Getting Published Can Transform Your Career and Your Practice
Phi Alpha Delta Reporter [PDF VERSION]

By Ari Kaplan

Arthur Chapter Justice, Andrew Delaney, is a 2L at Vermont Law School and a writer. He submitted his article “Playing Into the Playas Hands” about private pressure groups protesting rap music, to the Entertainment & Sports Lawyer, the newsletter of the ABA Forum on the Entertainment and Sports Industries, for publication this winter. He hopes publication of his new article, “Where is the Love: Video Game Actors, Residuals and the Future of the Gaming Industry” will further help to secure his future in sports and entertainment law. For many trying to stand out in today’s stagnant economy, writing offers the ideal opportunity.

Demonstrate Your Expertise

The art of writing for publication is one that can be learned and mastered. It offers tremendous possibilities for organic self-promotion and enables you to establish yourself as an authority on almost any topic. It broadcasts your knowledge and highlights your commitment. Whether you are a law student or a senior partner, it is critical to demonstrate your interest and understanding of a particular area of the law.

Showcase Your Skills

In preparation for job interviews or client meetings, you can use an article to address issues related to those you expect to discuss. It offers a highly valued credential that helps bring distinction beyond law school, grades or practice size. Each time an article is published, it gives you the chance to reach out to old friends, colleagues and others in your network.

Connect with Others

Writing offers you the chance to work with someone who is outside of your normal daily interaction or with whom you are particularly interested in developing a genuine relationship. Students and practitioners alike can offer to assist someone with an article by co-authoring or providing background research. It provides a tangible expression of your commitment to a particular subject. It also demonstrates your sincerity in a meaningful and creative manner.

You can even use the article as a chance to meet others by offering to interview them as experts or profile their work. The key is to encourage people to remember your name and showcase your thought leadership. That showcase becomes a way for people to find you when searching for information on a particular topic.

Pitch First

Before setting finger to keyboard, most hopeful writers should pitch an idea to a publication in which he or she is interested. Draft a simple one-paragraph e-mail describing your thesis in a sentence or two, why you are the appropriate person to write the piece and its relevance to the publication’s readership. It is the deadline that will motivate the project’s completion.

Maximize Your Time

Once you have a firm deadline, schedule the work as you would anything else. Those gauging the time commitment should conservatively expect to write about 250 words (or one page) per hour. To help remember ideas, carry a pocket-sized notebook with you routinely. The notebook’s contents will help you outline your ideas more easily and speed the process.

Ultimately, the key is to write about issues that are on the minds of your readers when they are actually seeing your article. And, of course, like Delaney, cover subjects that demonstrate your enthusiasm for the law.

Ari Kaplan is a lawyer and a writer in the New York-area. He teaches a popular course on the mechanics of getting published at law firms and other organizations nationwide. He is also the author of The Opportunity Maker: Strategies for Inspiring Your Legal Career Through Creative Networking and Business Development (Thomson-West, 2008). He is also a ghostwriter (ghost writer) of white papers, case studies, client alerts and profiles for law related, e-discovery (electronic discovery) and legal technology (tech) companies. Learn more at www.AriKaplanAdvisors.com.