InsideLegal

Calling All Legal IT Leaders ... Ways to Maximize Your Media Exposure

Recently, InsideLegals' Jobst Elster had an article published in ILTA's Peer to Peer publication on the topic of "New Ways to Maxminize Your Media Exposure." We originally moderated a related session at ILTA 2011 and joined by accomplished co-panelists Randi Mayes, ILTA's Executive Director; and Ayelette Robinson, Director of Knowledge Technology at Littler. It was a well rounded conversation that spoke to making the decision on whether or not you'd want to (or need to) make the investment to begin writing for legal IT and general IT publications. With that said, Ayelette in particular, spent quite a bit of that time articulating the benefits of being published based on her personal success as a legal IT author and presenter. Reasons to start writing included elevating your name and reputation; positioning and representing your firm as forward thinkers, and giving your clients to engage and educate themselves vis a vis your subject matter expertise and thought leadership.  

As described in the Peer to Peer article, there are numerous obvious and less obvious ways to maximize the exposure you have worked so hard to create.

Here are 4 easy (obvious) tips for maximizing your media expsosure:

• Bolster Your Web Presence: Post your freshly published content within your firm’s or department’s “news” section and add it to your online profile. If you don’t have a profile with vitals including a biography, articles written, presentations given and areas of expertise, create one and keep it current.
• Share with Clients, Prospects, Partners and Colleagues: Seek reprint permission for your content, so you can share articles at will with those who want to know (colleagues, firm management, clients, friends and partners) and those who ought to know (prospects, investors and other legal influencers).
• Embrace Social Media: Post new content on your Facebook page; pick some relevant LinkedIn groups and add your topic as a new discussion thread; extract interesting facts and tweet about them with a link to the original article; and send your content to bloggers you know, admire or would like to know for comment and feedback.
• Enhance Firm Presentations: Based on relevancy, make sure your articles and subject-matter expertise make their way into new business presentations and prospect pitches. Work with your marketing folks to figure out the right mix of self-promotion and thought leadership.

And 7 more that are perhaps a bit less obvious but equally 'do able':

• Turn the Article into a Webinar or Podcast: Inexpensive technology tools now enable us to quite easily extend a static article into a multimedia bundle of content. Your article on a cloud-based DMS can be transformed into a 45-minute podcast on the same topic with the inclusion of experts that can share more information than the original article.
• Contact the Editor or Publisher About Contributing on a Regular Basis: If you enjoyed writing your article and like what you see on the exposure and feedback front, it might behoove you to seek a permanent contributor role with the publication. Many legal publishers are understaffed and low on resources, and often times they are happy to add a regular columnist to help fill their pages.
• Offer Your Services to Others: Look for other media outlets (magazines, blogs, websites, e-zines and newsletters) that might be interested in what you have to say. Send them the article as an “FYI” and offer yourself up as a subject-matter expert. They’ll know who to call the next time they need an expert who deals with, for example, cloud-based security risks.
• Encourage Feedback by Rewarding It: Editors love to know what their readers think about certain articles and topics, but usually only those with complaints take the time to voice their opinions. Turn this paradigm on its head, and foster collaboration among your readers by rewarding them for being vocal. When promoting your content via social media tools, incent your community to comment on your blog post by offering up affordable freebies such as gift cards, t-shirts or other promotional items.
• Manage Your Online Identity: As you begin to amass content and increase your online exposure, take sometime to manage your online presence. Companies such as Vizibility, for example, will help individuals or companies organize and share their online identities, including personalized Google search results and handpicked professional profiles. This provides a “one-stop, one search”look at all your content and contributions.
• Leverage QR Codes: A Quick Response (QR) code typically points to an online resource, such as an individual’s profile or related articles, quickly accessed via smartphones and mobile devices. A recent Vizibility survey, “Infographic: QR Code Usage in Legal Marketing,” found that 86 percent of law firms plan to use QR codes to market their individual attorneys, with more than half pointing individual QR codes to biographical information and contact details. Why not use QR codes for your articles as well?
• Integrate It All: While achieving an integrated marketing approach to everything you publish will most likely require some heavy lifting from your marketing group, the value of having everything you say and do in one place, with the same message, accessible to a diverse target audience is incredible. Case in point: Fulbright & Jaworski recently published its latest “Litigation Trends Survey Report” and made it accessible via a dedicated Web page with options to attend a results-focused webinar, join a LinkedIn and Facebook discussion or follow key stats via their Twitter feed. The website also included links to official press announcements, as well as articles and blog posts dedicated to the topic.

