In-house Counsel Prefer Client Alerts for Information

In-house counsel, inundated with information coming their way every day, prefer client alerts as a source of legal information. When asked in the 2017 survey conducted by Greentarget and Zeughauser Group, (https://digitalandcontentsurvey.com/) “What types of law firm-generated content do you find most valuable?” 87% of in-house counsel answered “client alerts” as opposed to practice-group newsletters (67%), blogs (35%) or website content (22%).

What is a client alert?

A client alert is a mass e-mail message addressing a new or developing legal topic – perhaps a recent precedent-setting decision, a pending change to federal or state law or a trend you've observed. It is sent to in-house counsel for two reasons:

•  Help keep in-house counsel current in the trends in their area of commerce, and
•  Keep the law-firm’s practice expertise top of mind, assuring a contact when they need legal help.  

 Considerations when writing client alerts.    

e-mail message

Lawyers are judged by their written words. Everything from engagement letters, contracts, e-mails or daily correspondence should be relatively free of legalese, easy to understand and useful to the reader. Readers should be able to know immediately the topic and why it’s important for them. This is especially true of client alerts since your alert may be one of several the corporate counsel receives.

Start with the headline. If your headline doesn’t turn a browser into a reader, the time you spent writing your words is wasted. A great headline must do more than attract attention, it should promise some kind of benefit for the reader to lure the reader to read the body of the alert.

Your lead. The most important sentence of the article is your lead. It should be short (25 to 30 words), specific—state key points that appeal to your reader—and use active verbs to make it current. Follow up the main facts with additional information.

Early call to action. When action by the client is suggested or required, put that information in the third paragraph. The answer to the question “Why should I care?” needs to clear and soon in the article.

Use formatting techniques to make things interesting.

1.             Use pull quotes, key phrase or summaries to simplify information.
2.             Include links to documents or articles for those who want more information
3.             Use bold, lists, or graphs to break up verbiage.
4.             Also link to articles or summaries the firm has written about the topic.

You put a lot of time into developing client alerts—don’t waste that time. Make yours stand out among the 4 or 5 alerts on the same topic in-house counsel receive every day. Client alerts show readers you are current and on top of the issue and are one indication of how your firm communicates. Use the client alert to put your best foot forward.