Five Ways to Become a Legal Thought Leader

Margaret Grisdela

Five Ways to Become a Legal Thought Leader
By Margaret Grisdela

Thought leadership is the ability to position yourself as an expert in your area of legal practice.* Becoming a thought leader takes time, patience, and strategic planning.

By definition, a thought leader is a person who has specialized knowledge and expertise in a particular subject and promotes a forward-thinking approach to the topic through speaking, publishing, PR, and other outreach efforts. Take a few minutes now to think of how you can strengthen your own role as a thought leader.

Here are five key steps you can take to become a legal thought leader respected by your peers and sought after by clients.

1. Pick a Niche

Powerful law practices are built on the concept of specialization. Study industry challenges, demographics, legislative initiatives, and other potential expansion factors when selecting your niche. Look for a sizable growth opportunity with a high probability that it can sustain your practice over the next 5-10 years.

2. Align your Clients and Cases with your Area of Expertise

Your personal strengths and interests, successful cases, current clients, and highest quality prospects can all help to determine your best area of concentration.

3. Publish By-Lined Articles in Legal Journals and Trade Publications

A well written article on a timely topic sets you apart from the competition by strengthening your reputation as a legal subject matter expert. Corporate general counsel, among others, frequently contact attorneys based on published articles.

If you want to get published, the first step is to select your topic. You can gain rapid visibility by focusing on subjects that challenge the status quo, like newly adopted legislation or controversial industry trends.

Picking the topic is just the beginning, however. We recommend taking a strategic approach to topic development. For example, if your topic is healthcare legislation, you can easily break this into sub-components. Perhaps you could write one article each on health care litigation risks, state level compliance requirements, funding considerations, and fraud.

By having a range of topics to address, you create flexibility to reach out to different publications and/or industry segments for even greater visibility.

4. Speak Often and Enthusiastically on your Topic

Many of the marketing techniques used in article marketing (as described above) can be applied to speaking engagements as well.

Major annual events book their speakers a minimum of 6 to 12 months in advance, so it is never too early to start your quest for speaking engagements. The sooner you get named as a speaker, the more publicity you can generate through advance promotion. Start today to identify the local, regional, or national events where you would like a seat on the podium. Reach out to the Program Chair or other session planners to suggest one of your topics for inclusion.

5. Position Yourself as an Expert with the Media

When news is breaking fast on a topic of interest to you, an experienced PR professional can position you as a good source for a quote or background discussion on the topic. Establishing a pattern of press coverage in industry publications and other news sources will reinforce your role as a thought leader.

In summary, establishing your position as a thought leader will help you to naturally attract qualified prospects, so you can spend more time on client fulfillment and less time on prospecting.

*The Florida Bar regulates use of the word "expert" in marketing campaigns, but you can still take the steps necessary to position yourself as a thought leader through writing, speaking, and press coverage.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR. Margaret Grisdela, president of the national legal marketing agency Legal Expert Connections and author of the legal marketing book Courting Your Clients. You can reach her at 561-266-1030 or mg@legalexpertconnections.com.