You can read the remainder of Jobst's article and the full December 2011 issue of ILTA's Peer to Peer publication here.

Also, you can view the original "Generating Media Exposure for IT Leadership" presentation from the original ILTA11 webinar here.

Feel free to contact Jobst if you would like to discuss this topic and how you can make a bigger splash with your writing and speaking efforts.

 

 

Just in Time for ILTA...Useful Media Do's & Dont's from Legal Technology Editors Charles Christian & Monica Bay

Just in Time for ILTA...Here are some media tips from two leading industry editors on how to work with them for coverage of your product/company news. Both Charles and Monica, along with Randi Mayes, ILTA's Executive Director and the Editor for Peer to Peer Magazine, will be serving on our media panel at the ILTA/InsideLegal Vendor Education Program this Monday at the ILTA Annual Conference in Nashville. After the session, we will be having a vendor reception to give vendors a chance to meet our panelists. For now, here are their tips to consider when contacting them.

PR Ten commandments from Charles Christian, Editor of American Legal Technology Insider (ALTi) & The Orange Rag

1. PRs who can't get my name right – it's Charles not Christian. 
2. Who don't understand what my market & industry is all about (I specialize in the technology that lawyers use NOT the legal issues surrounding the use of technology).
3. Who are clearly unfamiliar with my publications despite the fact access to the blog is free and there is a section on the newsletter website headed If you are a PR please read this first (True story: a friend recently received an email from a PR agency that read "We really enjoy reading <insert name of publication here> and would like to interest you in a story etc etc...")
4. Who seem to think I was born yesterday and will accept their claims that their client, who is brand new to the market, not only knows everything there is to know but is sufficiently qualified to tell genuine market leaders where they have been going wrong all these years. This is the equivalent of a photocopier salesman telling Steve Jobs of Apple that he'd sell more kit if he switched to Microsoft Windows. Credibility it ain't.
5. Who seem to think I was born yesterday and will accept their claims that their client has just sold a major order to a major player in the market but without mentioning any names or deal prices. Sorry guys and gals, selling an entry-level PC to a One-Man-&-A-Dog operation is not front page news. No names = No fame (or column inches)
6. Offer me an exclusive story and then reveal it has already been issued as a press relese to other publications. Bit of a problem with understanding the definition of exclusive is there?
7. Offer me an exclusive story and then try to un-offer it because they think they may be able to get a better deal with a national newspaper. (They never do.)
8. Expect me to fight their commercial battles for them – typically they would like me to defame their competitors.
9. Send me snotty letter complaining that I did not use the stupid typography their sTUPiD cLIENT insists on using but instead ran it as Stupid Client. My response here is always the same: last time I checked I was still the editor and publisher so I'll use whatever typography layout I want – however if they would like to buy my publication then they can do whatever they like with the typography.
10. Cannot spell the names of their own clients correctly – no, this really does happen.

Quick Tips from Monica Bay, Editor-in-Chief of Law Technology News magazine

• Do your homework before you pitch. Read the publication, know what it covers, and more importantly, what they do not cover. Nothing marks you as a neophyte faster than, for example, suggesting a Q&A when the publication never runs them. 
• Don’t use industry jargon in product press releases. Most product news “gatekeepers” are new journalists, often in their first job. They may have no context of either legal or technology. For the most accurate coverage, use plain English. 
• Don’t call the editor to ask if they got your press release. But be sure to put full contact information on the press releases so editors can reach you if they need further information. 
• If your press release is about an upgrade of a product, be sure to describe the underlining product. Don’t assume the reporters will remember. 
• If you are conducting a demonstration, carefully monitor the body language of the reporter — to check engagement. If you just plow through a script, the reporter may be mentally compiling his or her grocery store shopping list instead of listening to you. 
• Remember Seinfeld: no “close talking” please during demonstrations. 
• Don’t send cryptic press releases: be sure you describe your product, what it is and does, and its target audience. 
• Keep up with the staff: Stay current on the names of reporters; they change frequently. E-mail sent to former reporters may be automatically rejected or may linger in spam filters.

