Above The Law logo vertical (1)With the onset of Covid, the legal profession entered extraordinary and uncharted territory.

Starting in the early days of the pandemic, a leading CLE provider partnered with Above the Law on sharing the message that the provider was up to the challenge of helping attorneys navigate all of the inevitable uncertainty and disruption.

The result of the collaboration was Unprecedented, a multi-channel media product that served as a hub for Above the Law’s comprehensive editorial coverage of the impact of the pandemic on the legal industry and integrated the CLE provider’s own relevant thought leadership.

The content published under the Unprecedented rubric covered the full spectrum of the pandemic’s impact: the emergence of remote and hybrid working models for law firms, changes affecting specific practice areas, the astonishing developments in the legal talent market, the accelerating adoption of new technologies, and much more.

Unprecedented functioned as a bespoke micro-site on Above the Law, a newsletter, and a podcast, all leveraging ATL’s social media presence to amplify the provider’s brand.

Over the 12-month run of Unprecedented, it generated over 876,000 visitors (from over 43,000 different law firms and companies), more than 50 million impressions, and over 32,000 website clicks for provider. The custom newsletter’s open rate was more than double the average for a sponsored campaign, and its click rate was more than triple this average.

Breaking Media’s campaign management team capped off the project by delivering a detailed report drawing on the company’s partnership with Bombora, the leading intent data company. The report included such metrics as the specific companies engaging the most frequently with the provider’s content, the top articles based on engagement, and even trending research topics among this audience.

By delivering value of this caliber and reaching the most U.S. lawyers of any publication, Above the Law works to maintain long-term, uniquely productive partnerships with all of its legal industry clients.

If you are interested in learning more about this program or other ways you can partner with Above the Law to craft an impactful marketing strategy, please contact Sales Manager Alicia Demonte.

Breaking Media Inc. has announced Ashley Spector as Vice President of Business Development for Above the Law, the largest and leading online news source in the legal industry. Ashley will oversee the business operations and focus on product development, brand strategy, marketing and sales to expand the growth and success of Above the Law.

Ashley started her career with Breaking Media in 2015 when she came on as Above the Law’s first Campaign Manager. Over the years, Ashley has grown the campaign management team and transitioned to the sales side of the business in 2017. Since then, she has been an integral part of the company’s growth and establishing long lasting client relationships.

“Ashley has been instrumental to the success of Above the Law over her time at the company,” said John Lerner, CEO of Breaking Media. “Her dedication to our marketing partners has created a successful business that delivers quantifiable results to our clients while our editorial team serves our readers. This collaborative approach has made Above the Law an integral part of the ever-evolving legal landscape, and I am excited to see the brand succeed further under her leadership.”

“It has been and continues to be a privilege to be a part of such an innovative and growing company like Breaking Media over the past 7 years,” added Ashley. “I look forward to continuing to identify strategic opportunities and partnerships to grow Above the Law alongside a group of talented and dynamic individuals.”

Breaking Defense is pleased to announce several key additions to its editorial staff, in an exciting and notable development that further solidifies the growth and leadership of Breaking Defense in the defense media market.

Valerie Insinna will be joining Breaking Defense as our Senior Reporter, Air Warfare and OSD. In this role, Valerie will have day to day responsibilities for covering the US Air Force, while serving as point person for major Pentagon policy and strategy developments. Valerie comes to Breaking Defense with extensive national security reporting expertise, having served as the air warfare beat reporter for Defense News for the last five years. During that time her work was recognized by numerous awards, including the prestigious National Press Club Michael A. Dornheim Award for defense journalism. She previously worked at Defense Daily, National Defense Magazine, and spent two years as the Washington correspondent for the Tokyo Chunichi Shimbun. A graduate of the renowned University of Missouri-Columbia journalism program, Valerie will start her new position at Breaking Defense on Oct. 4.

Andrew Eversden will be a new reporter for Breaking Defense, covering the Army and land warfare beat. Andrew previously worked as a staff reporter for C4ISRNET, covering the critical and transformational role networks play in contemporary defense. He also covered defense cybersecurity issues for Federal Times. Prior to that, Andrew served his internship at CBS News with its Capitol Hill team, was a Washington DC reporting fellow for the Texas Tribune and Washington Correspondent for the Durango Herald newspaper. Andrew is an alumnus of American University.

