Dan Geey is a Partner in the Sports Group at Sheridans, working with a variety of clubs and athletes helping them with transfers and contracts.

There is perhaps no better known lawyer in the world of sports law. When the world's top sports organisations need support, he is at the top of their list of preferred people to work with.

He wasn't always the go to. The video below shows exactly how he became so highly regarded and is a great watch for any wanting to illustrate the importance of thought leadership for lawyers.

For those interested in further reading, Dan's advice on writing blogs is summarized here.

What GC's think about thought leadership

We asked 100 GCs at large organisations how they interacted with thought leadership. You can see the full results of that research here but there were several relevant points that are worth pointing out to your lawyers when the time comes to discuss thought leadership.

• 77% of General Counsel spend more than 8h per week consuming thought leadership
• 100% of General Counsel, every single respondant of the 100 we asked, said that thought leadership is a responsibility of law firms
• Only 8% of GCs thought law firms worked hard enough to keep the market up to date with timely, relevant website content.

Why thought leadership matters more for lawyers than other industries

Professionals, and particularly lawyers, hold the expertise that their clients buy. Those clients, by and large, are either lawyers themselves working in house, or are specialists in their area.

To position themselves as the best possible choice for these discerning clients, law firms need to showcase their expertise - in that specific niche. The best way to do that is to get your lawyers in the room with the client. The best way to do that at scale is with thought leadership.