 

 

Not your average ILTA session...ILTA Vendor Education Program Addresses Legal Technology Vendor/Consultant Needs

The dust has slowly settled on an ILTA educational conference that not only ended with a bang (a la the inaugural ILTA Distinguished Peer Awards), but overall proved that NOTHING compares to this 4 1/2 day extravaganza of legal technology education, demonstrations and networking. The vendor education program, which has kicked off ILTA day one (Monday) for the past 7 years, proved, more than ever, that 'if you build it, they shall come'. In our case, as perennial producers of this program, this translated to tailoring educational sessions based on exhibiting vendor feedback; assembling bright, reputable, and established legal technology panelists; and filling a room with 85+ legal technology vendor and consultancy decision makers including CEOs, GMs, marketing and sales excutives, and technology product managers.    

The three and a half hour vendor education program kicked-off, as in previous years, with ILTA's Vendor Business Meeting, followed by a Working with ILTA (beyond the annual conference) session led by ILTA's Program Director Peggy Wechsler and Executive Director Randi Mayes. Peggy began by thanking all the exhibitors and consultants for supporting ILTA throughout the years and particularly during the conference's move from Nashville to Las Vegas this year. The great news was then shared that member attendance for 2010 was approximately 1,130 - indicating a 30% increase from 2009! That definitely set the stage for a high energy week. Last but not least, Peggy introduced the ILTA Board Members, Conference Committee and staff that were able to be there. Angela Roarke, Advertising Sales Coordinator, was brought up to speak about getting the most out of the exhibitors sponsorships and new opportunities to get involved with ILTA's publications through advertising. [Editors Note: Randi Mayes spoke to Jobst and me about her initiative to incorporate more rich media into ILTA's publications. Randi is very excited about including more audio, video and social media within their publications' content and is looking to the vendor community for ideas to help push the envelope here. This is a great chance to get involved and stand out!] 

The meat of our discussion started with the Advice for Selling to Law Firms session, which we first included last year based on vendor feedback. The panel was designed to give vendor executives and vendor sales folks an insider's view into what works and what doesn't work when selling to their law firm clients and prospects.

In order to make this a real worthwhile experience, we brought back Joy Heath-Rush, Enterprise Multimedia Services Manager at Sidley Austin and ILTA's past President, (who served on this inaugural panel last year) and added Scott Christensen, IT Director of Wildman Harrold, and current ILTA president. Joy and Scott are both technology decision makers for their law firms; in Joy's case a top 20 global law firm and in Scott's case a 200-attorney national firm. We asked a variety of questions related to the sales process and how vendors can most effectively work with them.

Both panelists continually stressed that building direct relationships with them directly is critical to any sort of success they might have selling (versus contacting their boss or others first). Contrary to popular belief, cold calling is an effective tool if utilized properly and respectfully. Joy made a point to say that if she does take a cold call, which she regularly does, she'll be more inclined to follow-up if she knows how long the introduction will be. For example, if she gets a cold call saying "I'd like to setup a 15 minute call to introduce you to our product", she is more likely to accept. She also urged vendors to be very clear about their intentions and not to over-promise or under-deliver, especially in the beginning of the sales process.

The session, which was very interactive with many questions coming from the audience, included other tips as well as "dos and don'ts", mostly focused on education and common sense business conduct:

