< PreviousHAYLEY PICKARD, DEANNA ROTH, CHERYL GAFFNEY, RASHMI SHAH, MURALI BASHYAM, ALLISON LUKANICH, JESSICA BATZEL, AND ESTHER OH “The success of a company is its people, and we know that talent matters,” said Murali Bashyam, founder of Raleigh-based, immigration law firm, Bashyam Shah LLP. At many leading-edge companies in the Triangle, some of that talent was born overseas and are very valuable assets because of their experience and expertise. Yet over time, they face immigration issues because of changes in their immigration status. So employing foreign nationals comes with some risk. “If a company wants to hire a foreign worker, we know how to guide them through the immigration process, so they have the best chance of getting the talent they need. Our job is to give them honest advice, and only by doing so can companies make informed decisions on their personnel choices,” said Bashyam. Seventy percent of Bashyam Shah’s clients are corporations. The firm works closely with in-house attorneys and private practice attorneys representing companies. The client base includes startups, small-to-medium size companies, and large global multinational corporations. As a boutique immigration law firm, it handles a wide array of issues from workers, students, and family visas to green cards, deportation, and asylum. Bashyam Shah has long-term relationships with many of its corporate clients. “We know how they are different, and the different approaches we need to take with them based on their business philosophies,” said Bashyam. “The common questions are not always technical. They mostly focus on communication and delivery. They always want honest and prompt communication, followed by legal expertise that can help them achieve their goals.” IMMIGRA TION LA W FIRM OF THE MONTH Bashyam Shah LLP Understanding the Stakes and Emotions BY BOB FRIEDMAN PHOTOS BY HEADSHOTS AND CORPORATE They always want honest and prompt communication, followed by legal expertise that can help them achieve their goal.” ATTORNEY AT LAW MAGAZINE · NORTH CAROLINA TRIANGLE VOL. 8 NO. 3 10“A lot of times, we’re the therapist, social worker and the guidance counselor for our clients,” said attorney Allison Lukanich. “I think that is what makes us so unique as a boutique law firm. We have the bandwidth to serve the clients in that way when needed.” Immigration law extends into almost every sub-section of law, where both individuals and companies are involved—accordingly, the firm interfaces with business, estate planning, family, and criminal attorneys. A BUMPY RIDE Immigration law has been a bumpy ride for decades. “We’ve always hoped that some administration regardless of political affiliation, would do something with immigration in a positive way but that really hasn’t happened,” explained Bashyam. “I think they need to be updated for the global economy for not just companies but families as well.” Changes in immigration law can be sweeping, such as President Trump’s order in June to block visas for some skilled workers who enter the country under the H-1B visa. They all have a common denominator; nobody likes surprises. “The HR departments really rely on us to be up-to-date and very proactive in terms of immigration news,” said partner Rashmi Shah. “They are partners in a sense where they rely on us, if anything is changing with any of their employees or if we see something coming down the road that might even be a rumor. We make sure that there is open communication, we’re on the same page, and we keep everyone positive.” “As the immigration climate has gotten stricter and more demanding, we have learned how to adapt and answer to different Requests for Evidence (RFEs) or just in original filings to be able to avoid an RFE. Where other attorneys or employers would see an RFE as an indication of a failed case and an impending denial, our attorneys and paralegals don’t bat an eye,” said Bashyam. A PERSON BEHIND THE PROCESS Shah and her family were out for a walk in their neighborhood recently when a man stopped to introduce himself. “He said, ‘my name is Srinivas. You got my green card. I wouldn’t be living here without you.’ His whole case came to mind. It was a very complicated case. Then he starts pulling in everyone from the neighborhood who was walking by, saying, ‘this is Rashmi Shah!! this is Rashmi Shah!! this is Rashmi Shah!!,’” she recalled with a laugh. “Moments like that reminded me that even though we do a lot of corporate immigration, there’s always a person, family and community behind every application we file.” “Immigration law can be stressful for clients. So much is riding on it, whether they are a company, employee or an individual. We are willing to walk through the entire immigration process with our clients no matter how many times they ask. We really want them to understand the process,” explained Bashyam. 