What a firm can post without touching a client matter

Every other business markets by showing its work. A firm mostly cannot. The matters are confidential, the outcomes are restricted, and the interesting details are exactly the ones that identify someone.

This is the real reason law firm content stalls. It is not a lack of writing ability, it is a genuine belief that there is nothing publishable. There is, but it comes from different places than most marketing advice assumes.

The intake call is your content calendar

The questions you answer before anyone becomes a client are not confidential. They are the same five questions every week, asked by people who found you while frightened.

Answering them publicly costs you nothing and reaches the much larger group who have the same question and have not called. It also shortens the calls you do take, which is a real operational return.

Process is publishable, outcomes are not

How a type of matter runs is generic knowledge. What it costs, roughly, how long it takes, what documents get requested, what the other side usually does first, what happens if you do nothing.

None of that touches a client, and it is genuinely useful. It also demonstrates command of the area far better than a result figure does, because it shows you have done this many times rather than won once.

  • The realistic timeline for this matter type, stage by stage.
  • What the first letter from the other side usually says, and why it is written that way.
  • The documents to gather before a first meeting.
  • What clients most often get wrong in the first week, before they call anyone.
  • What this typically costs and what drives the range.

Law changes are free material

Legislation, regulation and reported decisions are public. A short note on what changed and what it means practically is publishable without touching anything of your own.

It is also the content most likely to reach other professionals, which is where firm referrals come from. See the LinkedIn piece for why that audience matters more than it looks.

If you must use a real matter

Sometimes the story is the point. It can be done, but the standard is higher than most firms apply, and anonymising is not the safeguard people think it is.

  • Written consent, obtained after the matter concluded, specific to the use.
  • Assume identification. In a small sector or a small town, the facts identify the client even with names removed.
  • Change nothing to make it better. An improved story is a misleading advertisement.
  • Check whether your jurisdiction requires a disclaimer that past results do not predict future outcomes.
  • Remember consent can be withdrawn, and you need to be able to act on it.

The firm itself is a subject

Hiring, growth, why the firm took on a practice area, what the team does outside work. This reads as filler to lawyers and as reassurance to clients, who are choosing a person more than a service.

It is also how associates get found by candidates, which for most firms is a more pressing problem than lead generation.

In short

Publish the questions you answer for free anyway, and treat any real matter as identifiable no matter how carefully it is anonymised.

Noian writes, schedules and publishes this kind of content for law firms, with every post held for your approval first.

See how it works for lawyers

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