© 2018 The Texas Lawbook.
By Mark Curriden
(June 14) – In real estate, location, location, location matters most. But in the news business, it is content, content and more content.
The Texas Lawbook was created six years and six months ago based on a single premise: provide lawyers and those connected to the business law community with thoughtful, substantive, unique and well-written articles and they will support us.
So far in 2018, we have published dozens of articles on the monumental shifts taking place in the Texas legal market, including major law firm mergers, out-of-state firms opening offices in the state and a record amount of lateral movement. We’ve provided readers with the most in-depth coverage of M&A deal-making in Texas and we’ve featured more than 30 profiles of corporate general counsel. And we gave our readers exclusive coverage of former American Airlines General Counsel Gary Kennedy’s explosive new book, Twelve Years of Turbulence.
Today, I am pleased to announce that The Texas Lawbook has reached and surpassed 10,000 paid subscribers – 2,359 of whom are general counsel or corporate in-house counsel.
In addition, more than 16,000 people now subscribe to our free daily e-news alerts.
The Lawbook’s reach extends even further with our expanded partnerships with the Houston Chronicle and the Dallas Business Journal, which publish shorter versions of our articles in their publications. The Houston Chronicle, for example, wants us to increase the number of articles we provide to its readers online and in print. The Dallas Business Journal and The Texas Lawbook plan to unveil an upgraded section on the DBJ’s website that focuses on law and the legal industry.
Plus, The Texas Lawbook an official media partner of the Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and the Texas General Counsel Forum.
These statistics and partnerships mean one thing: The Texas Lawbook is the most influential legal publication in Texas.
Why? Because we have an amazingly talented and hardworking staff of Texas-based legal journalists who write about nothing but Texas lawyers.
During the past 18 months, we have added two extraordinary journalists to The Lawbook team: Senior M&A Writer Claire Poole, who covered corporate transactions for The Deal for more than 16 years and is based in Houston for The Lawbook; and Senior Editor and Writer Allen Pusey, who covered the U.S. Supreme Court for The Dallas Morning News and spent a decade as editor and managing editor of the ABA Journal for a decade.
Claire and Allen join a team that has been together since its first year. Dallas-based Natalie Posgate covers trends in complex commercial litigation and writes frequently about ongoing court cases involving Texas businesses. Natalie loves covering a great trial. Austin-based Janet Elliott, who previously was a writer for the Wall Street Journal and the Houston Chronicle, covers the big and important business disputes at the Texas Supreme Court. Office Manager Sally Selio, who was The Lawbook’s first employee, operates all of our subscription databases and is our event coordinator. Publisher Brooks Igo handles subscriptions, advertising and sponsorships and writes about lateral moves in the Texas legal market.
Every once in a while, the team even lets me write an article or two on subjects ranging from profiles of general counsel and trends in the corporate in-house community to developments in law firm management and white-collar criminal prosecutions.
The law is both a business and a profession. We know we must cover the nuts-and-bolts, but we love the law and the practice of it. As a result, we often view the law quite romantically. To be sure, lawyers in Texas are like none other and it is our mission to show that uniqueness.
Exceeding 10,000 paid subscribers is a huge milestone for us and 11,000 is actually not that far away, but we recognize that we still have a great deal of work to do.
In the next few months, The Texas Lawbook plans to do the following:
- Unveil a new website design that will be easier to navigate, easier to use on mobile devices and more properly showcase our best content;
- Launch new special sections that focus on specific practice areas, including appellate, bankruptcy, complex commercial litigation, M&A/securities offerings, law firm management and white-collar/regulatory;
- Introduce a newly designed Corporate Deal Tracker, which will provide significantly more details on the corporate transactional work being done by lawyers in Texas;
- Unveil a quarterly printed glossy magazine that includes new and fresh content that is best presented in a magazine format, as well as expanded, more in-depth coverage of some of the stories we provide every day;
- Provide more opportunities for business lawyers in Texas to showcase their expertise by authoring articles on trends and developments in their legal specialty areas; and
- Debut a new special section that focuses on general counsel and corporate in-house legal departments and provides in-depth profiles of leaders in the in-house community.
The Texas Lawbook also plans to reinstitute our Editorial Advisory Board, which consists of key leaders in the business law community. The Lawbook team will meet regularly with EAB members to discuss major editorial projects and seek the Board’s guidance. The EAB will consist of 30 lawyers – half from corporate in-house legal departments and the rest from law firms. Two lawyers – T-Mobile Chief Managing Counsel Chris Luna and former American Airlines GC Gary Kennedy – have already agreed to serve on the Editorial Advisory Board.
Finally, The Texas Lawbook team wants to meet with you and your firm leaders. We want to come to your offices and learn about your practice and the great legal work you are doing. During the next few months, The Lawbook’s journalists plan to visit with lawyers at nearly every law firm who will meet with us so that you can tell us the stories we should be writing.
Please do not hesitate to reach out to any member of our team with story ideas or even suggestions on how we can improve our product. Thank you for supporting The Texas Lawbook.
© 2018 The Texas Lawbook. Content of The Texas Lawbook is controlled and protected by specific licensing agreements with our subscribers and under federal copyright laws. Any distribution of this content without the consent of The Texas Lawbook is prohibited.
If you see any inaccuracy in any article in The Texas Lawbook, please contact us. Our goal is content that is 100% true and accurate. Thank you.