Legal thought leadership comes of age

Thought leadership. Ideas creation. Call it what you will. The dissemination of more opinionated comment from professional services companies is on the up, a trend that is particularly noticeable in the legal services industry.

Why are lawyers embracing this methodology? Creative and strategic ideas are a powerful means of differentiating yourself from the competition, and making clients sit up and listen to your experts. Aside from a few standout pioneers, the business news feeds are severely starved of legal services thought leadership despite the incredible wealth of expertise that these firms have worked so hard to attract and retain.

To date, a lot of these “early adopters” have ploughed their resources into raising their profile in the legal services industry itself, shedding light on the sector and forging relationships with government and policy decision makers.

We have seen a lot of companies start to position themselves as business consultancies in the last year, vying for a piece of the C-suite’s attention. With this trend set to continue, it is going to become increasingly difficult for law firms to make themselves heard. This is further complicated by the Legal Services Act which is expected to come into force at the end of this year, opening up the market for legal services provision beyond just lawyers and increasing competition for tender lists.

Now more than ever, law firms need to recognise the business value of thought leadership and capitalise on their expertise.