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Diversity

Diversity references scrubbed from BigLaw websites amid DEI probes; informal guidance issued

By Debra Cassens Weiss

March 20, 2025, 11:57 am CDT

BigLaw firms are scrubbing diversity mentions from their websites and reexamining policies amid the Trump administration’s attack on diversity, equity and inclusion programs that it considers to be illegal.

Many law firms began changing their websites even before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission asked 20 firms to supply information on their DEI practices. Publications covering the changes include Law.com, Above the Law and Bloomberg Law.

The EEOC has published informal guidance on DEI measures that can constitute illegal discrimination in a document and a website Q&A, Bloomberg Law reports.

The document, issued jointly with the U.S. Department of Justice, said DEI programs may be illegal under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act if they involve an employment action “motivated—in whole or in part—by an employee’s race, sex or another protected characteristic.”

Prohibited conduct may include exclusion from fellowships, training, mentoring and employee affinity groups, the document said.

According to media reports, these firms are reacting:

  • DLA Piper has disbanded minority organizations and affinity groups. It also removed preferred pronouns from signature blocks on employee emails. (Bloomberg Law, Above the Law)

  • Kirkland & Ellis took references to a diversity and inclusion fellowship offline and has a new webpage touting a “Welcoming Environment.” (Law.com)

  • K&L Gates removed references to “diversity” from its website, changed the name of its Diversity and Inclusion Committee to the Opportunity and Inclusion Committee and has an “Opportunity and Inclusion” webpage. (Above the Law, ABAJournal.com, Law.com)

  • A Proskauer Rose webpage describing affinity groups is now titled “Inclusion.” Articles referring to diversity efforts now have URLs that go to the “Inclusion” page. (Above the Law)

  • Hogan Lovells has renamed “diversity, equity and inclusion” to “HL inclusion.” A DEI video has also been removed. (Law.com)

  • Latham & Watkins has redirected a DEI webpage to a page entitled, “At Latham & Watkins, you belong as you are.” The firm also removed a paragraph referring to “institutional racism.” And the firm apparently changed the name of its “diversity scholars program” to “pathways scholars program.” (Law.com)

  • Squire Patton Boggs highlights “inclusion” on the firm landing page and apparently renamed its “Global Office of DEI.” It has been replaced with a reference to “Global Workplace Culture and Development Leadership.” (Law.com)

  • Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison and Sidley Austin have apparently updated their landing page to reference “inclusion.” (Law.com)

See also:

EEOC chair requested ‘extensive’ info from law firms on DEI practices and hiring; did it cross a line?

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3. BigLaw firm tones down diversity references…

Diversity

BigLaw firm tones down diversity references on website, citing ‘fluctuating internal and external expectations’

By Debra Cassens Weiss

February 13, 2025, 10:13 am CST

Updated: K&L Gates has removed references to “diversity” from its website and rebranded its Diversity and Inclusion Committee.

Above the Law noted the changes after monitoring BigLaw websites since President Donald Trump took office last month.

According to Above the Law, K&L Gates has removed or changed these references:

  • The link to “Our Commitment to Diversity” on the homepage has been removed.

  • “Diversity and Inclusion” is changed to “Opportunity and Inclusion” on the “About” page.

  • The renamed “Opportunity and Inclusion” page no longer includes diversity percentages for leadership positions.

  • The law firm has removed a sentence reading, “We pledge to follow the Mansfield Rule,” which requires firms seeking certification to commit to certain percentages of diverse candidates for leadership positions.

  • The Diversity and Inclusion Committee has been renamed the Opportunity and Inclusion Committee.

K&L Gates explained the changes in a firmwide email obtained by Above the Law.

The email said K&L Gates is not diminishing its commitment to opportunity and inclusion.

“We are embracing the terminology opportunity and inclusion to more comprehensively express our commitment to fostering a culture that supports and empowers a broad range of individuals with diverse backgrounds and different life experiences,” the email said.

