Longtime Chambers & Partners editor Catherine McGregor has left the company to join US-based legal publisher Lawdragon as chief of strategic development.
Catherine joined Chambers & Partners in June 2006, and has had a number of senior roles including, most recently, managing editor, where she oversaw the company’s portfolio of legal directories.
US lawyers and law firm marketing staff will know Catherine well from her time working on the Chambers USA directory.
She was also instrumental in the launch and development of Chambers Asia, making regular trips to the region to develop the company’s relationships with local firms.
Among her other achievements, Catherine founded the Chambers Women in Law initiative, and led the expansion of Chambers’ in-house and general counsel events program.
(Chambers’ senior assistant publisher Ignacio Abella, and Dee Sekar, who runs the Chambers Women in Law program, take over the GC initiative)
Catherine has for many people been the public face of Chambers, notably in the US, where lines of lawyers snaking around a hotel function room eager to meet her were a common sight.
A tireless advocate for the company, she was a regular at industry events and conferences around the world.
I bumped into Catherine in the lobby of a Denver hotel for the LMA conference a few years ago.
Bleary eyed, she had just circumvented the globe in a couple of days.
She flew from London to China for Chambers Asia-related engagements, then across the Pacific to Los Angeles and Denver for the conference, before heading to the US east coast for meetings, and then across the Atlantic to London.
As for her next move, Catherine, who has been named a partner and given equity in the company, will work on Lawdragon’s expansion, both in the US and internationally, as well as introducing a portfolio of new publications and initiatives.
Catherine described her new role to me in more detail:
“We want to add more rigor and methodology to our process. Incrementally we plan to introduce new rankings and magazine-led initiatives on a practice area basis, particularly in areas where there has been recent changes. We are also interested in boutique law firms, and a number of our projects will highlight their unique skills. Often they find it harder to make headway in traditional directories and publications because they lack the marketing infrastructure and budgets of the larger firms. As part of this new role, I will utilize my corporate counsel contacts. We want to put these relationships at the center of our work.”
Lawdragon was founded by former lawyer and California Daily Journal editor Katrina Dewey in 2005.
Catherine starts her new job at Lawdragon on July 1 2013.
She will be based initially in a new office in London’s Covent Garden, with a view to moving to New York, Lawdragon’s head office, over time.
You can reach Catherine at catherine@lawdragon.com and on +44 20 7189 8389 in the UK or +1 929 841 4663 in the US.
[…] role was previously held by Catherine McGregor, who left Chambers recently to join Lawdragon in a newly created position as chief of strategic […]