[Calling all general counsel, in-house legal professionals, and c-suite executives: if you haven't yet added your own perspective to the short survey mentioned in this article, please do so now, here. Your insights matter.]
When it comes to legal thought leadership, trust is currency. The more in-house leaders, business executives, and legal ops professionals trust what they’re reading, the more likely they are to engage, share, and ultimately turn back to the authoring firm for perspective when business-critical questions arise.
As Limelight and JD Supra continue to collect responses for our ongoing survey, “Trust, Relevance, and AI in Law Firm Thought Leadership,” some early patterns are emerging. While these findings are preliminary, they already point to important opportunities (and challenges) for law firm marketers and subject-matter experts.
Here are three emerging points about trust factors in law firm thought leadership content:
1. Paywalls frustrate readers
The top barrier respondents cite when engaging with content is “content behind paywalls.” For firms investing heavily in thought leadership, requiring registration and/or form submission to access the content may be working against you, limiting reach and diminishing brand affinity.
What to do: Consider shifting high-value insights out from behind paywalls or offering gated content only when there’s a clear exchange of value (like in-depth reports or toolkits). Making your insights more accessible widens your audience and fosters goodwill, ensuring that your thought leadership actually reaches, and resonates with, the people you’re trying to influence.
2. Clarity counts
When it comes to building credibility, “clarity of insights and writing” is ranked by respondents as the leading trust factor. Dense, jargon-heavy alerts risk eroding confidence instead of bolstering it.
What to do: Direct, plain-language writing styles help to convey main points quickly, allowing your subject-matter expertise to shine brighter because it’s easy for readers to understand and apply. Especially when your in-house counsel readers want to share your firm’s insights with their executive team. Clear, concise communication builds trust faster and increases the likelihood that readers will remember and return to your firm’s content.
3. Data speaks louder than opinion
Respondents consistently identify “data or case examples cited” as the strongest signal of trust when reading content discovered online or through AI assistants. In other words, backing up your point of view with evidence isn’t just best practice—it’s a trust-builder.
What to do: Incorporate relevant data, case studies, or benchmarks in your articles and alerts because these concrete references validate your expertise and deepen trust. Supporting insights with evidence strengthens credibility, differentiates your content from competitors, and makes it far more likely to be cited (bonus for LLMs and AI assistants), shared, and acted upon.
Why these signals matter
While each of these points could warrant a further deep dive on its own, together they reveal a fundamental challenge for law firm communicators: trust is fragile. The content you publish may get opened, but will it be trusted enough to influence decisions?
Our research with our partners at JD Supra aims to unpack this question in depth, but even these early responses suggest clear actions firms can take today:
- Remove access friction
- Prioritize clarity
- Support insights with real-world examples
In-house legal professionals, add your perspective…
We’re still gathering responses and we’d like to hear from general counsel, members of in-house legal and legal operations teams, and C-suite executives. Do these early signals reflect your experience? Or do you see it differently? Add your perspective to our growing bank of responses by taking the survey here.
Your input will help shape a more complete picture of how legal decision-makers engage with law firm thought leadership, what they trust, and why.
“Trust, Relevance, and AI in Law Firm Thought Leadership” is a joint initiative by LIMELIGHT and JD Supra. Results will be published later this year, with actionable insights for law firm leaders and marketing teams.
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Amy Hanan is Chief Growth Officer of LIMELIGHT, a growth communications and marketing firm for legal and other highly regulated sectors.