25TH ANNIVERSARY Murali Bashyam’s parents are originally from India. They moved to Toronto, where Murali and his sister were born. They all moved to Raleigh when his father was transferred by his company. Murali earned a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, in Economics from Wake Forest University and a Juris Doctor from the Wake Forest University School of Law. Rashmi Shah was born in England. At the age of seven, she moved with her family to Goldsboro when her father was transferred for his job. She graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. She earned her Juris Doctor from the University of North Carolina School of Law where she also worked in the Immigration and Human Rights Policy Clinic. Shah joined the Bashyam firm in 2011. The firm is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. “Do Roger Federer or Serena Williams have to think about the mechanics of hitting a backhand as much now as they did when they were 22? No,” said Bashyam. “After 25 years of experience, we can analyze cases, laws, and case strategy very quickly as if it’s second nature. “Having done this for 25 years, we understand the stakes and emotions involved in the process. We not only know how the client feels, but we know how best to achieve the desired result for them.” BASHYAM SHAH LLP 3737 Benson Drive, Raleigh, NC 27609 (919) 833-0840 www.bashyamshah.com RASHMI SHAH MURALI BASHYAM ALLISON LUKANICH AttorneyAtLawMagazine.com 11Four early-stage legal technology companies with a core mission of expanding access to legal services have been se- lected to participate in Duke Law Tech Lab’s summer 2020 pre-accelerator program. Don’t Get Mad Get Paid – Helps women get paid their back child support and collect what’s rightfully theirs by tracking down child support evaders and generating cus- tomized legal documents JusticeText – Strengthens the ability of public defend- ers to serve low-income criminal defendants through video evidence management software that leverages AI to process body-worn camera footage, interrogation videos, and more People Clerk – Guides California litigants throughout the small claims process giving them the tools to prepare, settle, and litigate their dispute. Yo Tengo Bot – Automates the interaction between im- migration law firms and potential clients through a white label chatbot powered by artificial intelligence and ma- chine learning (available in both English and Spanish). “Each of these teams represents important opportuni- ties for technological innovation in law,” said Jeff Ward, Associate Dean for Technology & Innovation at Duke Law and Director of the Duke Center on Law & Technology. “Even more, though, each of these founders represents the right attitude. Law can do better. Law must do better. And these are the visionaries who will help get us there.” The Duke Law Tech Lab, which began on June 24 and runs for three months, is supported by sponsors Lexis- Nexis, Travelers, and the global law firm Latham & Wat- kins. Additional details about the Duke Law Tech Lab can be found at http://www.dukelawtechlab.com/. Four Companies Selected for Duke Law Tech Lab DUKE TECH’S JEFF WARDEverybody has a horror story about trying to get out of a contract. Jon Colgan turned his story into a successful, multi-national business called Veeto. When the iPhone was first introduced in 2007, ATT was the only company offering it. Colgan wanted the iPhone, but he had three cell phone lines with Verizon. He discovered that Verizon had quietly auto-renewed his three contracts at some point in the decade since he got the lines, and Verizon would not let him out. Colgan is not a lawyer. But he spent six months figuring out how to get out of his Verizon contracts, finally suc- ceeding. “The following year, I took an entrepreneurship class at a community college,” recalled Colgan. “On day 1, the professor told us to think of something that bugged us and to then spend the semester writing a business plan,” His plan was a company to get people out of their cell phone contracts. “I got an A.” At the end of the semester, Colgan created a “one-page, two-paragraph website that said, ‘if you are trying to get out of your cell phone contract, send $30 to my PayPal account and send me 12 months of your phone bills, and maybe I can help.’” Within 30 days, he had 65 customers. Colgan went large-scale in 2013, initially just focus- ing on cell phone contracts. He next expanded to other consumer contracts—product warranties, gym contracts, alarm contracts, TV contracts, and leases—and then ex- panded to small business contracts. Today, Veeto has cli- ents in 44 countries including the U.S., China, Italy, and Australia. HYPERSPECIALIZING “We hyperspecialize