Congrats! You are have been chosen as one of the best lawyers in America. The best place to post this listing is your bio, the firm’s website, the news section under press releases. You can even send it out via social media channels. But, do not send it to a newspaper expecting it will make the cover of that publication or a feature story will be written about you. Especially if you are in big media markets like Los Angeles, New York or Chicago. I was at lunch today with a legal industry reporter who said she continues to get press releases from law firms announcing rankings by other news outlets. “I used respond with a note that we do not cover this type of news,” She said. “Now, there are too may news releases. It would take me all day to reply.” We can all agree there are too…

It’s March Madness so we thought it was appropriate to talk about the hype submission are getting too. Every lawyer wants to be ranked the top seed but as we saw this past weekend even the top teams can get knocked out. Similar to a coach determining which players need to be in the game to get the win, PR professionals need to be strategic and diplomatic when choosing which attorneys they put forward for rankings and awards. I know it’s tough dealing with attorneys who think they deserve to get their shot, but you are not doing your firm any favors by giving in to people who think they have a chance at getting picked. When in reality, they don’t. The rankings game is getting more and more competitive and for that reason, editorial teams responsible for reviewing them have become very clear on what they want from us….

Yesterday, I gave you tips on how to get ranked in Chambers USA based on comments by Laura Mills, editor of Chambers USA. David Houston, editor of the Daily Journal was also a panelist at Wednesday’s Legal Marketing Association program in Los Angeles and he provided similar advice about submissions for his publications’ list. The following are highlights of his comments on how to get the attention of the paper’s editorial staff: Tell us about the work in real time. If an attorney was involved in a case or deal, inform the staff. Even if the paper does not write about them, they still want a heads up. Consider scheduling roundtables with the editorial staff, but not during the selection process. This will give the editorial team the chance to put a face with a name and learn about your firm’s practices/deals/cases. Wondering about extensions? David said file your weakest submissions…

Directories, Rankings and Awards are the cause of massive headaches for the marketer and PR processionals who are responsible for developing them, yet rankings and awards are not going anywhere. In fact, they are multiplying like rabbits in springtime. Knowing how important our role is in this process, the Los Angeles chapter of the Legal Marketing Association held a program on the topic moderated by Laura Shovlowsky, marketing and business development manager at Proskauer Rose. The panelists provided some insight into what we need to know to be efficient and more importantly successful, and hopefully make the process less painful. Even if you are not submitting to Chambers or the Daily Journal, a California- based legal publication, some of this information is still relevant for other business and legal awards and rankings. So, what do you need to know to successfully submit to Chambers? Here are the highlights from Chambers’…