We’re delighted to announce a pilot run of our new blog submission scheme!

One of Flex Legal’s main objectives is to offer deserving legal professionals a chance to get their foot in the door of the industry. Now, we want to offer you a new way to get your profile raised without even needing to be on the Flex platform!

Submitting a blog to Flex Legal is a great way to get your work published on a widely-read legal blog, and get your name out there in the legal community! We’re currently looking for a handful of good submissions to publish here on the Flex blog. This post will explain what we’re looking for, how you can submit, and some general guidelines on submissions.

What can you write about?

To help keep your submissions relevant to our audience, we’ve pre-selected some broad themes we would like you to write about. Here is what we’re looking to accept submissions on: 

• “How to do (X)” - We’d love to get your thoughts on the best way to complete tasks in the legal world. Whether this is “How to review a contract” or “How to complete a DSAR” or even something more general like “How to manage your inbox” we want your expert tips for professional life in the law!
• “A day in the life of (Y)” - One of our favourite things about the legal industry are the human stories within it. We want to hear those stories, and we know our community does too! We are incredibly receptive to posts such as “A day in the life of a trainee solicitor” or “A day in the life of a commercial lawyer”. If you’re not sure your story would suit this, please feel free to get in touch!
• “My advice on (Z)” - Careers in the legal industry are often fairly linear, and legal professionals know which step they need to take next. If you have advice about steps you’ve taken previously, we’d love to share it with our community! If you have thoughts on topics such as “My advice on training contract applications” or “What I wish I knew about working in-house before I started”, we want to hear it!

What are the submission rules?

1. Your piece should be 600 – 800 words long.
2. Your piece must be original. Unfortunately, we can’t accept blog posts that have been published elsewhere, or your old academic essays.
3. Your piece should be politically neutral and include no hate-speech of any kind. Flex Legal reserves the right to reject any submissions we regard as insensitive.
4. Submission of a blog post does not guarantee publication. As this is a pilot of the scheme, we will only be publishing a select handful of blog posts at this time.

General formatting and best practice guidelines

• The title of your blog post should be short, and under 60 characters.
• Don’t keep readers waiting to get into the meat of your submission! Your introduction should aim to get to the point as soon as possible.
• The best online written content is super consumable. Keep your paragraphs short, your sentences shorter, and use a few subheadings to break your piece into easily digestible chunks.
• If your blog post relies on external links or additional resources, make sure you include these or send them to us separately so we can link them in the text.
• Make sure to write with your audience in mind! Our blog readers are legal professionals of varying seniorities, so make sure you tailor your writing to a junior or senior legal audience who might want to read your piece.
• We want your unique voice and tone to shine through! This is your work - and it should be in your voice. It should go without saying, however, that Flex’s general tone is positive and optimistic. We will naturally express a bit of a preference for tones aligned with ours.
• Please make sure you send us a good headshot of yourself to go along with the blog post. Ideally this would be a well-lit, high-quality photo that includes your full head and shoulders.

What does a good blog post look like?

• 5 helpful hints to ace your open days! by Client Services Associate Jacob Darcy.
• How Nathalie works as a remote lawyer from Mauritius by Head of Lawyer Engagement Emma McDowell.
• Will the SQE affect diversity in the legal profession? by former Intern Isabelle Booth.

How to submit your blog to us

Please also include a preferred headshot of yourself, along with a link to your LinkedIn profile.

If you have any questions about any part of this process, please feel free to email James at the email address above. Good luck!