“The website changes are reflective of guidance being received by many clients and others, as entities understandably are taking a hard look at how to preserve their values amid fluctuating internal and external expectations and to ensure they remain compliant with shifting laws and regulations,” the email said.

“To date, the changes on our website have been implemented and led by a cross-section of stakeholders at our firm, including importantly by members of our opportunity and inclusion team. The team is still in the process of making updates to the website—and we can assure you that the feedback we receive will be factored in.”

K&L Gates made similar points in this statement forwarded to the ABA Journal: “Consistent with our long-held values, K&L Gates is committed to advancing opportunity and inclusion across all facets of the firm. Revisions to our website have been implemented and led by a cross-section of stakeholders at our firm, including importantly by members of our Opportunity and Inclusion Committee, and we are and will continue to be in close communication with our entire global team about these changes. Not only do we place great value on our team members’ unique backgrounds, talents and skills, but we also benefit as a firm from the diversity of their lived and learned experiences. We are dedicated to ensuring that every person at K&L Gates feels respected, heard, valued and supported. We have not diminished in any way our long-standing commitment to foster an inclusive, talented team, as we know this enables us to provide the best possible service to our clients and empowers our workforce to thrive.”

Updated Feb. 13 at 11:09 a.m. to include the statement from K&L Gates.

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3. Launch into 2025 with our Mind Your Business…

Mind Your Business

Launch into 2025 with our Mind Your Business roundup

By Lee Rawles

January 2, 2025, 3:30 pm CST

As you gear up for a productive 2025, check out our Mind Your Business advice from the past year. Mind Your Business, which launched in 2020, is a way for legal professionals to offer each other practical practice advice. If you have hard-won knowledge of your own that you’d like to pass on, scroll to the bottom to find out how you can join the conversation.

Make no mistake: Maintaining privacy compliance is a complex moving target, and the checks and balances that your company needed 10 years ago do not even scratch the surface of what you need today.

Assuming that you share your legal knowledge and experience without oversimplification, advice from marketing experts can be worthwhile and immensely useful. Here are a few ways to embrace marketing advice without leaving your legal training behind.

Businesses increasingly recognize emotion’s pivotal role in decision-making. Research in the Harvard Business Review shows emotional connections can drive significant gains.

How you manage a crisis is critical and may be the difference between a swift resolution and a prolonged public nightmare. Consider these seven lessons to help guide your clients successfully through their next crisis.

Few law schools offer their graduates LinkedIn self-branding workshops as an employment game-changer before law firm hiring managers. Today, even when taught, self-branding coursework is outdated, even at the best law schools. Or, as widely lamented by attendees in my recent online seminar, marketing courses not offered at all.

To better advise artificial intelligence decisions, lawyers should know the benefits, shortcomings and best practices of incorporating insurance into AI risk management.

Contract management. Compliance updates. Discovery responses. Intellectual property portfolio management. These rote, often-time-consuming tasks can all be part of an in-house counsel’s day-to-day schedule. The problem? Many can devolve into costly time sinks for a legal department’s salaried talent.

As generative artificial intelligence stormed the scene over the past year with its snazzy Q&A interface, it was fair to ask whether existing ways of accessing knowledge, such as keyword search or templates, would become redundant. After all, why would you need those old ways of tracking down specific pieces of knowledge if you can just ask the all-knowing AI to call it up for you?

Many law firms are seeking to increase diversity, equity, inclusion accessibility and belonging within their team (collectively, “DEI”). Following are five tips for how law firms can apply DEI best practices in 2024.

As 2024 begins, so does the business of legal recruiting. And not surprisingly, we have already seen numerous transfers of law firm partners and groups. The market also anticipates several more major firm mergers this year. As we start this new year, I would like to broach the question, do you know who your legal recruiter is?

“It’s never going to go well,” Arizona attorney Lynda C. Shely says about the prospect of representing anyone you are close to, including family members and friends. Shely, the immediate past chair of the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility, works in private practice and has advised more than 2,500 law firms around the country on legal ethics matters.