in specific companies with specific contracts,” said Colgan. “You’re not going to spend the time that we’ve spent—more than a decade, at this point—to get as good as we are at getting out of these specific contracts, and that’s a big part of what makes us uniquely suited to solve these kinds of issues. We’ve just done the work over and over again over a long period of time, and that gives us a unique skill-set.” “When an attorney represents you, they are your spokes- person, and you’re typically paying them for units of time. That’s a perfectly suitable arrangement when the stakes of the case are high enough to warrant that ‘traditional law firm’ fee model; but not so much with low-stakes, small- claims types of issues.” “On the other end of the spectrum, companies like Le- galZoom provide self-help resources, but they don’t rep- resent clients or offer any specific insights into a given is- sue,” explained Colgan. “We are in the middle. We have a pre-litigation platform that is specifically tailored for SPONSORED BY LAWYERS MUTUAL Legal Innovators Veeto BY BOB FRIEDMAN each ‘use-case’ we handle, and that platform gives our clients opera- tional and cost ad- vantages—which matter quite a bit when the stakes of a case are low.” ADVANTAGE OF FIXED PRICES All Veeto’s pric- es are fixed—from the initial micro- consultation, to its full-service op- tions. “We offer all of our services at fixed prices, which we bundle into a few differ- ent plans for sim- plicity. The idea is that a given bundle should be everything you need to handle a case with a pre-litigation approach.” “Our client has an extreme economic advantage over the opponent because we are working on a fixed fee, and the opponent has no such arrangement. So, we can win the war of attrition that is based on units of time rather than legal costs spent, which is really the most important di- mension when the stakes of the case are low.” said Colgan. While most clients first hire Veeto for its pre-litigation services, its core business is on the contract management side—which is when Veeto manages all of a client’s con- tracts and vendors on an ongoing basis. “I’ve known Jon Colgan for years, and he’s always not only understood the lopsided power relationships inherent in these kinds of contracts but has been steadfastly dedi- cated to empowering individuals or those on the short end of the stick,” said Jeff Ward, Director of the Duke Center or Law & Technology. Veeto saw a surge of small businesses this year hoping to get out of office leases. So, Colgan says that he has been busy lately hiring to meet that demand. But, bigger-picture, his long-term vision is to close the “access-to-justice gap for the middle,” which he sees as the single largest access- to-justice problem in the U.S. “By giving small businesses and middle-class families a sensible option when they encounter a low-stakes contract issue, they don’t have to continue accepting a default loss when the stakes are too low to justify the expense of the ‘traditional law firm’ fee model.” “For example, imagine if every small business and family in the ‘the middle’ had a trained legal ghostwriter synced to the inbox they use to manage all of their contracts: the transaction cost of solving most of these low-value legal problems becomes almost negligible—because the ghost- writer catches the problems immediately as they appear and solves them while they’re still small and cheap. No bill- able hours, no costly setup, no justice denied.” FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT PRESS@VEETO.CO. AttorneyAtLawMagazine.com 13You would think that people like Elon Musk and Bill Gates would have bulletproof cy- bersecurity. But in July, their Twit- ter accounts were hacked along with the accounts of Warren Buffett, Joe Biden, and Jeff Bezos. It was the kind of simple security breach that hap- pens to businesses of all sizes every day. Simply put, someone at Twitter was tricked into giving up passwords which they were trained not to do... just like your staff is trained not to do. Since the start of the pandemic, re- mote workers have caused a security breach in 20% of businesses, accord- ing to Malwarebytes, an anti-malware security provider. The haste to move work from office to home has left gaps in cybersecurity. A recent report on MSNBC stated that cybersecurity at- tacks cost businesses of all sizes an average of $200,000. NOT A COMPUTER GEEK You went to law school to become a lawyer, not a computer geek. So here are five safeguards a company like ours that specializes in helping busi- nesses with security and compliance would look at if you just relocated your office to your home. 1. Security Awareness Training: Stay up-to-date with the latest phish- ing email and social engineering scams. Test yourself and your employ- ees each month. 