PR for ADR

As an ADR professional, you are in a tough spot when it comes to building your practice. Like a judge, you must maintain neutrality and be seen as a fair third party—impartiality is, after all, a core tenet of the profession. Unlike a judge, cases are not just assigned to you. You must actively market yourself to bring in new business, akin to a lawyer in private practice. While you must walk a delicate line when determining how to market your experience and build your brand while maintaining neutrality, opportunities for promotion do exist. Particularly in one powerful avenue for promotion—public relations (PR).

Primarily, PR allows you to start conversations and engage with individuals who you may not otherwise reach—reporters and editors initially, but, eventually, your audience of potential clients. Often, the value in public relations for ADR professionals is in the ability to help build and maintain a positive reputation, increase the visibility of your practice, and educate others in the field (and beyond) on relevant issues. If a quote in the media leads to a LinkedIn message, then to a lunch, and then a conversation about your practice—whether it be with a former law school colleague who wants to catch up or a new contact you’ve never met before—you can consider that a mission accomplished. Or if an article you publish in a trade publication relevant to your practice area prompts a potential client to reach out to you and generate a new business lead, that’s also a great success.  

This article will explore these two avenues for engaging in PR as an ADR professional: writing and placing articles in publications where your audience will see them and interacting with journalists who will quote you as a source in their coverage.

So How Do We Get There?  

Starting conversations that allow you to develop your practice should be a primary goal of your PR efforts. To do so, you first need to identify your target audience, your key messages, and the best medium for your message.

Consider a mental audit of the demographics and characteristics of your existing clients. What industries do they come from? What news outlets and publications do they read? What types of disputes are common within their work?

From there, it can be helpful to think through how your service offerings apply to the current needs of the market and what trends or developments may be on the horizon that present an opportunity for ADR. It is within this thought process that you can develop the key messages you want to deliver.

Then, decide on the best format to deliver this message. Is it best suited for an in-depth analysis, and do you have more time to produce the content? If so, perhaps you might consider writing an article. Or is your commentary pegged to a development breaking in the news that will be stale after a few days? In that case, getting some quotes in news stories might be the best platform for your insights. Your own preferences and level of comfort with various media should also play a factor—some people actually enjoy writing a lot (bless their hearts) and others may be energized from conversations with reporters. So, consider playing to your strengths.

Byline Articles

Whatever your practice area or industry focus, there are likely multiple publications that touch on your sector and will accept articles from outside contributors.

If your intended audience includes lawyers in private practice or in-house at companies, legal industry publications are a good starting point. Regional legal outlets (New York Law Journal, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, Daily Journal, and others) and national legal publications (such as Law360, Bloomberg Law, and Reuters Legal) cover a wide range of practice areas, and several accept articles from contributors. Local, regional, and national bar associations and legal organizations also frequently publish newsletters and magazines that run bylines and can help authors reach audiences by location, practice, or industry.

Consider writing about general legal industry topics that can be expanded or adapted depending on your strategy and focus, like: best practices for mediation and arbitration for certain types of disputes (healthcare, AI, cybersecurity, construction, insurance, etc.); lessons learned from recent court decisions; litigation trends and how they might fuel increased ADR activity; new court rules, procedures, programs, or other initiatives impacting litigation or ADR; or other legal industry topics you’ve observed from your unique perspective as a neutral.

Perhaps your audience isn’t lawyers but consists of company executives. Trade publications are an excellent target—if there’s an industry, there’s probably a publication covering it. For example, maybe your practice is seeing a rise in a specific type of dispute in the construction industry and you have some insights into what’s driving it and how best to approach resolving those issues. Options abound for reaching people in this sector through trade publications dedicated to the industry (or even a specific subsector—transactions, finance, operations, etc.). Manufacturing, energy, franchising, banking—you name it—all these and others have trade publications focusing on key issues facing companies doing business in these spaces.

Potential article topics can be similar to those for legal publications, so long as they have a strong connection to the specific industry in question. An article about mediation or arbitration best practices can be geared toward any number of industries and can provide executives, rather than their lawyers, with some tips to help them get the most out of the processes.

Mainstream news outlets like The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Bloomberg News, and other national “top tier” platforms won’t accept your byline on the top 10 trends for the year in a given field of law. While it’s possible to be quoted by a reporter in these outlets—which might not even be the best targets depending on your goals—they will not run your article. The closest you can get is with an op-ed piece, but those are highly competitive and typically require the author to take a position on an issue and make some sort of call to action. Typically, that’s not an ideal tactic for an ADR professional looking to maintain neutrality.

For publications that do run bylines, their respective editorial teams are going to have different goals and target audiences in mind as they plan their coverage. As an ADR professional, it is important think about a publication’s target audience when determining how to tailor the insights that you might want to share.

Each publication also has its own writers’ guidelines and house style for formatting, grammar, citations, and word count, among other requirements. The absolute last thing you want to do is write your article first without knowing where it will run. If you do, you might end up needing to cut your 4,000-word article down to 800, or vice versa, or remove all footnotes, or add some in, or change from AP style to Chicago or the other way around. Instead, find out who oversees contributed content for your target publication, provide a pithy 3-5 sentence overview of your proposed article to see if they’re interested, and, if so, make sure to review the guidelines so you can write the piece to those specifications.

Once you’ve secured interest, it’s essential to know what the outlet is looking for in terms of timing and then meet those deadlines.

Many outlets that accept bylines also want pieces that analyze the impact of a given development and don’t just summarize what’s happened. Most also require some form of exclusivity, meaning you can’t run the same article in two different publications. While a handful will also republish client alerts or blog posts that have already run on your website, most will not, so it’s important to know a given publication’s rules on exclusivity before publishing or shopping it elsewhere.

Interview Opportunities

Conversations with members of the press can also be an excellent opportunity to showcase your insights and perspective. Journalists are often looking to bolster their own understanding of specific subject matter through interviews—as such, conversations with the press can typically be viewed as positive, relationship-building opportunities to share knowledge and solidify yourself as a source. As a neutral party helping resolve or decide legal disputes, you have a unique perspective to offer reporters and you can do so without compromising your neutrality.

When determining how and when to engage with the press, it can be helpful to think about trends and developments in your region (or at the national or international level) that may overlap with your ADR practice and where your insights might lend themselves to a journalist’s coverage. For example, say there’s a looming strike that could bring an entire industry to a halt and you have previous experience handling labor negotiations. The strike may start off as breaking news and continue to be newsworthy as developments arise. As the news is breaking, your take could be valuable to a journalist who might usually cover other aspects of the business but who now is forced to cover some highly technical issues with which they’re not familiar, such as the factors involved when negotiating a complex, high-stakes labor contract. Acting as a source who can “translate” those matters from industry-speak or legalese to plain English will not only be help that journalist, but it will also help you demonstrate to potential clients that you can distill complex concepts into easily digestible language for decision-makers in a mediation. It can also showcase subject-matter familiarity, so if you happen to arbitrate a case on the topic, the parties know they will likely have to spend far less time getting you up to speed on the issues.

Journalists are regularly looking for new sources. If you have been following a journalist’s coverage on a matter relevant to your practice and think you have insights that would be valuable to them, it can be appropriate to reach out directly with an email, either from your communications/PR team or from you directly. When drafting that email, brevity is crucial, as is making it clear to the journalist how your background, experience, and viewpoint might be relevant for them. You might start the email by acknowledging that you’ve been reading their previous coverage on a certain topic and that you see a direct parallel between their work and the insights that you can offer. From there, it’s helpful to include a bit of background on yourself and your credentials to demonstrate to the journalist why you are qualified to speak on a certain matter.

Your conversation with a journalist can take shape in a few ways—on the record, on background, or off the record. On the record means that everything you say can be used in their reporting and attributed to you. On background means that information you share can be used in their reporting but not attributed to you. Off the record means that the information you share with them may not be used in their reporting or attributed to you. It is important to confirm the terms of an interview and get the reporter to agree to those terms before the conversation starts.