Are you interested in contributing your own business wisdom to ABA Journal readers in 2025? The ABA Journal is open to receiving submissions from legal professionals and subject-matter experts for the Mind Your Business series. Read submissions guidelines here.

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3. Car-racing costs can’t be deducted by lawyer…

Tax Law

Car-racing costs can’t be deducted by lawyer as marketing expense, 10th Circuit rules

By Debra Cassens Weiss

December 11, 2024, 8:48 am CST

A solo personal injury lawyer can’t count the costs of car racing as a marketing activity, a federal appeals court ruled Monday.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Denver ruled against lawyer James William Avery, who sought to deduct more than $300,000 in expenses incurred in car racing, Law360 reports.

Avery moved to Indiana from Colorado in 2003. He continued to practice law in Colorado, but he hoped to boost his practice in his new state, as well, the 10th Circuit said in its Dec. 9 order and judgment.

To market his practice, Avery began to participate in car shows in Indiana and then tried his hand at car racing. Avery’s Dodge Viper, bought for more than $100,000, had a decal for his law firm on the back, he said in his appellate brief. The webpage for his “Viper racing team” was linked to his firm’s Facebook page.

He raced in at least seven states, including Indiana and Colorado.

But the costs of car racing were not an ordinary and necessary business expense for attorneys that can be deducted, the U.S. Tax Court ruled in February 2023. The 10th Circuit upheld the conclusion.

The Tax Court had found that Avery “greatly enjoyed car racing, which he found more exciting than his previous hobby of acquiring collector cars and participating in car shows. But we find that both activities were hobbies. No deduction is allowed for personal expenses of this kind.”

Avery had argued that the Tax Court should not have considered enjoyment of his marketing activity in its ordinary-and-necessary analysis. Doing so, he argued, could lead to a situation in which expenses incurred for a work vehicle would be deemed to be personal expenses simply because a taxpayer enjoys driving the vehicle.

The 10th Circuit said it isn’t obvious that the Tax Court actually considered Avery’s enjoyment of car racing as a factor in its analysis.

“But even if we read the Tax Court’s decision as Mr. Avery does, we see no error in considering personal enjoyment as one factor among others,” the 10th Circuit said.

Avery did not immediately respond to an ABA Journal request for comment sent to an email address listed on his appellate brief. Nor did he respond to a voicemail left at a number listed on the brief.

The case is Avery v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue.

It is the final question I pose, when interviewing lawyers to write their bios, as a small part of my legal marketing, PR and communications practice. I will already have digested their standard fare: what they do, what they want to do more of, why what they do really matters and to whom.

But then I ask for dessert, a detail typically not on the regular menu: “Are there any interesting hobbies, collections or life experiences you can share? A favorite book, movie or trip? Are you training for anything—perhaps a 5K or half-marathon? Taking a class?”

“You’re crazy about karaoke!” I will sometimes jokingly accuse. Responses generally fall into one of three categories.

A small percentage are annoyed by this line of questioning, considering it undignified or irrelevant. Although I cannot recall asking him this, one lawyer informs me that his clients, “don’t give a whit whether he likes long walks on the beach,” only that he gets their deals done and their cases won. Another is reluctant to reveal his lifelong love of the Yankees, lest he alienate clients who misguidedly root for the Red Sox. Both points duly noted.

But while some situations may indeed call for greater formality and/or neutrality, there is a method to this marketing madness. Many clients want a lawyer they can feel comfortable with and talk to. A bio that provides a small preview of personality and “voice” can help to ensure a good match. For this reason—and, of course, within reason—many law firms are now choosing to adopt a more conversational, user-friendly tone in their website and other content.

The majority of interview subjects inform me that there is nothing interesting or unique about them. “I’m boring!” they insist. “When I’m not working, I’m spending time with my family or chasing after my kids. That’s it.”