In a related development, Sydney Freedberg, Deputy Editor of Breaking Defense, has been elevated to a role as Senior Columnist, allowing Sydney to range his coverage and intellect across all military services and defense technologies. Sydney will work closely with staff to augment and enhance coverage across beats, including on key Army issues for which he is rightly known as an expert.

In another strategic move for Breaking Defense, Lee Ferran has joined the team as Managing Editor, a new role reporting to Editor-in-Chief Aaron Mehta. Lee brings significant journalistic experience to the role, working at ABC News for over nine years as a national security reporter, investigative reporter and editor of their enterprise investigations unit. Over his career Lee has covered US military budgets and spending,
cybersecurity vulnerabilities and controversial counter-terrorism programs. He’s the recipient of two News Emmy Awards. In his new role as Managing Editor at Breaking Defense, Lee will be responsible for editing coverage, organizing, scheduling and optimizing editorial operations, and developing our content platforms. Lee brings particular expertise and interest in media technology. A native of Georgia, Lee is a graduate of Wake Forest University.

These three additions, combined with staff developments earlier this year, means the Breaking Defense editorial team has doubled in size since the start of 2021, a reflection of the impressive growth of the brand. And Breaking Defense continues to expand its team of reporters from around the globe, with greater international coverage to come in the next year.

“Thanks to the hard work put in by founding editor Colin Clark, Sydney and the team, Breaking Defense had a wonderful base of talent when I joined this summer,” said Aaron Mehta, Editor-in-Chief of Breaking Defense. “I’m thrilled we’re able to keep growing the staff with our new additions, who all bring something different to the table. Having worked with Val and Andrew previously and having worked with Lee for a few weeks now — along with Theresa, Brad, Justin, Sydney and Colin, who will soon become our Asia Bureau Chief — I can’t imagine a better team to grow Breaking Defense into the future.”

“We’re excited to be growing our staff with journalists of such talent, quality and integrity,” said David Smith, Publisher and Managing Director of Breaking Defense. “The great additions of Val, Lee and Andrew to our editorial team are testament to the extraordinary growth Breaking Defense has achieved in the last years. Building upon an outstanding foundation, Aaron has assembled an all-star team of defense journalists, a mix of highly experienced reporters of immense reputation along with the next generation of talented and impressive rising stars. The breadth and quality of the Breaking Defense editorial team and its coverage is unsurpassed. I look forward to the continuing expansion, growth and leadership of Breaking Defense in this market.”

The coronavirus pandemic has dramatically accelerated the already-rapid pace of technological change in the legal industry. Yet lawyers remain famously resistant to innovation — and the proliferation of virtual events has fallen short in engaging attorney audiences and driving needed change.

In this spirit, Above the Law is bringing the legal technology conversation to the entire community, launching a “Non-Event” focused on where the rubber meets the road for lawyers and innovation. The Non-Event will be geared specifically toward lawyers — the key decision makers in a law firm’s buying decisions — as opposed to the niche technology professionals who are often served by technology events.

The Non-Event will allow lawyers to directly hear how technology can boost their career and optimize their practice — and, eventually, help lawyers research how to purchase and implement a variety of technology products. To fully explore these topics, Above the Law has partnered with its affiliate Evolve the Law, as well as the Legal Tech Media Group, whose buyers guides are the go-to resource for purchasers of legal tech.

We look forward to (not) seeing you there.

Interested in sponsorship opportunities within the ATL Non-Event? Please reach out to Ashley Spector for details.

This is the second installment of our periodic advice for marketers. You can read the first installment here, or go straight to our advice on how to write engaging content.

Lead generation is the priority for nearly all marketers these days as companies seek and incentivize data to attribute to sales and pipeline growth. However a rush to lead generation without a continual dedication to the fundamentals of brand awareness, trust building and credibility can break down and even set back these initiatives.