• The panelists talked about the importance of being able to not only walk the walk in legal but also talk the talk. Specifically, they both said that it's very important to understand legal speak so if you're not a legal specific vendor, educate yourself on legal jargon, how law firms work and operate, their workflows, etc.  For example, the point was made, that anyone who refers to legal customers, as opposed to clients, evidently does not understand legal speak.
• Also, educate yourself on the legal technologies that a law firm relies on. Understand the technology infrastructure, how IT is structured, the importance of the IT department, and the overall selling process.
• Do your homework on the firm and the organizational structure within the firm. Treat the sales process like an interview; with all the online tools at your disposal and with the advent of social media, there's really no excuse to not be fully informed before making that first phone call.
• The legal community is very loyal so once vendors have established a solid reputation and earned respect from their law firm clients, future business opportunities are a natural progression of the relationship.
• Understand law firms' purchasing and procurement processes. Increasingly, larger, global law firms follow a formalized, centralized purchasing process for everything from tissue paper to servers and enterprise software solutions. So, while vendors may have relationships with one particular decision maker or influencer, there may be many more layers to uncover as it relates to firm-wide purchasing buy-in. On the other hand, smaller firms (i.e., Wildman Harrold) direct technology purchasing through the IT Group and give IT Directors (such as Scott Christensen) direct and final purchasing influence and decision making ability. The bottom-line: It's vital to identify and understand the legal target audience, from influencer to final decision-maker.
• Peer networking and peer recommendations are the key factors in law firm technology decision-making. As a legal technology peer networking organization, ILTA enables members to seek out each other's recommendations and experiences, critical aspects to comprehensively evaluating and purchasing technologies and related services. 

Up next was the session topic that received the most votes from the ILTA exhibitors - Vendor Thought Leadership, with a focus on how to establish it & maintain it. This particular topic has been near and dear to InsideLegal's heart for some time, and truly one of the core reasons we initiated the InsideLegal forum and blog as a means of promoting legal technologists regardless of their heritage (including vendors, consultants, law firm leaders, etc.). While we have long preached thought leadership (as opposed to blatant selling and promoting), the ILTA education session served as our kick-off to an ongoing initiative focused on not only educating vendors and others on the attributes and qualities of legal thought leaders, but also providing a forum for thought leader 'work product' if you will. While assembling the thought leader panel, we didn't waste time in reaching out to who we consider to be one of the poster children for legal vendor thought leadership ... Donna Payne. A well respected and experienced public speaker, author and legal technologist, Donna has managed the extremely difficult task of separating herself (and her expertise) from the successful vendor company (PayneGroup) she operates. During the discussion, JoAnna highlighted the importance of industry involvement, commitment to the industry and to organizations such as ILTA, and fine line between espousing subject matter expertise and shamelessly promoting vendor products and services. While Donna talked about the importance of integrity and honesty in paving the way for long term thought leadership, the group also came to the conclusion that there is still a stark bias and mis-conception when it comes to promoting vendors as thought leaders. Stay tuned for more content on this topic on InsideLegal (including exclusive legal thought leader video interviews filmed during the ILTA conference).

Continuing the theme of 'thoughtful' education, we next presented our public relations-themed session PR Doesn't Stand for Press Release focused on the components of a successful PR (read Public Relations) campaign (view presentation here). Again, this topic was voted on by the attendees pre-conference and was designed to help everyone from a vendor CEO to a marketing manager to a consultant understand what PR can and can't do for their company; what steps can be taken to engage clients in the proactive PR process; and how a focus on education and thought leadership can help establish meaningful relationships with the legal (traditional and social) media. The biggest take-away from the presentation was the continued relevance of developing client-focused content such as user case studies and client testimonials. As revealed earlier in the day during the Advice for Selling to Law Firms session (and mirrored in the 2010 ILTA Member Technology Purchasing Survey), peer recommendations and examples of other firms' technology best practices and implementations remain the top influences when it comes to legal technology purchases.

No modern legal conference would be complete without the almost obligatory social media/web 2.0 session so it was appropriate that the Leveraging Web 2.0/Social Media to Reach Your Prospects topic throughout the day, the primary goal was to make it relevant and valuable for legal technology vendors, in this instance ranging from those who have never tweeted to others who actively use a variety of social media tools to enhance their marketing communication efforts. The social media faculty included InsideLegal's JoAnna Forshee (Twitter @InsideLegal), a regular presenter and educator on the topic of social media, Donna Payne of PayneGroup (Twitter @donna_payne) and Rob Robinson, VP of Marketing for Orange Legal Technologies (Twitter @complexd). While many of the basics were covered in a similar session at last year's conference, attendee feedback indicated a desire to dive into the details of how various social media tools can be better leveraged. Rob for example shared his philosophy of using social media to provide value to his audiences including twitter followers, LinkedIn group subscribers or those that regularly read his blog posts. He talked about his controversial (but successful) strategy of including all industry news relevant to his readers - including that of his competitors. [Editors Note: Rob wrote an excellent social media strategy article for Peer to Peer. Check it out here.] In addition to providing and adding value, the panel emphasized the ability to use twitter and LinkedIn to engage in conversations, gain valuable client and industry feedback, but also leverage various tracking tools to monitor what others are saying about topics and themes of interest to vendors.

