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    Business Law Today Contributor Guidelines

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    Business Law Today is seeking your ideas for high-quality, original content that contributes value to business lawyers. We accept contributions ranging from a few sentences to several thousand words across ten legal practice areas:

    • Bankruptcy and Finance
    • Business Litigation and Dispute Resolution
    • Business of Law
    • Business Regulation and Regulated Industries
    • Corporations, LLCs and Partnerships
    • International Business Law
    • Internet Law and Cybersecurity
    • Legal Opinions and Ethics
    • Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Securities Law

    Please note that all ideas, submissions, and content will be reviewed by the Editorial Board. The Board is made up of practicing attorneys, judges, and academics. Submissions are reviewed based on relevance, originality, timeliness, and value-add, including accuracy of law, quality of insight, and consistency with Business Law Today guidelines and tone. We do not accept submissions created using generative AI at any stage (aside from basic tools for checking grammar, etc.). We do not accept opinion pieces or book reviews, which are outside of the publication’s scope, but we will consider articles based on or excerpted from books. Writing by student authors will only be considered for month-in-briefs (see below), papers that place in the Business Law Section’s Mendes Hershman Student Writing Contest, or articles co-authored with an attorney.

    Content Categories

    Business Law Today publishes in several formats. When submitting a pitch, please identify the intended content category of your work.

    Month-in-Brief

    The month’s most important and timely headlines. These are scannable, curated briefings, with each short entry 150–450 words. They might summarize a recent Supreme Court ruling, point to an interesting development in the field, or introduce a new lawsuit with broader implications for practitioners. Month-in-briefs should link to primary sources and should not include footnotes. Examples include “California Approves Commercial Financing Disclosures Regulations,” “SEC and CTFC Propose Amendments to Required Reporting by Private Funds,” and “Delaware Chancery Court Finds Tesla’s Purchase of SolarCity to Be Fair Despite Flawed Sale Process.”

    Articles

    Quick insights on timely issues relevant to practitioners. Articles offer a new or unique angle, analysis, or advice in around 750–1,800 words. Many of our articles work best with a hook—a concrete development (often a recent case or news item) that frames the piece. Examples of articles include “Diligencing AI-Enabled M&A Targets: Seven Things to Understand,” “Amgen, Black Knight, and Assa Abloy: Are Merger Settlements Making a Comeback?,” and “Delaware Court of Chancery Calls into Question Equitable Jurisdiction over Certain Claims for Release of Escrowed Funds.”

    In-Depth

    Longer-form content that offers deep analysis of a topic. These pieces often incorporate footnotes and analyze a number of cases as they track the development of a concept, or they might dive deep into a particular case, pulling in precedent and other impactful context to explicate its significance. In-depth articles are often behind a paywall, accessible to members of the American Bar Association’s Business Law Section. Examples of in-depth articles include “The Corporate Transparency Act Will Change the Way You Practice,” “The Fee Hike Dilemma: The U.S. Supreme Court Resolves Fee Dispute and Holds Fee Hike Unconstitutional,” and “The Nature of Fiduciary Duties Owed to Limited-Life Corporations.”

    Tools

    Practical resources such as checklists, model forms, and worksheets. Tools can be picked up easily to assist in practitioners’ work, whether they provide a quick guide to a topic or can be incorporated directly into a workflow. They consist of both the tool document itself—supported formats include PDFs, text documents, spreadsheets, and slideshows—and at least 200 words of introductory narrative describing in what circumstances the tool is useful and contextualizing the information it contains. Tools are published behind a paywall, accessible to members of the American Bar Association’s Business Law Section. Examples of tools include “The Art of Case Management: A Former Judge’s Tool for Mastering Deadlines,” “Model Standstill/Tolling Agreement,” and “Data License Checklist.”

    Publication Guidelines

    Business Law Today publishes articles and tools consistently as they are ready to go, while month-in-briefs are published monthly. Publicity emails go out at the start of the month and at mid-month. A submitted article can take from a few days to a few months to move from submission to publication, depending on the nearest publication date, available peer reviewers, length of piece, and editorial calendar; it’s best to plan for about two weeks as turn-around time.

    The tone of the site tends toward journalistic and casual, less formal than much of legal and academic writing. Authors are not paid and maintain full publication rights following their appearance on the site. Business Law Today does not reprint previously published articles. We are, however, able to work with repurposed client alerts.

    Submission Process

    We accept both pitches and completed pieces. Submit to either the site editor or a practice area editor, listed below. Once an article is received, it will first go out for peer review and then be returned to the author as needed. Once the author has had the chance to address peer reviewer comments and revise the piece, the article will be returned to staff for copyediting in accordance with house style. The author will have a final chance to revise before publication. The author will also be responsible for drafting a brief summary for use in online publishing, signing a publication agreement, and submitting a biography and photo (1000x1000 or larger and 72 dpi).

    Pitch an Editor

    or contact an editor of the practice area you want to write in: