Beyond the successful practice of law, the highest echelon of authority is often reserved for those who contribute to the improvement of the law itself.
Among other contributions is legal scholarship, or publishing. This form of contribution, whether through articles in law reviews, the authorship of treatises, or other forms of legal writing, including blog posts, articles and insights establishes a lawyer not just as a competent practitioner, but as a thought leader whose work can influence the judiciary, other scholars, and the direction of the law. It creates a durable legacy, and trust.
In today’s digital age, this tradition of written scholarship can be transformed into high-authority content.
High authority content gets cited and sourced in LLM’s and included in digital legal libraries, valuable for being seen in its own right, but also adding further authority.
A quarter century ago, publishing was democratized for lawyers. Many lawyers wrote “scholarship” in a way to help people and businesses. They created authority and a durable legacy. They created large books of business, often via blogs.
Others chased publishing as a means of “content marketing,” and did not achieve such authority and business.
In a the days of AI, those lawyers publishing as a means of contribution, not marketing, are the ones who will do well.
Beyond SEO and Google’s E-A-T framework, there are far better ways for legal publishing to establish authority for a lawyer in the days of AI.
More coming.
