The article advises law firms to adopt a strategic approach to awards, focusing on clear goals like business growth, reputation, and recruiting. It recommends creating a prioritization matrix, managing deadlines with a calendar, and establishing policies to ensure awards align with the firm’s objectives and resources.

By Jennifer King

Every law firm has one: A partner demanding recognition in an obscure Top 10 list, a marketing team drowning in nominations, or an executive committee wondering if awards or directories really matter. Rather than chasing every accolade, firms need a framework to decide which awards and directory submissions add value. Law firms often ask for my advice on identifying what awards and legal directories they should prioritize. While I can’t offer a one-size-fits-all list that would be suitable for all law firms, I can share a framework to help law firms think about their recognitions program, and home in on suitable awards and directories. 1. Identify your end goals

Among the key reasons a law firm may pursue awards and legal directory rankings:

• Business development: Recognitions can help credential the law firm and individual lawyers, while also distinguishing them from the competition. Inclusion in key legal directories such as Chambers and Partners, Legal 500, IFLR and Best Lawyers can also help increase the likelihood that potential clients reach out when conducting RFPs.


• Reputation and brand development: Well-regarded awards and directories contribute to overall brand resiliency. Many awards, particularly those that are initiative-focused, help highlight the firm’s defining differentiators.


• Recruiting and retention: Firmwide and office-specific awards may resonate with potential hires and help them better understand the firm’s culture and values. These awards can include employee satisfaction-type awards (such as Best Places to Work), as well as awards focused on innovation, pro bono, CSR and diversity.


• Improve GEO: Generative engine optimization—the AI-centric equivalent of search engine optimization—seems to give weight to high-caliber directories and legal awards when generating responses to search questions like, “What is the best intellectual property law firm in New York?” The answer supplied by Google’s AI tool Gemini responds with a list of firms that have been recognized by Chambers, Vault and IP Stars.

At larger law firms, the goals may vary across offices and practices, with high-growth practices focused on recruiting and BD awards, while emerging practices seeking greater visibility might focus on awards that drive GEO and help to bolster brand visibility.

2. Build an awards matrix

Once a law firm (or practice group or office) has identified its objectives, the next step is to identify awards and legal directories that will help accomplish those objectives. I usually recommend organizing the awards and directories into a matrix or depth chart. For each practice area, office, or end-goal, a firm’s classification categories might include:

• Must-participate legal directories
• Must-participate awards
• High-value, high-priority awards
• Medium-value, lower-priority awards
• Niche awards and those with targeted value

Some firms will add to this matrix a separate category for low- or no-value awards that the firm will not engage with. (This crowdsourced list of spammy legal awards is a good starting point.) I often recommend that firms maintain lists of approved awards and prohibited awards, because it can quickly shut down requests from lawyers who are approached by scummy awards programs that appeal to the lawyer’s ego in an effort to sell them a prize.

3. Consider budget and capacity

Once a firm has defined its priorities, the next question is whether it has the bandwidth to pursue them. Award nominations and legal directory submissions don’t write themselves. Even if firms are repurposing content or leaning on AI for drafts, submitting a single nomination is a time-consuming process that requires a firm to:

• Determine who or what will be nominated
• Identify matters and other data points for inclusion
• Review past winners to gauge the strength of the nomination
• Interview relevant stakeholders and conduct research into relevant matters
• Draft the submission
• Get attorney and client review and sign-off

I generally estimate that award nominations take about five to ten hours of a writer/marketer’s time from start to finish, plus a couple hours of a lawyer’s time. Legal directory submissions can easily take about 40 hours per submission for the marketing team’s time, plus a couple hours for each lawyer who needs to review bios and matter write ups, secure client approvals and make referee requests. Even if law firms outsource the heavy lifting to an external consultant, it’s impossible to outsource 100% of the work.

Depending on the firm’s size, budget and capacity may need to be sorted out on a more granular level by practice or office. This can be particularly effective because it puts the onus on a practice group leader, for example, to decide which awards and nominees should be prioritized within the practice group’s budget. While there may be exceptions and overrides, an awards budget or points system makes it easier to push back against practice group leaders who would prefer a “throw it against the wall and see what sticks” approach to award nominations. 4. Create a calendar

Calendaring award and directory deadlines can be time consuming, but it’s an essential planning step because the calendar needs to be viewed through the capacity lens. A firm with limited resources, for example, might not be able to simultaneously handle multiple legal directory submissions and a handful of award nominations. On the other hand, once those legal directory submissions are wrapped up, nominations that focus on specific matters become a much lighter lift because the matters featured in the legal directory submissions can be repurposed. Once the calendar’s created, key stakeholders—usually members of the marketing team in consultation with firm leadership, marketing partners, BD professionals and/or practice group leaders—should meet at least quarterly to consider which awards the firm will pursue in the quarter and who or what will specifically be nominated. Firms that want to level-up their calendar should incorporate additional details such as:

• How each award is classified on the firm’s awards matrix
• The results of any prior nominations for a specific award
• Entry fees

5. Optional, but useful: Create a policy

Winning awards is fun—it’s a nice ego boost, it’s a cool credential to add to a bio, it tells the world that you are better than the competition, and family members will be impressed even if they don’t understand the first thing about your legal practice. Unfortunately, those are the very reasons why law firm awards programs often get out of control. (The “participation trophy” culture doesn’t help). When law firm marketing teams complain to me about their firm’s award program, my first question to always, “Do you have a policy?” Almost always, the answer is no. And here’s a little secret: Regardless of the specifics of a law firm’s policy, as long as it spells out a framework for the firm’s awards program, it will make life easier. And while there will always be noisy partners who demand (and sometimes receive) exemptions, a policy will eliminate a lot of the unreasonable awards requests. A thoughtful policy won’t eliminate every rogue award request, but it will transform awards management from a reactive chore into a strategic function of the firm’s brand.

Jennifer King is a vice president at the international communications firm INFINITE.

Reprinted with permission from the December 15, 2025 edition of the New York Law Journal © 2025 ALM Global Properties, LLC. All rights reserved. Further duplication without permission is prohibited, contact 877-256-2472 or asset-and-logo-licensing@alm.com.