Podcast Ep. 81: The American Lawyer Industry Awards with Gina Passarella

In this podcast, Gina Passarella of ALM discusses this year’s The American Lawyer Industry Awards as well as ALM’s upcoming expansion of international content.

Podcast Show Notes

Gina Passarella is editor-in-chief of ALM’s global legal brands and The American Lawyer. She has covered the business of law since 2005. She works closely with editors of Corporate Counsel, Legal Week, Legaltech News, The National Law Journal and China Law & Practice to ensure ALM’s content covers all segments of the legal industry, from business of law and in-house to technology and regulatory, across the globe.

Connect with Gina Passarella on LinkedIn, Twitter, or The American Lawyer

Why did ALM create The American Lawyer Industry Awards?

ALM created the awards to streamline the award process. They wanted to bring all of their many awards together to celebrate what law firms are doing. ALM is always going to have lifetime achievement awards, but it’s also important to reflect on firms are evolving and how they’re differentiating themselves from others in the legal space. They also want to paint a picture of law firms, in-house legal departments, and legal tech companies. ALM wanted to explore how the entire legal ecosystem works together to innovate.

What are you looking for when judging these awards?

ALM looks for what is moving the needle forward – how are firms providing unique solutions to solve their clients’ problems. Depending on the category innovation can look different – it doesn’t always have to be the first of its kind, but it has to make an impact. How are firms moving the industry forward? Law firms need to prove in concrete terms why what they are doing is different and significant.

This year, submissions are due in April and some awards will be announced throughout the year if they’re part of specific magazines. However, others will be announced based on finalists. All of the finalists will be announced sometime in early September.

When will the Litigation Departments of the Year and the Global Legal Awards begin?

The Global Legal Awards will begin with a call for submissions April 15th and will be finalists will be announced in mid-June. The Litigation Departments of the Year Awards only take place every other year because it is such a large undertaking. This year the calls for this award will take start in early May and will end in July. Then, the winners will be announced in January 2020. For the Litigation Departments of the Year it’s essential for firms to tell the story of how they made an impact. ALM looks for firms that show the most breadth and depth – who is the go-to law firm in this category?

What else is happening at ALM that we should know about?

Last year ALM expanded their Global 100 to coverage of the Global 200 in an effort to speak to their international audience in a more accurate way. ALM is looking to offer content on an international level across all categories of law. In order to make this happen, ALM will be accepting external content as well as subject ideas from law firms who have regional or industry specific insights to offer to a global audience

Takeaway

ALM gets their best story ideas from those on the ground. Law firms should feel free to reach out with story ideas, problems, or solutions so that ALM can further investigate.