2. Disk encryption: This scrambles the information on the hard drives so if the device was stolen it’s unread- able. It’s a very simple security control that vastly increases your security and reduces your risks. 3. Encrypted DNS servers improve online security by ensuring that all queries go through a specific DNS server, so your business is better pro- tected against any external attacks. 4. Encryption At Rest: It’s impor- tant that data is encrypted as it is transmitted online, but what about when the data is at rest? Data that sits in storage needs to be protected as well. 5. VPN or virtual private networks mask your identity and protect you especially when using free public Wi- Fi or Wi-Fi that could be shared such as in an airport or a coffee shop. VPN encrypts your entire network traffic, so it gets transmitted through the net- work securely. 6. Keystroke Encryption protects the keystrokes that you’re typing on your computer so that the passwords and any sensitive information cannot be captured. 7. Firewall: You probably have a firewall but you want to make sure it is current. A lot of firewalls have a software subscription through the manufacturer that is very important because it’s similar to antivirus; it has to be updated on a regular basis to be effective. MOST COMMON GAPS Don’t assume that cybersecurity you may have bought off the shelf or had installed by a third-party IT pro- fessional will crosswalk from your of- fice to your home. In our work with clients since the pandemic started, these are the most common gaps in cybersecurity we have found in home offices: 1. Unpatched Software/Operat- ing Systems are computer code with known security weaknesses. This is a major vulnerability in your office sys- tem. Vendors like Microsoft write ad- ditions to the code known as “patches” to cover up the security “holes” when they find them. Running unpatched software is risky because cybercrimi- nals are typically well-aware of the vulnerabilities. 2. No VPN, which I described above. You should definitely use a good VPN service whenever you’re connecting via an unsecured net- work, such as public Wi-Fi hotspots. 3. Wi-fi Network Vulnerabilities can lead to intercepting the internet traffic of a Wi-Fi network and pos- sibly inject and/or manipulate data, without owning or breaking its pass- word security. YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE A ROCKET SCIENTIST A simple remote assessment by a company like ours could cost as little as $500 to identify gaps in your cybersecurity that opened when you moved from your office to your home. It may also uncover gaps you already had in your cybersecurity. You don’t have to be a rocket scien- tist to be hacked, and there is no vac- cine against cyberattacks. But there’s still a lot you can do to prevent your information system from catching a virus. It’s all about taking the neces- sary precautions. Proper preparation prevents poor performance. Special offer for Attorney At Law Magazine readers: Call 1-877-468-2721 for a cybersecurity maturity assessment to score your firm for just $500.00! What You, Elon Musk & Bill Gates Have In Common as COVID 19 Hacks Surge CRAIG PETRONELLA | Cybersecurity Craig A. Petronella is the CEO of Petronella Technology Group, Inc. (PTG), an internationally trusted IT cyber- security group that specializes in helping law firms with training, security, and Compliance. Get your FREE phishing e-mail test at FreePhishTest.com. Craig has 30 years’ experience, authored multiple books, including “How Hackers Can Crush Your Law Firm,” and “Peace of Mind Computer Support.” For more information about a cybercrime risk assessment call 877-468-2721. AttorneyAtLawMagazine.com 15ELLIOT SOL ABRAMS A TT ORNEY OF THE MONTH he briefcase carried by Raleigh lawyer Elliot Sol Abrams bears the initials S.E.A, for Elliot’s grandfa- ther, Sol Eugene Abrams, its origi- nal owner. Elliot is fourth genera- tion of a family that has produced lawyers, judges and teachers. “My grandfather was a mythical character to me, in part, because he passed away before I was born,” said Abrams. “He took a path of self-sacrifice in order to be a lawyer.” Sol was a navigator in a bomber that was shot down over Romania during World War II. He was a POW and was smuggled out of the coun- try by a Romania princess who ran an underground. “Sol excelled at Georgetown Law School and was of- fered a clerkship with Justice Black at the U.S. Supreme Court. Having served in the war, he was older than most students and was anxious to start his career. So he turned it down and moved home, where he devoted his practice to representing people and furthering causes, such as en- suring the voting rights of minority groups. I think my choice to return home to