The vendor program concluded with the annual presentation by Jobst Elster of the annual InsideLegal/ILTA's Member Technology Purchasing Survey. The 2010 survey, which was administered by ILTA and analyzed and published by InsideLegal, focused on feedback from ILTA member law firms with 50 or more attorneys and covered IT budgeting; technology purchasing patterns; selection criteria and influencers; technology trends & IT challenges, and state-of-the-economy questions. The 7th annual survey yielded a new high 18% response rate - 109 unique firm responses ranging from 50 to over 3,000 attorneys. A complete survey summary and commentary can be found here.

In closing, InsideLegal truly appreciates the opportunity to continually collaborate with ILTA on producing the annual vendor education program and is always looking for feedback and suggestions to improve session content for future programs. Please send any ideas and comments to JoAnna Forshee. Remember, marketing to the ILTA membership is something you should be doing all year round, not just at the Annual Conference. Start now and you'll be ahead of the game by the 2011 ILTA Annual Conference, August 21-25 at the (newly renovated) Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville.

InsideLegal News Special Edition Coming for ILTA

The Annual ILTA Conference is perhaps the number one occasion for legal technology vendors to make announcements and launch products throughout the year. For that reason, InsideLegal will be covering industry news/product announcements around ILTA in a special edition of 'InsideLegal News'. This will be available to our audience, both through InsideLegal and our social media campaigns during ILTA.

If you would like your news/announcement considered for inclusion, please send your press releases to News@InsideLegal.com.

ILTA/InsideLegal Vendor Education Program - Faculty Announced!

For the 7th year, InsideLegal will be producing the ILTA Vendor Education Program at the Annual ILTA Conference. This program was started by ILTA and InsideLegal years ago to provide added value to ILTA's sponsors. The program is open to executives and marketing contacts for all ILTA's exhibitors and consultant pass holders. 

This year, we shifted the focus from 'how-to' sessions to more strategic marketing and industry strategy sessions and we opened the topics up for vendors to vote on. Below is the final schedule for the program. We will be announcing all the speakers soon. If you are interested in attending any or all of the sessions, please RSVP to JoAnna Forshee with your name, title, company and email. We look forward to seeing you there!

ILTA/InsideLegal Vendor Education Program

Monday, August 23rd  |  2-5:30pm  |  Meeting Room - Pinyon 1

2-2:45p
ILTA Vendor Business Meeting/Working with ILTA (outside of the Annual Conference)
What you need to know about this year's conference and other ILTA programs & meet ILTA's staff and Board
Faculty - Peggy Wechsler & Randi Mayes (ILTA)

2:45-3:15p
Hot Topic - Advice for Selling to Law Firms   (#3 in poll)
ILTA law firms tell you from their point of view
Faculty – Joy Heath Rush (Sidley Austin) (Past President of ILTA) & Scott Christensen (Wildman Harrold) (ILTA President)

3:15-3:45p
Hot Topic – Vendor Thought Leadership  (#1 in poll)
How to establish it & maintain it
Faculty – JoAnna Forshee (InsideLegal), Donna Payne (Payne Group)

3:45-4:15p
Hot Topic – PR Doesn’t Stand for Press Release (#4 in poll)
What are the components of a successful public relations campaign
Faculty – Jobst Elster (InsideLegal)

4:15-4:45p
Hot Topic – How do you leverage Web 2.0/Social Media to reach your prospects?   (#2 in poll)
Faculty – JoAnna Forshee (InsideLegal), Donna Payne (Payne Group), Rob Robinson (Orange Legal Technologies)

4:45-5p
2010 InsideLegal/ILTA Member Technology Purchasing Survey Results
Hear the highlights and get your copy | Check out the 2009 survey here
Faculty – Jobst Elster (InsideLegal)

5-5:30p
Networking Reception

ILTA/InsideLegal Vendor Education Program

For the 7th year, InsideLegal will be producing the ILTA Vendor Education Program at the Annual ILTA Conference. This program was started by ILTA and InsideLegal years ago to provide added value to ILTA's sponsors. The program is open to executives and marketing contacts for all ILTA's exhibitors and consultant pass holders. 

This year, we shifted the focus from 'how-to' sessions to more strategic marketing and industry strategy sessions and we opened the topics up for vendors to vote on. Below is the final schedule for the program. We will be announcing all the speakers soon. If you are interested in attending any or all of the sessions, please RSVP to JoAnna Forshee with your name, title, company and email. We look forward to seeing you there!

ILTA/InsideLegal Vendor Education Program
Monday, August 23rd  |  2-5:30pm  |  Meeting Room - Pinyon 1

2-2:45p
ILTA Vendor Business Meeting/Working with ILTA (outside of the Annual Conference)
What you need to know about this year's conference and other ILTA programs & meet ILTA's staff and Board

2:45-3:15p
Hot Topic - Advice for Selling to Law Firms   (#3 in poll)
ILTA law firms tell you from their point of view

3:15-3:45p
Hot Topic – Vendor Thought Leadership  (#1 in poll)
How to establish it & maintain it

3:45-4:15p
Hot Topic – PR Doesn’t Stand for Press Release (#4 in poll)
What are the components of a successful public relations campaign

4:15-4:45p
Hot Topic – How do you leverage Web 2.0/Social Media to reach your prospects?   (#2 in poll)

4:45-5p
2010 InsideLegal/ILTA Member Technology Purchasing Survey Results
Hear the highlights and get your copy | Check out the 2009 survey here

5-5:30p
Networking Reception

"In Their Own Words" Publication Profile: American Legal Technology Insider (ALTi)

American Legal Technology Insider is published by long-established UK-based newsletter and legal IT information provider Legal Technology Insider Limited. The publisher/editor-in-chief is Charles Christian, a former practising barrister and winner of the UK National Newspapers Technology Journalist of the Year Award.

Who is your audience?

Our target audience is what we term ‘legal technology professionals’. On the vendor side, these are the people who design, develop, market, sell, distribute, consult, implement and support legal IT systems. On the buyer side, these are the people who specify, buy, manage, implement and support legal IT systems within law firms and corporate legal departments/general counsel offices. Within law firms, our readers include managing partners, CIOs, heads of IT, IT staff, KM staff and information services staff. We are primarily focused on larger law firms and so rarely carry news about products aimed at small firms/solos. We do not target individual lawyers as readers - happy to have them on board but our focus is on law firm management rather than end users. This newsletter was developed exclusively for the North American legal market - Canada and the United States. We carry news on UK, European and Asia-Pacific developments in our other publications.

What is the circulation and how do you distribute/reach your readers?

We are a purely digital publication - the newsletter is only available in a PDF file format - and is distributed both direct to subscribers via email as a file attachment and indirectly as a file that can be downloaded from our Orange Rag blog. We also have a number of vendors and 3rd party organizations who distribute it to their customers and clients. Subscriptions to American Legal Technology Insider are totally free. Our current circulation is approximately 16,000 - this figure does include some international readership (law firms & vendors) who take the newsletter to keep track of developments in the North American legal IT sector. [Editors note: To be added to the circulation, send an email to ALTi.] 

What is your publication’s frequency? When do you publish?

We publish monthly - 12 issues a year - with new issues coming out on the first Thursday of each month.

Who contributes content? 

Although we are open to ‘guest articles’ by external contributors, the majority of our content is written inhouse by the editor and our staff writers. A point to note here is that we are a newsletter with only a limited number of pages at our disposal and an editorial policy that recognizes our readers are very busy people with only a limited amount of time to spare looking at publications. We therefore focus on offering a current awareness service providing short summaries of all the important stories of the past month. We do not have an editorial board as, frankly, we don’t see the point of them. Life is too short. If a publisher does not have confidence in their own news gathering sources, they should not be in business.