As such, many of these programs stall out. Here are five reasons why and what you can do about it:

  1. Fundamentals – Who are you trying to reach? Have they heard of you? Do they trust you? If two companies are publishing (“5 reasons why”) pieces, the prospect will pick the one published by the publisher that they know of and trust. Your brand matters.
  2. Ignoring “low level” leads – The average b2b purchasing decision involves nine colleagues and 17 interactions (source). If your sales team will only talk to a VP or C-Level person at the company, they are ignoring 77% of the of the opportunity. Ask your CEO if she downloads all her white papers and webinars, or is it spread across multiple teammates.
  3. Have you earned a phone number? A new prospect has found your content and wants to read more. Do you really need a phone number at this point to build a relationship? Is the phone number just for a CRM score? If the last question’s answer is yes, then consider appending the data from publicly available information, and focus on the hard part, building a relationship.
  4. Content is an art, not a science – If Above the Law could all predict which content pieces would perform best, we would be sending this from our yacht in the Mediterranean. Alas, we are in our cramped office in Manhattan, creating multiple pieces of content. For any program, leverage 2-3 content pieces with different angles, and ABCDEFG test every single email subject line, blog headline, landing page title. If you can, make sure to have multiple mediums. Some people like videos and webinars. Some people like on-demand presentations and eBooks. Both of these people are your prospects.
  5. Nurturing is not one-size-fits-all – If I said yes to reading more from a white paper, the next step might be a demo with a sales person, or it’s a case study on how else I could use this solution. It is important to have multiple nurture paths with an eye on timeliness.

If you’d like to discuss lead generation programs or share your own insights, we’ll be happy to publish in the next installment. To read more about ATL’s lead generation programs or account-based solutions, click here.

Any questions, comments or feedback? Email [email protected].

This is the first installment of marketing advice from the makers of Above the Law, MedCity News, Breaking Defense, Fashionista, Dealbreakers, Breaking Energy, & Breaking Gov.

We at Above the Law publish a lot of content – roughly 400 original articles a month. This is a 40% increase since 2014, which coincidentally matches the rise in media consumption by adults – 8 hours in 2014 to 12 hours in 2019. Companies, brands, and vendors are also competing for those 12 hours of attention, to spend more time with their prospects and customers. Today, there are over 70 million blog posts published on WordPress every month. If every publisher has a “How-To” or “10 Top Tips” article, content creators have to ask themselves, why would anyone read this?

Here are a handful of tips on how to get your content read:

  • Headlines matter – If you can’t think of a catchy headline, ask yourself why the article exists in the first place.
  • Brand matters – “How-To” and “Top Tips” articles are important and things that your prospects will search for. If you and a competitor have essentially the same article, which will they click? The brand that they have heard of and trust.
  • Value add – What does the reader get from your content, and not the 15,000 other interchangeable articles? The answer is not “information” – all 15,000 have “information.”
  • Medium and promotion – If you’re good at writing, create articles. If you’re good at short reactions, focus on social media. If you’re good at talking, look at podcasts and webinars. Pick the medium based on your own comfort. Then invest time into the promotional strategy. If you build it, they will… not come on their own.

Click here for advice on content marketing from Above the Law’s own Elie Mystal.

Exciting growth developments for BreakingDefense.com

January 21, 2019 – Breaking Media Inc. has named David Smith as Managing Director, Defense and Government to lead its defense and federal sector based in Washington DC. Mr. Smith will be responsible for business and product development, brand strategy, sales and marketing and is tasked with expanding the growth and success of BreakingDefense.com, the premier news analysis digital brand serving the defense and national security sector. In addition, Mr. Smith will explore and develop plans for growth within the federal civilian with an eventual relaunch of BreakingGovernment.com.

David Smith has more than 25 years of experience in all facets of media communications — digital media, audience, product and brand development, sales, marketing, production and content strategy. Mr. Smith is an expert in defense, government and international markets and a leader in how to craft innovative, creative and engaging media approaches to these markets.

“We are extremely excited to have David join our team leading our growing Washington DC presence.  David’s business experience and market knowledge will accelerate Breaking Defense’s ascent as a media leader in the defense and national security sector,” stated John Lerner, CEO of Breaking Media.   “David will work closely with our editor, Colin Clark, our Group Publisher, Hsiaolei Miller, and me as he develops new products and marketing solutions for the Defense, Security and Government markets”

“I’m delighted to join Breaking Media, to lead their growth strategy forward in public sector markets in Washington, DC,” said Mr. Smith.  “Breaking Defense has earned an avid audience following for the depth of our news analysis, which is unrivalled in the defense media markets. With expertise gained in a variety of markets, Breaking Media’s digital marketing execution for clients is exemplary and a cornerstone for its success. I look forward to building upon the Breaking Defense success path, providing clients powerful new media solutions while increasing the breadth and focus of our product offerings.”