represent people in Raleigh was influenced by his choice.” The legal world is full of Abrams relatives. Elliot’s moth- er and father and his brother and sister-in-law are part- ners at the catastrophic personal injury law firm, Abrams & Abrams, P.A. One uncle is a judge, another is a law school dean. His extended family includes a member of the North Carolina Board of Law Examiners, a movie in- dustry lawyer in Beverly Hills, a retired prosecutor, and lawyers at firms throughout the country. LEARNING FROM JOE CHESHIRE Abrams is the heir apparent of the federal practice at Cheshire Parker Schneider. Like Abrams, the firm’s senior partner, Joe Cheshire, is the descendent of generations of lawyers. Cheshire founded the firm in 1978 and developed it into North Carolina’s premier small, specialty firm, which focuses on all areas of criminal law, as well as asset forfeiture defense, constitutional challenges to government conduct, and NCAA infractions, a practice Abrams has developed and become nationally recognized for. Members of the firm have tried cases in 86 of North Car- olina’s 100 counties, 16 different states, and numerous fed- eral districts throughout the nation, as well as federal courts of appeals and the United States Supreme Court. The firm’s professional license defense practice, led by Alan Schneider, is also one of the largest practices in the state representing professionals in front of licensing boards, such as the State Bar and Medical Board, among others. Our interview with Abrams took place in the firm’s tem- porary offices, as its offices in the Old Alexander/Masonic Temple Building where they have been since 1980 are being rebuilt for the future of the firm. It almost feels like a mod- ern day changing of the guard in one of our state’s classic long-standing small law firms that is more like a family than a modern-day business. As with almost every member, Abrams has spent his en- tire career at the firm. During summers from Georgetown Law, he worked for Joe Cheshire. He was initially hired to drive Cheshire to his cases across the state so he could work while in the car. “But really he just told story after story after story,” laughed Abrams. “There were troves of knowledge in those war stories, though.” Passion, P reparation and Teamwork BY BOB FRIEDMAN PHOTOS BY DAVID MOORE WEDDINGS ATTORNEY AT LAW MAGAZINE · NORTH CAROLINA TRIANGLE VOL. 8 NO. 3 16Abrams found himself working elbow to elbow with an unofficial Mafia of criminal defense lawyers, Cheshire, Wade and Roger Smith, Joe Zeszotarski, Jack O’Hale, Brad Bannon, Jim Cooney, and others—some of the best crimi- nal defense lawyers in the southeast. “My biggest takeaway from working with these folks is that what set them apart was not just technical legal skill and preparation, but their humility,” said Abrams. “Joe and Wade are so good because they view themselves as no better than anybody else. From day one, Joe drilled into me that, as the defense lawyer, you’re the least important person in the room. The clerks, the bailiffs, court report- ers, the people who clean the courthouse, these folks are in court every day. They interact with the judges, and the jurors watch how they treat you. If you think or act like you’re more important than any one of them, you’re not only wrong, you’re a fool.” Beyond the ability to connect with people from all walks of life, Abrams said that “the preparation that these great lawyers put into their cases, and the care and attention and emotional investment they give to their cases is remark- able. These are things I try to emulate.” “[I]t’s impossible not to be emotionally invested when you know someone is putting their future in your hands.” CRIMINAL LAW IS A NARCOTIC After earning his law degree, Abrams joined Raleigh- based Cheshire Parker Schneider. The first case he worked on at the firm was State of North Carolina v. Kirk Turner. Turner was accused of first-degree murder in the death of his wife. He claimed it was self-defense. He’d been run through with a spear by his wife twice, through the front of his leg and out the back, before responding to defend himself. Walking into a mock cross examination of Turner, Cheshire turned to Abrams and said, “This is wrong what I’m doing to you.” Stunned, Abrams asked what he meant, to which Cheshire replied, “Criminal law is a narcotic. Once you do this, you’re going to be hooked.” “He was right,” said Abrams. Turner was acquitted, and the case became the only case featured on the TV show 48 Hours Mystery in which the defendant was found not guilty. CALLS FOR REFORM Cheshire Parker Schneider has long been on the fore- front of positive changes to the criminal justice system. Joe Cheshire and Brad Bannon were instrumental in the passage of the open file discovery laws that require