While I find “not a whit” boring about that, when I press this group gently about what their family likes to do together, I am often rewarded with such gems as, “My husband and I have passed our love of horror movies down to our finally age-appropriate teenagers, and we take turns picking what to watch during our weekly ‘Family Fright Night.’” Bingo.

The final bunch are fully on board from the jump, enthusiastically sharing far more fun facts than I can possibly fit into a paragraph (the most space this content will ever be allotted). These are my people, kindred, and I want to hire every single one of them, despite having no present need for CFIUS, antitrust or criminal defense counsel.

In addition to all being consummate professionals, one is a highly feted opera singer, an alto, on the side. Another is a member of a Mardi Gras parade “krewe” that adorns human shoes gorgeously with glitter to hand out to spectators as swag. This is someone I want to ride with. Then there’s the guy who unexpectedly had to deliver one of his children himself. If that doesn’t instill confidence in your litigator, demonstrating admirable poise under pressure, please tell me what it is you require.

Of course, not all the answers are lighthearted. Sometimes “my” lawyers (as I protectively come to think of them) will share something serious, about significant obstacles and hardships that they have overcome to get to where they are now. I am honored to help them do so.

In a recent presidential debate, perhaps the political candidates should also have been asked this question.

Former President Donald Trump, in responding, might have recalled his short stint as a film critic, discussing Citizen Kane, a 1941 classic film, observing that “maybe wealth isn’t everything” (because money didn’t buy Kane happiness) and suggesting that what Kane really needed was a different woman. Or he could have reminded the co-moderator, David Muir of ABC News, that he wrestled then-WWE CEO Vince McMahon in the 2007 “Battle of the Billionaires” at WrestleMania 23 and won—hugely.

Vice President Kamala Harris might have shared with co-moderator Linsey Davis that her name means “lotus flower” in Sanskrit, that she worked at McDonald’s during a summer while in college, and that she once cooked South Indian masala dosas in actress Mindy Kaling’s kitchen, quite possibly while sporting Chuck Taylor shoes.

While, of course, these facts are nowhere near as important as the major issues currently on the minds of clients and country, I maintain that the trivia isn’t trivial. Just as the political is personal, so is the professional. Whether as client or constituent, catching a glimpse of the person behind the practice makes me more hopeful that—as they go about their business, and mine—they might also be more likely to keep my humanity in mind.

Even if a firm doesn’t end up ultimately using this information on their website, compiling it can still be a valuable exercise. Sharing it internally—either on the firm’s intranet or via other internal communication—is a creative way to build community (especially for new associates, but I would suggest including support staff, as well).

And in case my clients are curious, while perhaps also misguidedly, I root for the Mets. I like long walks on the beach just fine, but I prefer long drives along coasts. I took one just the other day, on Long Island’s South Shore—windows open, salt air whipping hair, a large Dunkin’ coffee (cream, no sugar) in the console cup holder, and Post Malone’s surprisingly catchy new country album blasting while I sang loudly and off-key.

I don’t normally listen to country music, but I am crazy about karaoke—in cars.

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Tania Zamorsky is the founder of Zamo PR & Communications. She can be reached at [email protected].

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ABAJournal.com is accepting queries for original, thoughtful, nonpromotional articles and commentary by unpaid contributors to run in the Your Voice section. Details and submission guidelines are posted at “Your Submissions, Your Voice.”

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This column reflects the opinions of the author and not necessarily the views of the ABA Journal—or the American Bar Association.

The legal job market is robust. And within all those professional journeys there are two types of searchers: those lawyers seeking a job change and those seeking a career change. If you’re in the market, it’s important not to conflate these two paths.

Therefore, before you kick off a professional search, start by answering one critical question: Am I looking to be somewhere different or am I looking to be something different?

To be clear, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with a simple job change. Moving from Firm A to Firm B, for example, can be just enough “different” to invigorate and motivate your next chapter. That journey certainly requires advance planning, opportunity creation and disciplined decision-making. But to assess, map and execute a career pivot requires a distinct approach.

