How to Help Your Attorneys to Produce Successful Thought Leadership – An Office Hours Recap | JD Supra Perspectives

“The data is there—use it to your advantage” –Katie Hollar Barnard

I recently hosted an Office Hours webinar for JD Supra clients with two – yes, two! – marketing luminaries: Katie Hollar Barnard, Managing Partner and CEO, Firesign | Enlightened Legal Marketing, and Lauren Michaud Knotts, Senior Communications & PR Manager, McGlinchey Stafford.

While content marketing is now a business necessity for law firms – helping to establish credibility, engage clients, and drive new business – getting attorneys to write consistently and ensuring that content is impactful can still be a challenge.

With this in mind, Katie and Lauren shared strategies for making content marketing work within a firm, motivating attorneys, and optimizing efforts. Some of their guidance in grateful recap:

1. Tie Content to a Strategic Goal

Katie emphasized the importance of avoiding “random acts of content.” Instead of writing just to write, attorneys should align content with firm-wide goals, such as:

• Strengthening the firm’s position in a particular industry (e.g., becoming the go-to firm for agribusiness)
• Improving search rankings for high-value keywords
• Supporting business development by addressing client concerns proactively

Lawyers are more likely to buy into content marketing when they see how it fits into (and supports!) their broader goals. Marketers should also use data to demonstrate content success, showing how competitors or industry leaders are effectively leveraging thought leadership.

2. Create a Process to Sustain Consistent Writing

Many attorneys express interest in launching a blog, newsletter, or podcast, but sustaining these efforts requires discipline.

• Katie advised a “proof of commitment” rule. Before launching a dedicated channel, attorneys should demonstrate consistency by writing regularly for six months.
• Lauren emphasized the importance of content planning—having authors commit to an editorial calendar and testing engagement before expanding.

3. Consider Motivating Attorneys Based on Their Career Stage & Goals

Lauren explained that attorneys have different needs depending on where they are in their careers:

• Junior associates: can write on emerging issues in their niche, establishing expertise early.
• Lateral hires: should use content to build their brand inside the firm and cross-sell with new colleagues.
• Senior partners: have the deep experience to provide analysis and predictions—what clients truly value.

Encouraging collaboration across practice groups (e.g., litigation + employment) also results in stronger, more engaging content.

4. Guide Attorneys to Write More Engaging Content

Katie and Lauren both shared practical ways to improve content impact:

• Punch up titles: use action words, lists, and avoid vague legalese that doesn’t attract readers.
• Be timely, but add value: attorneys shouldn’t just report on legal changes but analyze what they mean for businesses and clients. (As my colleague Adrian Lurssen has said time and again: don’t write about the law, write about how the law impacts the people you serve.)
• Use data insights: track which topics perform well and optimize headlines accordingly.

Katie shared a quick win: run your past headlines and readership statistics through AI tools to identify patterns and determine what readers engage with most.

5. Use Data to Drive Content & Business Development

Data is key to justifying content efforts and guiding BD strategy. Among other insights during our time together:

• JD Supra’s analytics help firms see who is reading their content, offering a list of warm leads.
• Attorneys can use engagement data (who is reading, what industries are interested) to prioritize follow-up conversations.
• Firms should look at evergreen content—if an old article still performs well, repurpose and update it to stay relevant.

Lauren emphasized that marketers should not assume attorneys are checking their own analytics. (“They won’t go looking for this data. You have to bring it to them.”) Whether it’s a monthly “top-performing content” email or a quarterly review, surfacing this information regularly keeps attorneys engaged.

Bonus Takeaway: Make Content a Habit, Not an Afterthought

• Schedule dedicated writing time (like a weekly writing session or editorial planning meeting).
• Use writing as a BD tool, not just a marketing checkbox—thought leadership should generate conversations, not just clicks.
• Show attorneys their impact—when they see their content engaging the right audience, they’ll be more likely to continue writing.

Both Katie and Lauren reinforced the long-term value of well-executed thought leadership. When attorneys understand why their content matters, have a clear process, and see real engagement, writing becomes less of a task and more of a tool for building their practice.

++

[JD Supra clients: log into your account dashboard to watch a video recording of the complete conversation. Look for the Office Hours prompt in your account homepage and click for the archive of all previous conversations.]

Paul Ryplewski is VP of Client Services at JD Supra. Connect with him on LinkedIn. Follow his latest writings on JD Supra.