pros- ecutors and police in North Carolina to disclose to defense counsel anything related to the case they have gathered. Now, of course, the public seems to be calling out for further, dramatic change. “I think two of the most prob- lematic things I’ve seen are, one, mandatory minimum laws that prevent judges from sentencing defendants to what they think would be an appropriate sentence. These mandatory minimum laws give prosecutors overwhelm- ing power to extract guilty pleas”—negotiation power, Abrams added, “that in the commercial context, might render a contract unconscionable.” Second, Abrams said that preventing judges from parol- ing reformed inmates also creates bad incentives for in- mates and “saps them and their families of hope.” “I have sat with so many families who have lost their [I]t’s impossible not to be emotionally invested when you know someone is putting their future in your hands.” AttorneyAtLawMagazine.com 17sons and fathers to decades-long prison terms. These defendants go away, leaving sons and daughters and mothers and fathers heartbroken, and there’s generally no getting out early for being an overachiever in prison. That has a negative ripple effect throughout generations.” “I’d like to see some form of judge-based parole,” Abrams explained. “This process would give inmates a reason to stay connected to their families and their communities and would give their families hope that if their loved one shows real progress, they will get home earlier.” Abrams said that the federal First Step Act was a positive step in this direc- tion for federal inmates. “But, at the end of the day, I think judges are in the best position to decide whether someone is ready to be released.” FISH STORIES Abrams and his wife, Mim, a consultant at Deloitte who focuses on assisting the North Carolina government, have two daughters. With his little remaining free time, Abrams likes to spend it offshore fishing with his fa- ther and father-in-law. The similarities between game fishing and criminal defense work is not lost on Abrams. “Most federal criminal cases are like an as- sembly line. Someone is charged, almost all plead guilty, they often cooperate, and they get typically a harsh sentence. I am aiming for unique results for my clients. Certainly, it’s not always possible. But if you go blue marlin fish- ing, you don’t catch fish most of the time either,” said Abrams. “With dedication and preparation by the entire team, you’ll occasionally hook and land one.” (They catch and release them; he was quick to point out). Abrams says that criminal defense, like fishing for blue marlin, requires extensive preparation and teamwork. “You can’t have those really thrilling experiences offshore by yourself. I think the way to accomplish big things in this world is to be part of a team that’s really good, that’s beyond prepared, and in which everybody plays their part—where everybody has a shared pas- sion for the goal.” Abrams continued, “I think that mentality—passion, preparation and teamwork—is what defines our firm. Every one of us on this team is devoted to living up to the tremendous faith and trust our clients place in us and to the preparation and legal knowledge the judges and opposing counsel expect from us.” “It’s often hard and sad work,” Abrams added. “But, together, we do a darn good job for people.” ABRAMS AND JOE CHESHIRE ABRAMS WITH 40 LB. MAHI CAUGHT AT THE BIG ROCK IN 2007. CHESHIRE PARKER SCHNEIDER LAW FIRM 133 Fayetteville Street Suite 400 Raleigh, NC 27601 (919) 833-3114 www. cheshireparker.com PRACTICE AREAS Federal & State Criminal Defense Asset Forfeiture Healthcare Fraud Defense of NC Professional Licenses NCAA Defense Select Civil Litigation EDUCATION Juris Doctor, Georgetown University Law Center Bachelor of Arts, Political Science, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill AWARDS Super Lawyers Business North Carolina Legal Elite Best Lawyers in America MEMBERSHIPS National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyer Federal Bar Association Eastern District of North Carolina Chapter, President VOLUNTEER Georgetown Law Habitat for Humanity Cause Poverty Alleviation AT A GL A N C E ATTORNEY AT LAW MAGAZINE · NORTH CAROLINA TRIANGLE VOL. 8 NO. 3 18When we flipped the calen- dar page to a new year, few could have anticipated the turmoil COVID-19 would foist upon our work and our lives. By March, it seemed everything was canceled, in- cluding events that were essential to forming meaningful relationships and growing our practices. Marketing has always involved a multi-pronged approach, but the pandemic has effectively snapped the “in-person networking” prong clean off. Attorneys and law firms are now discovering the unspeakable benefits of thought leadership as a long-term business