It’s hard to weave storytelling into many kinds of legal thought leadership content—but not this one.
You’ve heard it umpteen times from umpteen different sources: Storytelling is an effective marketing tool because people remember stories better than they remember other forms of information they’re fed.
You’ve also heard many times from many sources how important it is for your marketing and business development efforts to consistently produce thought leadership that’s relevant, valuable, and compelling to your target audiences.
But storytelling and thought leadership seem at odds with each other. How do you tell stories in your thought leadership when you’re covering recent court decisions, legislative proceedings, regulatory developments, or legal or business trends?
You don’t.
To incorporate storytelling into your thought leadership, create content that focuses on the work you and your colleagues do for your clients.
“Best practices” articles are how you tell stories in your thought leadership
Every favorable result you secure for a client is source material for thought leadership about how you and your colleagues secured it. In writing about a particular result, you can give your target audiences a sample of the strategy and tactics you and your colleagues employed. In doing so, you show off your knowledge and wisdom in an educational context.
The best way to do that is through a “best practices” article that walks through a challenge your client or a group of your clients faced and what you and your colleagues did to help them overcome it.
If written correctly, the article will tell a story, starting with the situation the client was facing and why they needed your help. Here, you’re putting the reader in your client’s shoes, helping them see the world through your client’s eyes.
Next, the story turns to what you and your colleagues did to help the client navigate the situation favorably.
Finally, the story ends with what the client achieved, having successfully navigated the situation (with your help).
The first part of the story hooks the reader, but the second part is the true marketing and business development effort. In it, you’re establishing or reinforcing expertise and authority by framing the strategies and tactics you used as best practices for handling the situation your client faced. And, you’re showing your target audiences the knowledge and wisdom you and your colleagues have by explaining how you handled that situation.
The beauty of writing a “best practices” article with this structure is that, because you’re telling a story, your audience will more easily digest what you’re telling them and remember it better than if you just listed all the ways you helped a client. And if the reader sees themselves in your client, you’re creating a connection with that reader, which will lead them to conclude that you’re the attorney, and your firm is the firm, to help them with similar situations should they ever face them down the road.
Don’t overthink what a “best practice” is
You might think, “How do I know whether what we did was truly a ‘best practice?’”
Objectively, you never will. There are no stone tablets sitting on a mountaintop somewhere listing the best practices for litigating certain cases or for managing certain deals.
Subjectively, it’s a different story. Any strategy or tactic you employ for a client is a “best practice.” After all, if you didn’t think it was the best option available to you, why did you employ it?
When you view your decision-making and actions through that prism, you’ll realize that you and your colleagues could publish many more best practices articles than you’re currently publishing.
Three misconceptions about “best practices” articles
Besides questioning whether you employed best practices when working with your clients, I’m guessing you’re thinking there are three additional hurdles you’ll face when writing “best practices” articles. Don’t sweat any of them.
“Isn’t this kind of article just a promotional case study?”
First, you might think that a “best practices” article sounds a bit like a promotional case study: “First, we did this. Then we did this. Next, we did this. Finally, we did this. Look how awesome we are!”
That’s not what you’re going to be doing with a “best practices” article.
A “best practices” article is a thought leadership article, not a sales document. You’re telling a story that educates the reader about the client’s situation. You’re then explaining the best practices in an objective, authoritative, almost dispassionate tone. The tone is more “These were the client’s challenges; this is how they overcame them,” and less “We’re so smart because we did this.”
“We’re going to divulge our ‘secret sauce’”
Second, you might think that because you’re talking about how you helped a client overcome a legal or business issue, you’re divulging your “secret sauce.” That’s not something you should worry about here either.
Your and your colleagues’ special sauce is based on (1) the knowledge you have, (2) the wisdom and experience you bring to the table, and (3) your application of (1) and (2) to the specific facts and circumstances of a client’s situation.
The best practices you employed and would discuss in an article are limited to the specific facts and circumstances of the client’s situation as you found it. They’re unique to the client’s situation when they brought you in, and may be based on nonpublic facts, circumstances, and considerations you’re not going to share. Readers aren’t going to blindly copy your strategies and tactics because their clients’ situations are unlikely to mirror your clients’ situations.
And, of course, you need not and should not tell the world everything you did. You and your colleagues are the writers and editors of these articles; you control the narrative and the best practices you discuss. You need not recite a list of every action you took, nor get into the weeds regarding judgment calls you made or any other decisions you don’t feel comfortable discussing.
In other words, you can discuss your best practices at a high level—high enough that any “special sauce” you could legitimately spill stays safely bottled up.
“I can’t write this kind of article without disclosing privileged and confidential information”
On a related note, you might be concerned that discussing the best practices you employed to help a client or clients would force you to disclose privileged or confidential information. Don’t be.
As I just alluded to, you need not dive so deeply into the client’s situation or what you did that you divulge information that could violate privilege or confidentiality. Nor do you have to disclose details that could identify clients or third parties. You might be surprised how far relying on information that’s publicly available—your claims or defenses, your examination of a witness during a deposition or trial, your pre-trial motion strategy, etc.—could take you in these kinds of articles. Plus, just because you’re referring to public information in a matter doesn’t mean you must identify which client’s matter you’re referring to.
Speaking of which, if you’re concerned that a client might have an issue with how you discussed their matter, even when you took these precautions, you can always ask them for permission to discuss broadly how you helped them and then give them a chance to review your draft.
“Best practices” thought leadership articles are a best practice for storytelling in legal marketing
Storytelling can be a challenge for attorneys’ and law firms’ thought leadership efforts. But “best practices” thought leadership articles are the perfect vehicles for storytelling. Through them, attorneys and their firms can tell compelling stories about the legal or business challenges their clients faced and the best practices the attorneys and firms employed to overcome them.
By discussing those best practices, attorneys will demonstrate their knowledge and wisdom in an educational, non-salesy way. And because they’re using stories to explain how they helped their clients, their target audiences, including current, past, and prospective clients and referral sources, will be more likely to understand the value the attorneys brought to their clients. That’s why “best practices” thought leadership content is a best practice for storytelling in legal marketing.
Wayne Pollock, a former Am Law 50 senior litigation associate, is the founder of the Law Firm Editorial Service, a thought leadership consulting and ghostwriting service. The Law Firm Editorial Service helps law firm partners and executives at organizations serving the legal industry produce high-quality, human-written thought leadership articles that meet their exacting standards in a fraction of the time they would typically spend writing them. He can be reached at wayne@lawfirmeditorialservice.com.
Reprinted with permission from the March 12, 2026, edition of The Legal Intelligencer © 2026 ALM Media Properties, LLC. All rights reserved. Further duplication without permission is prohibited, contact 877-257-3382 or reprints@alm.com.
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