In my role as armchair therapist to my law firm clients, I spend a not-insignificant amount of time listening to marketing and PR professionals vent about challenges managing their firm’s awards and recognitions programs. The key complaints:

1. The awards calendar continues to grow, while internal resources remain fixed.
2. Lawyers have unrealistic expectations about their chances of winning an award.
3. Firm leadership wants the firm to submit more nominations (and win).
4. Deadline tracking can be a full-time job.
5. Determining which awards are low-quality – and persuading lawyers of that fact – can be a challenge.

It’s easy for awards programs to spiral out of control. Every award that is won, even those that aren’t priorities, gets added to an ever-expanding calendar. Organizations are inconsistent with how they announce and promote awards, so it’s easy to miss calls for nominations. Firm management wants more wins, viewing awards as a panacea that will improve morale, attract clients, retain partners and generally add a sprinkling of pixie dust to the firm’s activities. Then partners get upset when they don’t win awards, demanding an explanation for the loss. Beyond the headaches, an undisciplined awards program wastes marketing resources, dilutes firm messaging, and can even undermine credibility when low-quality awards are promoted alongside high-value ones.

Problem: The awards calendar continues to grow, while internal resources remain fixed.
Solution: Create an awards policy.

When discussing a law firm’s awards challenges, my first question is, “Does your firm have an awards policy?” And 90% of the time, the answer is no. An awards policy creates a framework for a firm’s recognitions program, and provides parameters for deciding whether to pursue a particular award. It can take many forms, but I’d argue that any policy is better than no policy at all. For example, a firm’s policy might:

• Contain a list of high-quality awards that the firm will consider on an annual basis. If an award is not on the approved list, a potential nominee must petition for an exception.
• Give practice group leaders and office managing partners primary responsibility for determining who will be nominated for awards; each person may also have a set budget for nomination fees and other award-related expenses, including award dinners and congratulatory ads.
• Provide marketing department support for writing partners’ nominations, but put the onus on associates to draft their own nominations.

There’s no one-size-fits-all policy, but I promise you, any policy will make your firm’s awards program easier to manage.

Problem: Lawyers have unrealistic expectations about their chances of winning an award.
Solution: Let your PR firm deliver tough feedback.

To be transparent: Law firms hire Infinite to write award nominations. But frequently, I’m telling my clients why they shouldn’t hire us, and, in fact, shouldn’t pursue an award. Marketing professionals appreciate this, and understand that sometimes the feedback carries more weight when it comes from an outside expert (even one who is delivering the same message as the marketing team). Sometimes it’s as simple as a quick email. “Is this award legitimate? A partner is interested.” And I’ll share a handful of reasons why they should avoid a specific award. In other instances, I’ll do a deep-dive analysis of past winners, creating a profile of what it takes to win a specific award, then review the potential nominee’s qualifications to see if they have what it takes to win. And sometimes it gets to the point where I’m on the phone with a potential nominee, talking them through what it takes to win an award, and asking them to identify their own work that is of the same caliber as past winners. In those situations, the nominee may decide independently that perhaps this isn’t the right year to submit a nomination for a particular award. But sometimes the most valuable service a PR consultant provides is telling a partner that this isn’t their year.

Problem: Firm leadership wants the firm to nominate for more awards and win.
Solution: Reuse, repurpose, and revise.

While some firm are cutting back on their award nominations, most are expanding their awards portfolio. This puts tremendous pressure on the communications team, particularly if there are limited resources to support this expansion. I’m a big fan of not reinventing the wheel. Past award nominations, case studies, and legal directory submissions can all be repurposed for additional nominations. Have a nominee who’s had an exceptionally strong year? Write one nomination, then double down, adapting it for other awards for the same nominee. Infinite does not use AI to write award nominations. However, for marketing teams that are spread thin, ChatGPT and other generative AI tools can be a good resource to revise an existing award nomination to fit the parameters of a new award.

Problem: Lawyers want to pursue low-quality awards.
Solution: Check out the competition.

Let’s be honest: The quality of an award is subjective, and an award that may be aspirational to one firm may not be worth the time of another law firm. When I’m evaluating a potential award for a client, I almost always remind them: You’re known by the company you keep. Are the past winners of this award lawyers and law firms that you consider to be peers, or you’d aspire to have as your peers? If the answer is no, steer clear. It’s also worth checking the crowdsourced FirmWise Spammy Awards and Networks List, which contains law firm feedback on hundreds of awards, legal directories and other advertorial-type publications. (You can contribute feedback here.)

Problem: Tracking deadlines is a headache!
Solution: Outsource the job, or leverage technology to make it easier.

When law firms bemoan the time required to track award deadlines, I can empathize. Infinite tracks more than 1,500 award deadlines on an annual basis, so I understand what an onerous and frustrating process it can be. While I can’t wave a magic wand and solve the problem, I can offer a few suggestions to make it easier:

• Create an awards@ email alias for those who handle award nominations within the firm, and then use it to sign up for the newsletters/mailing lists associated with the awards you’re interested in. Not every outlet and association offers an awards mailing list, but many do, and using an alias ensures that all relevant team members are notified of awards, and newsletter subscriptions don’t disappear if a team member leaves the firm.
• Use Google alerts and web-monitoring tools to automate the process of monitoring for specific awards.
• Build out a spreadsheet with hyperlinks to every award on the firm’s calendar, and check them at least every other week.

Infinite has an award tracking product that’s currently in limited release as it’s being developed. If your firm would like to be added to the waiting list, please email InfiniteAccolades@infiniteglobal.com.

Since I have the microphone, I’ll use this to make a public plea to the media outlets and associations that might be reading this: Please create a central landing page for all of your organization’s awards, clearly listing open and close dates, and update it regularly. The more difficult it is to find information about your awards, the fewer nominations you will receive.