LP: Can you introduce yourself?
CD: My name is Carlton Dyce and I’m the vice president of business development and sales for a legal media company by the name of Lawdragon. I’ve been with them for two years. My background is in legal publishing, and I have 30 years of experience working with Lexis Nexis Martindale Hubbell and others.
LP: So Lawdragon seems to have launched lots of new products in recent years. Can you give us a quick summary?
CD: Our Lawdragon 500 is probably the most familiar to folks out there. It’s an annual list of the 500 leading lawyers in America. In addition, we are primarily known for creating wonderful content – whether that be our “lawyer limelight” articles with insights into lawyers, and other services for firms. We also create a “Most Powerful Employment Lawyers” list, and last year we launched our Lawdragon list of 100 top consultants and strategists. In addition, we’ve done some global work with our Insights series, first published with a focus on private funds specialists.
LP: And you were saying earlier that you had just launched this ambitious law school project?
CD: Lawdragon is essentially two businesses. We have the Lawdragon side of things which focuses on lawyers and law firms. The other side of the business is “Campus”, and the goal is the same as with Lawdragon – to shine a light on the law schools, create wonderful content. Last year our founder and publisher (Katrina Dewey) did what we fondly refer to as the “road trip”. What she did was visit all 254 law schools in the US, and she went by car (except Hawaii!). She met with deans, students, key administrators and faculty, and we are loading all that data and content on to our site. We have put together some exciting content and we think it will help young folks that are going to law school, and it will help their decision-making process as to what law school to attend.
LP: A lot of the people who read this site are marketing and PR people within law firms and their job is to raise the profile of the attorneys within their firms. If they were interested in having one of their lawyers listed in the Lawdragon 500 or in one of your spotlight features, how do they go about that. What is the process involved?
CD: On our site is a Lawdragon 500 nomination form. Our editorial team is always looking for new members of the 500, but the easiest way to get our attention for spotlight features or to be listed is email me at carlton@lawdragon.com. Our services are flexible in that we mold them to whatever the firm is looking for. Let’s say there is interest in shining a light on a new practice or lateral hire, or a lawyer that has been instrumental in winning a particular case. We work with the firm and will identify a set of questions and create what we call a “limelight” which is an interview, a photo, question-and-answer. That goes on our site, in our newsletter, and it ranks highly on Google, typically at least #4 and #5 on the rankings in Google.
LP: What can people expect over the next year?
CD: We’ll be working a great deal on putting out that law school campus content. The next Lawdragon 500 should be online soon. We have some great folks. Around 30% of the list this year are women. The other thing we want to do is shine a light on immigration law, and for attorneys starting out to consider immigration law. We will help blow the horn on that. And stay tuned, of course, for some other interesting global developments.
Pictured: Carlton Dyce and Katrina Dewey of Lawdragon
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