Some interview preparation considerations include:

• Setting the framework – Your goal when engaging with the press should be to present insights that are as helpful as possible. To do that, you need to have a clear idea of how exactly a journalist might want to focus the conversation. Feel empowered to ask questions to clarify the topics that they may want to discuss with you and what they’ve heard from other sources. This can be a great opportunity to determine how to focus your preparation ahead of the interview and gain a better understanding of the journalist’s existing knowledge on a topic. If a journalist is new to a beat, they may have questions that are more foundational or rudimentary—lean into that as an opportunity to help educate them.
• Gathering insights – Once you’ve determined the scope of the interview, stay current on news relating to the topic and think through anecdotes, trends, and data (where possible) that might be helpful to share with the journalist.
• Reviewing coverage – You should review the journalist’s recent coverage and refresh yourself on any relevant developments that may come up during the conversation. Reviewing their coverage can also give you insight into questions they may ask or angles they may take in their reporting.
• Key messages – It can be helpful to practice delivering your key points in groups of three (also known as the “rule of threes”) to make it easier for the journalist to follow. It can also be helpful to think of the takeaways that might be relevant for their readers so you can highlight those during the conversation.

During the interview, consider the following:

• Kicking off the conversation – It’s common for a journalist to ask if they can record the conversation, particularly if it is on the record. Recording is a notetaking aid that helps the journalist be fully present during the conversation without having to worry about writing everything down. As the conversation starts, embrace small talk to help break the ice and develop rapport. Keep in mind that the interviews you’re looking to engage in are not adversarial in nature. It’s helpful to appear friendly, open, and approachable.
• Reiterating expectations – It’s advisable to confirm the terms of the conversation (on the record, on background, or off the record) at the outset, as well as to reiterate the focus of the conversation.
• Staying within your scope – It’s important to be clear on the boundaries of your experience. If a journalist has a question that goes beyond the scope of your knowledge, it’s perfectly acceptable to be candid that you’re not able to address their question or to let the journalist know that you’ll circle back with them with your thoughts following the interview.
• Being colorful – A memorable interview is one that leverages analogies, examples, and personal experiences, where appropriate. But remember to keep any stories concise and centered on your key messages.
• Pivoting away from trouble spots – If you get a question you don’t wish to answer or one that focuses on something negative that you want to avoid, you can pivot away. Each situation will vary, but a response to a tricky question could be: “that’s not been my experience, but what I have seen is…”
• Taking advantage of softballs – As the interview wraps up, the journalist may ask if there is anything additional that you’d like to add or any topics that they may have missed. If so, take advantage of that opportunity to reiterate your key messages and introduce new ideas that may lay the groundwork for a follow-up interview or plant the seed for a new article that the journalist might want to explore.
• Staying in touch – Fruitful relationships with journalists are nurtured over time. Stay in touch as new developments arise that may be relevant to their coverage and relate to your ongoing work. Also be sure to like and share their stories and posts on social media and let them know if you’ve spotted a particularly interesting article they’ve written (particularly pieces that don’t involve you).

Keeping the Momentum Going

Once a media placement is secured, whether it’s an article you wrote or a quote of yours in a news story, it’s important to keep the momentum going. The placement itself is the tip of the iceberg—what you do with it afterward is where you can really leverage the opportunity. This includes promoting the coverage within your personal and professional networks, including sharing on your website and through direct emails to your contact list, as well as via social media. Showcasing your media placement can lead to additional media contacts, help build credibility within your networks, and help serve as a conversation starter for individuals who may be intrigued about your work.

Engaging with the press is a long-term process, and takes time, care, and attention from you. As you’re getting started, you might consider setting realistic milestones for yourself, such as aiming to write two articles a year and engaging with two new journalists. But having a platform to build your reputation, establish yourself as a thought leader, and, most importantly, start conversations that can help develop your practice, is worth the effort.