts and the public.
• This publishing builds a legacy.
• Lawyers become better lawyers, more critical thinkers and recognized authorities.
• This publishing opens doors to new opportunities: bigger or more meaningful clients, speaking, and leadership.
• This publishing moves on to secondary law in the libraries held by legal research companies/publishers.

Seems there is still a place or there should be a place for law firms to empower lawyers to publish and reflect in authentic voices–especially in the case of younger lawyers and those crazy about a niche that others can’t see–and are not be crazy about.

And a place to preserve your firm’s legal publishing archive–it is part of the firm’s and your lawyers’ contribution to the profession, let alone “the law,” itself.

Law firms needn’t abandon content marketing, just recognize the room–and need– for legal publishing, whether in the form blogging, articles, alerts, newsletter pieces , white papers or what have you.

The law, it seems to me, needs legal publishing penned by caring, experienced and passionate legal practitioners.