When we ruminate on potential career changes, it’s easy to over index on those instances where lawyers have famously transitioned out of the law. Could we be the next great chef or bestselling novelist? Why not just take the leap and do it, right? But then the alarm clock sounds, the dream ends, and we realize that our passion may not pay the bills. And contrary to what our Generation Z friends may say, dropping everything and just “living your best life,” while both aspirational and inspirational, isn’t really a plan.

Here’s a truth that may not be dream worthy, but it is both realistic and achievable: Lawyers can re-invent themselves by making strategic moves within the law. If you think of your career pivot as an evolution rather than a revolution, the path becomes more clear.

While there are many ways to evolve a legal career, one of the best steps to a diversified portfolio of experience and opportunity is the in-house legal market. The in-house career path has changed over the course of the last two decades. Where law firms operate under a model of specialists and sub-specialists, most in-house teams have moved to a model that prioritizes generalists. And lawyers with multi-disciplinary experience increase opportunities that are either adjacent to or completely outside of law.

Today, corporate legal departments must cover an expanding list of matters with increased cost-control pressures. “Do more with less” is a common theme. The function needs to be managed with optimal efficiency. This requires a lean team of multifaceted legal advisers, as opposed to a large group of subject matter experts. Therefore, most corporate legal departments will excitedly invest in developing generalists, understanding that law firms are not incentivized to do the same. Once there, the door opens to a world of different opportunities.

In some instances, the progression may start by simply adding adjacent experiences to an in-house role. For example, it is now common to see in-house lawyers having cross-functional responsibility within human resources, compliance, contracts, communications, investor relations, government affairs or other corporate departments. Similarly, being a dedicated in-house legal adviser to a division or brand within a larger enterprise can create opportunities to add operational experience within that business or brand.

There are growing examples of CEOs, presidents, founders and entrepreneurs who started their career as in-house counsel. Those lawyers (or former lawyers) typically became ingrained in a business, knew every corner of its operations, understood the risk profile and learned the art of becoming a broader business leader rather than just a legal technician.

These transitions, however, do not happen abruptly or without intention. To evolve from legal to business requires a strategic approach. Here are some steps that will help make it happen.

1. Be a hand raiser

Whether you are applying for your first in-house role or you’re already there, make it known that an important goal of the job is to expand your portfolio beyond a specific legal specialty. For example, while a law firm wouldn’t let an IP lawyer tackle an employment matter, that type of opportunity absolutely exists in-house. Corporate legal departments are always underresourced, and over reliance on outside counsel can be a budget killer. So raise a hand and ask if you can manage or simply participate in an issue outside of your lane. This will help reduce outside costs and allow you to gain a new skill. Expanding your experience base will be rewarded and you’ll quickly start seeing your overall business portfolio evolve.

2. Contribute in a nonlegal capacity

There are always opportunities within a corporation for lawyers to contribute outside of the legal function. A few examples: (a) most companies have various cross-functional committees (ethics, compliance, personnel, culture, diversity, etc.) that may be managed outside of legal, but where the skills of counsel are useful; (b) in the context of acquisitions, companies frequently seek internal resources to manage diligence, integration or other special merger-related projects and there is rarely a dedicated resource for that; or (c) in a public company, become a member of the disclosure team that reviews quarterly and annual public filings for accuracy and thoroughness. These opportunities, and others, while either adjacent to or outside of legal, will expand your technical reach, allow you to learn different areas of business, expose you to different functions and give you access to leaders that you may not otherwise interact with.

3. Client skills and marketing

Yes, you still have to conduct client development efforts when you’re in-house. The key here is to market yourself beyond legal. Create relationships with clients that are broader than any specific area or matter. Develop a reputation as a trusted business adviser, not just a technical legal adviser. Find out your clients’ most pressing challenges, request to experience their operations firsthand, and meet their staff at all levels. Get ingrained in their business. From there you will find opportunities to market your capabilities in a more curated and impactful way. For example, you can create training modules that address a specific business need, rather than just the annual corporate training modules that lawyers can get such a bad reputation for deploying. Or approach business and strategy meetings differently by speaking out on both legal and nonlegal issues. There are many opportunities to reframe and expand your value by demonstrating that you’re not merely a legal technician but rather a business leader.