Mr. Smith has worked in a variety of media and corporate settings, including 1105 Media and TIBCO Software, and was vice president of marketing and business development for Army Times Publishing Company (now Sightline Media) at a prior point in his career. While there he conceived and developed the Military Times Service Member of the Year program, the C4ISRNET Conference, the Middle East Air Chief Conference, the launch of Space News. David was a key player on the original team that developed Defense News, and he planned its successful international expansion. In his most recent role as President /Managing Director of Sightline Media, Mr. Smith developed and launched the C4ISRNET brand, conceived and launched FifthDomain.com and the Defense News Conference, while stabilizing and growing the company after its divesture from TEGNA Inc.  Mr. Smith is a graduate of Washington & Lee University and did his graduate study at the University of Virginia.

In related developments, Breaking Media has inaugurated a new central office for its Washington DC operation, located at 1440 G Street NW.  Breaking Defense will also soon be adding an additional defense reporter to its editorial staff, and has secured a new media sales representative, Melissa Rettig.  Ms. Rettig has over 20 years of experience in media sales in defense and federal markets, including Defense News, Space News, Jane’s Defence Weekly and Homeland Security Today.

About Breaking Media

Breaking Media runs a network of next-generation business-to-business media brands targeting influential professionals: Above the Law, Dealbreaker, Fashionista, MedCity News, Breaking Defense, Breaking Energy and Breaking Gov. Because of its authentic, inside-the-industry content, Breaking Media reaches over 5 million affluent, decision-making professionals per month and connects brands with this deeply targeted, engaged and influential audience through innovative content integration, custom research products, event marketing and more.  The company was founded in 2006.

Above the Law (ATL), published by Breaking Media, Inc and Legal Tech Media Group (LTMG) today announced a new partnership designed to help legal vendors solve their marketing, sales, and business development challenges. Through this new relationship, ATL’s Evolve the Law members will receive executive coaching and guidance in the form of monthly Mastermind sessions and webinars focused on legal sales and marketing. In addition, Evolve the Law members will receive discounted services provided by LTMG.

“LTMG is a full-service marketing agency dedicated to providing tactical and strategic marketing and business development services to companies selling products and services to lawyers and law firms,” said Chelsey Lambert, co-Founder of LTMG.  “ATL’s Evolve the Law community provides its members a platform to learn, grow, and succeed together, and we are thrilled to help them achieve their goals through this new relationship.”

“Over its 12 years, ATL has expanded its marketing capabilities from banner ads to content marketing, lead generation, retargeting, automation, and most recently, PR services through Evolve the Law (ETL). This partnership will round out these capabilities with strategic support and professional guidance on business development, as well as leveraging the ETL & ATL platform. This is truly a game changer for our members” said Hsiaolei Miller, Group Publisher of Above the Law.

“This new relationship is a logical extension to the services already provided by Above the Law,” said Cathy Kenton, co-founder of LTMG. “When we formed LTMG it was with the mission to help legal vendors focus on achieving measurable results, and this new relationship is an extension of that mission.”

About Above the Law

Above the Law (ATL)  is the largest platform for lawyers in the world, with monthly reach of 1.3 million unique readers and 10 million pageviews. Evolve the Law was acquired in March 2018 as the legal tech and innovation platform under the Above the Law umbrella. ATL’s publisher Breaking Media offers full-service marketing solutions to reach its audience through PR, advertising, content marketing, research, and lead generation.

About LTMG

Legal Tech Media Group delivers both tactical and strategic marketing, business development, and sales services to companies selling products and services to lawyers. With decades of hands-on experience in the legal vertical, LTMG provides vendors with cost-effective solutions to help them reach their goals.  

Contact:
Chelsey Lambert, [email protected]847-702-2774

Hsiaolei Miller, [email protected], 212-334-1871

Legal writing and media is not immune to the diversity problem of the legal industry. Publications are just as likely to have their own implicit biases. And online trolls have a special place in their empty hearts for targeting women, non-binary persons, and people of color. Yet the voices that rise above and lead thinking in the legal industry have an opportunity to make a real impact.  