What is the publication’s stance on vendor experts contributing content?

Always happy to consider contributions by vendor experts - we are a legal IT ‘industry’ newsletter and if the vendor side of the industry never has an opportunity to state its case, we cannot give a balanced report of the news. On the plus side, because vendors are actually developing the systems law firms use, they possess insights that law firms can only guess at. On the negative side, a lot of the material submitted by vendors fails the editorial content test as it is all too often revamped and over-long marketing collateral that adds nothing to the greater sum of human knowledge. If you want to tell us something, tell us something that will really interest our readers - as distinct from inflate the ego of your CEO.

What advice do you have for companies/PR professionals that want to get coverage in your publication?  What not to do?

Our simple advice is: don’t keep it a secret. If you think a story (and this can be a new product story, a new win or deal, a new hire or promotion, corporate news, a new alliance, a new piece of research you’ve conducted or even a new industry trend you’ve identified) is likely to interest to us, then send it along or pitch your proposal to us. If we agree that the story is of interest, we’ll run it. And, the sooner you submit it, the better, don’t leave it till the last minute as our pages fill up quickly.  

Also, as this question does crop up from time-to-time, our editorial coverage is never linked to advertising. We do not run paid for/subsidized/sponsored - or whatever else you wish to call it (in the UK the term is ‘advertorial’) - content. All stories are evaluated for publication on their editorial merits. If it’s good, we’ll use it. If it’s not, we won’t - even if you are one of our advertisers.

If applicable, please provide a link to the 2010 editorial calendar.

Because we do not run advertising-led feature articles, we do not publish an editorial calendar along the traditional “July focus on billing systems, August focus on ediscovery” variety. We are an industry newsletter - we want industry news. If a subject is topical, we will report it - and what is topical changes from month to month, and year to year. For example, currently we are carrying a lot of stories relating to the Microsoft Office and SharePoint 2010 launches.

Please provide a link to 2010 media kit.

We are in the middle of a website redesign and repositioning of some of our online services, so our media kit is about to be rewritten however here is a link to our current information. 

What is your publication doing in the way of social media?  How does access to/use of said social media tools influence and or affect your editor/publisher job?

As an information provider, we are acutely aware of the need to ensure our publications evolve and keep pace with changing media platforms. Currently we published in a PDF file format and complement our monthly newsletters with our breaking news blog - The Orange Rag - which is now one of the most widely read legal technology information blogs on the planet. We also support this with a Twitter feed to alert followers to new developments - see @ChristianUncut - which also provides content for the editor’s LinkedIn presence. We have experimented with Facebook but concluded that while it is good for social and extracurricular activities (Insider editor Charles Christian is also a short story writer) it is not relevant for business uses.

What is your publication’s most popular column/feature topic?

Reader feedback both for the American and UK/European editions of the Insider suggests the most popular feature is the comment and opinion we are prepared to express. Insider editor Charles Christian has been reporting on developments in legal technology internationally for nearly 30 years and was recently described by a senior vice president at Microsoft as "‘the most influential journalist in Legal IT’ - as a result, he has access to unparalleled market intelligence and background information on both technology trends and vendor track records. Add to this a willingness to tell it like it is - and the combination is a publication respected for its independence and impartiality.

Download Latest ALTi Issue 
Target Audience: Legal technology professionals; Covers mostly large firm market
Circulation: 16,000+
Twitter: @ChristianUncut

InsideLegal Vendor Education Program - ABA TECHSHOW

For the second year, InsideLegal is producing the Legal Vendor Education program at ABA TECHSHOW courtesy of the ABA Law Practice Management staff and board. The complimentary program will be held Wednesday, March 24, 2:00-4:15pm in the SW Hall/Vendor Track Area of the Hilton Chicago. We are offering 2 sessions - "Working with the Legal Media" and "Utilizing Social Media to Market Your Company" - with each panel consisting of 3-4 faculty, including ABA staff and recognized industry experts.  Exhibiting vendor executives and marketing/PR managers are encouraged to attend and will learn:

• How to submit press releases and content that legal editors will read and consider for their publications
• When to pick up the phone and call editors vs. relying on the "process"
• How you can champion your clients' successful use of your technologies
• How you can benefit from social media without being an expert
• What can be gained by using social media monitoring tools to keep up with the legal market
• Why now is the perfect time to get your feet wet with twitter