4. Play smart politics

Politics is a part of any career, whether you like it or not. But are you courting the right constituents? If you are looking to expand beyond legal, then don’t insulate yourself within the legal community. Get out and make connections and form relationships across the entire enterprise. Find opportunities to get in front of varied stakeholders, leaders, functions and, if possible, even the board of directors. They can and will become valued connections that can open up new and interesting paths for you.

In sum, serving as in-house counsel at any level will create a world of divergent opportunities. You will find paths you didn’t even know existed. If you are intentional in how you start and mange an in-house legal career, you can create a series of strategic moves that will result in the type of pivot that leads you either beyond or completely outside of the law. Go start your evolution!

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Scott Chaplin worked as a public company chief legal officer for more than two decades in a variety of industries, including technology, life sciences, defense and national security, consumer products, retail and manufacturing. He also worked as a chief human resources officer, board member and arbitrator/mediator.

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ABAJournal.com is accepting queries for original, thoughtful, nonpromotional articles and commentary by unpaid contributors to run in the Your Voice section. Details and submission guidelines are posted at “Your Submissions, Your Voice.”

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This column reflects the opinions of the author and not necessarily the views of the ABA Journal—or the American Bar Association.

Writing plays an expanding role in the evolving legal marketing world, and lawyers have much to learn. We must pivot to produce easily digestible content. To effectively market ourselves and our law firms to clients through law alerts, blogs or other methods, we must stop writing like lawyers and start writing like marketers, journalists or speechwriters.

Directions for doing so abound: Write for an audience of eighth graders, focus on SEO optimization, avoid citations, format with bullet points, etc.

These suggestions add value. That value is limited, however, by a foundational flaw. Advising lawyers to write simplistically and formulaically misses the mark. It fails to recognize that clients hire us because we are legal experts, not because we are marketing experts. When we oversimplify to improve marketability, we strip legal content of the nuance our clients and potential clients expect us to incorporate into our practice. With that in mind, there are several ways to integrate marketing guidance into our writing while still performing our roles as lawyers.

Legal writing training begins in law school, as ABA accreditation criteria includes faculty-supervised first-year and upper-class writing requirements. Many schools add more substantial demands, including writing major articles and papers with extensive one-on-one faculty supervision. Academic journal writing and editing is another format for jargon added to the mix. This education, built upon post-graduation at firms around the country, creates attorney writers.

Some are so well-trained that they cannot help themselves from placing errant commas where none belong or adding unnecessary modifiers for yet further clarification of a three-line email. Nor can they stop themselves from capitalizing the words “plaintiffs” or “defendants.” (Practical note: Capitalize parties in court documents, not articles or blogs.)

Gifted citation checkers, perhaps, many attorney writers are like classically trained chefs who struggle to make a simple grilled cheese sandwich. They command the capacity to communicate with complex legalese but cannot distill legal intricacies into plain English.

And that is where change is required. Taking into account our expertise and understanding of the law, we have to learn how to share our knowledge. That does not mean understating complexities or habitually circulating information following often inapplicable conventions. Instead, we should think through each communication—its intention, substance and implications—and plan accordingly.

Leverage marketing insights

Assuming that you share your legal knowledge and experience without oversimplification, advice from marketing experts—in-house at your firm or outside consultants—can be worthwhile and immensely useful. Here are a few ways to embrace marketing advice without leaving your legal training behind.