Breaking Media is proud to say that 60 percent of its staff is female, 40 percent of its editorial leads are women, and 40 percent are people of color. Above the Law is the largest publication in the legal industry with 1,300,000 unique readers a month and 10,000,000 pageviews a month. I may be biased, but we have the best talent, and our diversity is a strength.

Above the Law would not have its success without its 100+ incredible columnists. To ensure Above the Law has a pipeline of the best writing talent, and a publication with a variety of opinions and perspectives, ATL will launch its inaugural writing contest. We are particularly looking for underrepresented voices — people of color, LGBTQ+, women — and new voices who want to publish across a broad range of topics. You do not need to be an established writer, or have published elsewhere. We don’t care if you have 10 followers on social media or 10 million. 

We will be providing editorial support and a platform for distribution, and most importantly, prize money. To participate, please submit one article idea with your name and email here. Please limit the article pitch to 250 words or less. 

ATL editors will review the article pitches and select a group of finalists to publish the article for publication. All finalists’ stories will publish on Above the Law and be featured in an ATL eBook.

One winner will be chosen based on editorial feedback, web engagement (time on page, social shares, pageviews), and reader feedback.

All finalists who publish will be paid the standard ATL columnist fee. The winner will receive bragging rights, a columnist position at ATL, and $1,000 bonus.

If you are new to writing or blogging, or just want some one-on-one time with editors, Staci Zaretsky and Kathryn Rubino will be hosting a live chat on Thursday, November 28 at 3:30 p.m. They will share tips for starting out, finding your voice, and answering questions.

Interested? Enter the contest here, and save these dates:

  • Facebook Live video: 11/29/2018
  • Story Pitches due: 12/19/2018
  • Finalists selected: 1/16/2019
  • Publication: 3/1/2019
  • Finalist chosen: 4/4/2019

If you’re not ready to submit, but want to reminders for deadlines, submit your email here.



The average American adult spends more than 11 hours consuming digital media each day. Simultaneously, our attention span has diminished below eight seconds – equivalent to that of a goldfish. This is why every single legal media brand, and your uncle, is producing content.

Over the years, Above the Law (ATL) has expanded its coverage to meet this need. Our five editors publish, share, argue, and defend takes on the news that matters to lawyers and the legal industry. Our network of 100+ expert columnists shares ground-level viewpoints on law practice, law school, law firm management, in-house counsel, the business of law, technology and innovation, emerging practice areas, government, the courts, and public interest. Today, we curate and publish approximately 20 original articles per day, for an average of 10,000,000 pageviews and 1,300,000 unique readers per month. David, Elie, Staci, Joe, and Kathryn have built the largest distribution platform in the legal industry, and they do it every single day, month, and year.

We also understand the limits of the industry we serve. There are only 1,300,000 lawyers in the US, and 150,000 law students. There are only 24 hours in a day, and someone has to bill time. Our editors will continue the daily fight for media and distribution dominance, and we will deepen our focus into heavily-researched journalism and editorial to strengthen our relationships with readers.

In 2019, Above the Law will launch the ATL Influencers Network. The Influencers Network will provide a platform for legal industry thought leaders to:

  • Publish long-form editorial projects on the largest distribution platform in the legal industry,
  • Utilize the ATL research team’s capabilities with surveys, data collection, mining, and analysis,
  • Leverage the ATL editorial team’s storytelling expertise.

ATL Influencers will receive a column on Above the Law, payment for their work, and the opportunity to earn more money with Above the Law sponsored editorial and custom projects.

The ATL Influencers Network will be limited to 10 Influencers in its first year. Our influencers will be passionate about, and interested in building, an editorial projects in the following areas:

  • alternative legal service providers
  • big data, data analytics
  • business of law and law firm economics
  • emerging practice areas
  • in-house practice and operations
  • law firm innovation and change management
  • legal education for law students, and pre-law students
  • legal technology
  • legal research
  • solo and small law firm practice management

If you are interested in participating, please email Brian Dalton, VP of Special Projects bdalton [at] breakingmedia.com.