Here's the complete schedule:

2:00   Introduction

2:05   Legal Media Panel - Working with the Legal Media 

• Jobst Elster, vice president, InsideLegal (Moderator)
• Robert Yates, executive editor, Chicago Lawyer, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin
• John Delavan, editor-in-chief, Legal Management, ALA News
• Reginald Davis, assistant managing editor, ABA Journal
• Joy White, editor, Law Practice, Law Practice Today

3:00   Utilizing Social Media to Market Your Company

• JoAnna Forshee – InsideLegal (@InsideLegal) Moderator
• Tim Baran - uMCLE-Mandatory CLE Unplugged! (@umcle)
• Larry Port – Rocket Matter (@rocketmatter)

4:00   Question and Answer session

4:15   Conclusion

To participate, please RSVP for each attendee with name, company, title and email address to JoAnna Forshee.  Thanks again to the ABA TECHSHOW and the TECHSHOW Board - particularly Debbie Foster, TECHSHOW Chair and Kristin Bakota, TECHSHOW Meeting Planner - for making this valuable vendor education program possible.

InsideLegal Legal Vendor Education Program - ABA TECHSHOW

For the second year, InsideLegal will be producing the Legal Vendor Education program at the ABA TECHSHOW courtesy of the ABA LPM staff and board.  The program will be held Wednesday, March 24, 2-4:15pm in the SW Hall/Vendor Track Area of the Hilton Chicago.  Again, we want to thank the ABA for making it possible to provide this valuable education for their vendors partners free of cost onsite on setup day.  We are offering 2 sessions, with each panel consisting of 3-4 faculty - ABA staff and recognized industry experts. 

Schedule
2:00   Introduction
2:05   ABA Media Panel - Working with the Legal Media
3:00   Utilizing Social Media to Market Your Company
4:00   Question and Answer session
4:15   Conclusion

To participate, please RSVP for each attendee with name, company, title and email address to JoAnna Forshee. Thanks again to the ABA TECHSHOW and the TECHSHOW Board!

LegalTech New York - Incisive Media Editors Breakfast

On Tuesday morning at 8:00 am, Incisive Media held their annual Editors Breakfast at the Hilton.  The event began with time to mingle and enjoy a lite breakfast. Shortly after, the Incisive editors in attendance (see picture below) introduced themselves and their publications. Post introductions, the feeding frenzy began with all the attendees racing to meet particular editors of interest (which usually means Ms. Monica Bay of LTN for this crowd!). New editor faces for 2009 included Leigh Jones with National Law Journal and Anthony Paonita of Corporate Counsel.

(L to R - Craig Ball, Steve Salkin, Safia Maharaj, Bob Ambrogi, Monica Bay, Robin Sparkman, Adam Schlagman, John Bringardner, Michael Moline, Leigh Jones, Anthony Paonita, David Snow, Aric Press)

(Bill Pollak, CEO of Incisive Media North America)

Editors in attendance included...

• Bill Pollak, CEO, Incisive Media North America
• Aric Press - Editor-in-Chief, The American Lawyer
• David Snow - Executive Editor, Law.com
• Anthony Paonita - Editor-in-Chief, Corporate Counsel
• Leigh Jones - Associate Editor, National Law Journal
• Michael Moline - Assistant Managing Editor, National Law Journal
• John Bringardner - News Editor, Law.com
• Adam Schlagman - Editor-in-Chief, LJN's Legal Tech Newsletter
• Robin Sparkman - Executive Editor, The American Lawyer
• Safia Maharaj - Administrative Assistant, Law Technology News
• Steve Salkin - Managing Editor, LJN's Legal Tech Newsletter
• Bob Ambrogi - Web watch for Law Technology News, writes for Legal Blog Watch
• Craig Ball - EDD Update Blog, "Ball in your court" column for "Law Technology News" 
• Monica Bay - Editor-in-Chief, Law Technology News
• Sean Doherty - Technology Editor, Law.com (not in photo)

Here is a complete list of all of Incisive Media's legal products.