The Research Partner Program

The problem

A line on a website. A press release that lives for a day.

The recognition your lawyers earn is one of the most valuable marketing assets your firm owns, and almost nobody uses it properly. We exist to change that: not by replacing your marketing and business development function, but by giving it a force multiplier it cannot build in-house.

Every year, your firm pours time and money into the ranking cycle. Marketing teams chase fee-earners for matter detail. Partners draft and redraft submissions. Deadlines collide. And after all that effort, the reward goes cold within the week.

The standard model

Notable clients, leadership roles, five outstanding matters
Deal value, opposing counsel, timelines, outcomes, precedent-setting rationale
Detailed argument on why this lawyer above all others doing similar work
Client goodwill spent on referees
Caps on how many of your people can be considered

Weeks

Of your team's capacity, per cycle

The Research Partner Program

You email us the names. That is the whole exercise
Our research team does the rest, drawing on decades of assessing the world's leading lawyers
Led by Alison Preece, Katrina Dewey and David Burgess
No referee requests, no matter tables, no redrafts
Submit across multiple guides at once, with no artificial cap

Five minutes

To nominate, per guide

The simplicity is deliberate. We make entry frictionless precisely so your team's energy is freed for the part that actually moves the market: what we do together once the recognition is published.

How the partnership works

Access, amplification, and the high-touch work that turns profile into pipeline.

01 — Access

The part that should be effortless.

Under the standard model, every nomination is a project in itself. For our partners, your work is done.

You bring us your best people. We do the heavy lifting on research, on recognition and, crucially, on everything that recognition can unlock.

Multi-guide submission No artificial cap on how many of your people we consider, across every guide in the calendar.
An extra week on deadlines Because partners run on partner time.
Early, embargoed notification You see your honorees first, with a window to review before anything goes public.
Your information, unlocked Link straight to your firm's bios, or build out full attorney profiles on Lawdragon.com.
A dedicated firm page Your bio and all of your Lawdragon coverage, press releases included, in one authoritative place where you control the messaging.

02 — Amplification

An audience you cannot reach alone.

This is the heart of the partnership, and it is where most firms leave value on the table.

When your own channels celebrate your own lawyers, the market discounts it. Of course the firm thinks its partners are excellent. When an independent authority says it, and says it to its own audience, it carries a credibility your marketing can never manufacture for itself. That third-party voice is the asset. We put it to work for you.

Across a sustained campaign we promote your recognised lawyers through Lawdragon's editorial and social channels, in front of the general counsel, prospective clients, laterals and referring peers who decide where the best work goes. We are not adding to the noise you already make. We are reaching the rooms you cannot get into on your own.

The One-Liner A crafted editorial quote for each recognised attorney, yours to use across every firm platform: website, LinkedIn, pitches, signatures.
Lawyer Limelight profiles Full features built around a live interview and tailored questions, giving your partners a substantial, independently authored presence.
Active social promotion Your honorees across Lawdragon's channels, on our reach, to our audience.

03 — High-touch

Turning profile into pipeline.

For the lawyers who matter most to your growth, the partnership goes further: from visibility to genuine business development support.

Practice and firm features We lead by building out the practice groups and individuals you most want to elevate. Independently authored features, tailored to the people and teams you are highlighting, that can frame a generational transition, mark a high-impact advancement, or profile the cases and deals that define your standing.
Building Rainmakers Your selected partners and senior associates enter Lawdragon's six-month, one-to-one business development coaching program. Over twenty-two years of researching, ranking and reporting on lawyers, the Lawdragon leadership understands what general counsel actually wants from their advisers. Each participant moves from discovery through to a bespoke three-year business development plan, built on their real strengths. This is the rarest thing we offer, because it is delivered personally, and capacity is finite.
Strategic consultation A working session with senior guide leadership to map which of your lawyers fit which guides, where the white space is, and how to position your firm across the Lawdragon calendar.

The partnership tiers

Four ways in. Every one of them starts with five minutes of your time.

What's included	Foundation	Signature	Premier	Bespoke
Five-minute nominations, full research handled	✔	✔	✔	✔
Multi-guide submission, deadline extension, embargoed review	✔	✔	✔	✔
Dedicated firm page and The One-Liner for every honoree	✔	✔	✔	✔
Social promotion across Lawdragon channels	✔	✔	✔	✔
Lawyer Limelight profiles	2	up to 5	up to 10	Tailored
Strategic consultation with senior leadership	1 hour	Extended	Extended	Tailored
Building Rainmakers BD coaching	–	5	10	10+
Practice and firm features	–	✔	✔	✔

Firms wanting to take more than ten lawyers through the high-touch programs work with us on a bespoke basis. We will build the partnership around your roster and your ambitions.

Why this works

Most firms treat recognition as a finish line. We treat it as a starting line.

The press release goes out, and the asset goes cold. The Research Partner Program treats publication as the point at which an independent, credible third party begins working your lawyers' profiles through channels and to audiences you cannot reach yourselves.

Sustained across a full year. Backed, where it counts, by genuine business development coaching.

This is a partnership in the real sense. You bring us your best people. We do the heavy lifting on research, on recognition and on everything that recognition can unlock.

Start the conversation

You keep doing what you do.

We supercharge it.

Tell us which of your lawyers you want the market to know about,
and we will map the guides, the calendar and the tier that fits.