1. Show, don’t tell

This old writing adage rings true for lawyers. You cannot advertise yourself as an “expert” without violating professional ethics rules, so use your writing to show your expertise. Include legal jargon and explain it. Breaking down complex legislation or regulations into digestible content will demonstrate your mastery of the materials. For an extra challenge, show that mastery. Graphics, charts and flow diagrams double as effective ways to explain complexities and visual showcases of your expertise.

Publishing well-written, high-quality blogs and articles distinguishes you from your competitors. Many lawyers can summarize the Federal Trade Commission’s most recent rule banning most noncompetes. Still, it takes more experience to successfully address related, more complex questions: How does the rule impact forfeiture provisions and clawbacks—particularly related to ERISA plans? As part of the executive branch, does the FTC even have the constitutional authority to regulate contracts?

2. Use active voice

Passive voice is not a grammatical concern, but it complicates sentence structure and adds extra words. Compare these sentences:

  • “Passive voice is to be avoided by legal writers who wish to achieve success.”

  • “Successful legal writers avoid passive voice.”

All writers benefit from replacing a passive voice with an active one (most of the time), but this is a particularly useful tip for lawyers. To communicate effectively, we should focus on writing simpler sentences—in structure, not content.

The active voice conveys directness and strength, both of which clients and potential clients want to see in their lawyers. Limiting the passive voice will help you demonstrate those qualities in your writing.

3. Know your audience

Clients hire lawyers who are well-prepared and considerate of their time. If you do not take the time to learn about your audience and write accordingly, you will have wasted your clients’ time.

If your distribution list includes primarily general counsels of national REITs, discuss important caselaw and address legal intricacies that they, as attorneys with expertise, will understand and appreciate. Provide links to cases, and consider addressing compelling arguments raised in concurring and dissenting opinions. They will likely appreciate the analysis and the mastery that you convey.

If you are writing for nonlawyers, engaging in esoteric legal analysis may be a waste of their time and yours. But do not treat your nonlawyer readers like they cannot understand legal issues. They can if you explain the issues well. It is your job to represent your clients’ interests, and educating them is an important aspect of that job.

Always use the correct legal terminology (including Latin words), and include definitions where necessary. Give your clients the credit they deserve for being intelligent and educated experts in their fields.

So write for eighth graders when preparing for middle school career day, but write for sophisticated real estate investors when explaining the implications of New York City’s rent regulation laws to institutional clients.

Do not keep a tally of SEO keywords when you write an explanation of the city’s updates to those regulations. While there is a possibility that discounting SEO may impact the analytics of your blog and your ability to reach those seeking content with Google searches (which should be explored further given Google’s March 2024 core update’s impact on SEO keywords—a subject for another column), you are writing to inform your clients. Producing helpful content geared toward those clients will make you a marketing success.

Circling back

In sum, identify your readership and understand the law to communicate effectively. Explain where appropriate but continue to write like a lawyer. And like a classically trained chef simplifying a grilled cheese sandwich, slightly alter the complexity of flavor based on ingredients and customer preferences. But do not use the microwave.

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Jessica Kaplan is the founder of Legally Penned. A 2001 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, Kaplan is a litigator-turned-wordsmith providing content and editing services tailored specifically to lawyers and law firms.

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Mind Your Business is a series of columns written by lawyers, legal professionals and others within the legal industry. The purpose of these columns is to offer practical guidance for attorneys on how to run their practices, provide information about the latest trends in legal technology and how it can help lawyers work more efficiently, and strategies for building a thriving business.

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Interested in contributing a column? Send a query to [email protected].

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This column reflects the opinions of the author and not necessarily the views of the ABA Journal—or the American Bar Association.

There has been a lot of talk and concern about generative AI tools and how they are changing the legal industry.

A major worry for many lawyers is that these tools could replace them or make them redundant.

But what about the potential of generative AI to help lawyers generate business, market themselves more effectively, and make more money?

On this month’s episode of the Legal Rebels Podcast, Gyi Tsakalakis, founder of AttorneySync and EPL Digital and digital marketing expert, talks about how generative AI can help lawyers generate business and market themselves.