development strategy. Un- constrained by traditional barriers of time and place, constructing a digital platform through relevant, insight- ful content remains a plausible mar- keting tactic even when face-to-face meetings are impossible. However, as we all know, it is virtu- ally impossible to get through the day without consuming a glut of content across various media. As such, inno- vative lawyers are faced with a peren- nial challenge: making their content stand out. #1: COMMIT TO CONSISTENCY. You cannot demand respect from your audience; you need to earn it. Start to garner this respect by consis- tently showing up in various media to offer opinions, perspectives, and in- sights that are timely and relevant to your target client population. If you are a content novice, set a realistic and attainable goal. I encour- age my clients to commit to one qual- ity article per month. To ease the load, many clients opt to divide their arti- cles among the attorneys in their firm. Others choose to co-author pieces with practitioners in complementary practice areas. #2: SPECIALIZE. When creating content – whether written or spoken, illustrated, or cu- rated – aim to create niche content for a niche audience. Instead of tri- fling over vanity metrics such as likes, follows, and comments, delve deeply into a narrow set of topics geared toward serving a narrow set of peo- ple. This will set you apart from the crowd, giving you a unique edge and zone of expertise. What makes your work constitute thought leadership and not just bland reporting is the unique angle you of- fer. Even if 1,000 other lawyers write an article about the same SCOTUS decision, your specific take, based on your own experience, education, or area of interest, is what separates you from the masses. As such, aim to distinguish yourself by offering your audience a tailored, unique panoply of issues that inform, inspire, or spark meaningful conversations. #3: OUTSOURCE. Lawyers are perennially pressed for time and as such, cannot (or, for good reason, don’t want to) sacrifice billable hours writing their own marketing content. To ensure they remain visible to prospective clients while staying productive in their practices, many lawyers turn to ghostwriters, profes- sional writers for hire who craft ar- ticles without taking authorial credit. In some cases, a ghostwriter can assist an attorney who does not like to write this kind of content but needs to do so as part of a firm’s marketing plan. While many ghostwriters seek to break into the legal field, I caution lawyers against hiring a ghostwriter without a legal background. A ghost- writer needs to be able to accurately recount your story, mission, and ex- perience to your prospective clients and referral sources. Not to mention, your writer should ensure he or she avoids including language that can trigger an ethical violation. As a li- censed attorney myself, I am not only fluent in the language lawyers speak across disparate practice areas, but I also understand the ethical guidelines binding our conduct when we write content that may be used for market- ing purposes. The cost of hiring a ghostwriter of- ten spooks budget-minded lawyers. However, ghostwriter fees rarely, if ever, exceed the commensurate cost of lost billable hours. As such, if you are pressed for time but still feel pres- sure to publish, consider how out- sourcing could preserve your valuable billable time – all while helping you remain visible, credible, and produc- tive within your practice. THIS IS A LONG GAME It takes time and commitment to build a platform, but thought leader- ship marketing carries tangible, pow- erful ROI: every piece of content you thoughtfully craft and publish further solidifies your status as a trusted au- thority. Explosive, overnight success is rare. Rather, what matters is con- tinuing to show up, meet your audi- ence where they are, and refine your messaging. In time, you will build a sturdy platform that even a pandemic cannot destroy. Three Steps to High-Impact Thought Leadership Content ALEXANDRA DAVIS | Legal Marketing An attorney and the founder of Davis Legal Media, Alexandra Davis helps lawyers stay competitive in the mar- ketplace by positioning themselves as thought leaders within their practice areas. Davis has a BA in English from UNC-Chapel Hill, where she was the Editor-in-Chief of the Carolina Review. At Campbell Law School, she served on the Board of Editors of the Campbell Law Review. Her writing has been featured in publications like Above the Law, The Lawyerist, the ABA Journal, Legal Tech News, Business World, ACC Docket, Attorney at Work, and many more. You may contact her or learn more about Davis Legal Media at davislegalmedia.com or hello@davislegalmedia.com. AttorneyAtLawMagazine.com 19Next >