Yasmin: Repurposing content for PR is one of the most powerful ways law firms can drive business development. Turning thought leadership into media coverage amplifies expertise, builds credibility, and creates new client opportunities without having to start from scratch. In this episode of the CMO Series Digital Masterclass, I'm joined by Ryan Evans, director of Public Relations and Communications at Jones Walker. Ryan will share how Passle pilot in 2022, designed to help attorneys share timely insights, grew into a repeatable PR pipeline. He will dive into how attorney behavior evolved and the steps the firm took to turn content into ready-to-use PR materials for media outreach. He'll also highlight success stories that built firm-wide buy-in and share practical tips for connecting content, public relations, and attorney engagement into one seamless strategy.

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Yasmin: Ryan, welcome to the podcast.

Ryan: Sure. Thanks for having me. 

Yasmin: Of course. Ryan, for the benefit of our listeners, would you mind telling us a little bit about yourself and how you joined Jones Walker?

Ryan: Yeah, sure. My name's Ryan Evans, I'm the Director of PR Communications for Jones Walker, which is based in New Orleans, Louisiana. Let me apologize in advance if there's any music or sirens in the background, because we are in the midst of Mardi Gras down here and our office is right on the parade route, so. I am a New Orleans native, who after graduating from LSU with a degree in Political Science, moved to Washington DC immediately after, where I spent six years on Capitol Hill, working for the member of Congressman Southwest Louisiana. In this capacity, I handled a lot of policy work from coastal restoration, hurricane recovery, and maritime, and transportation issues, but at the same time, did related communications work in concert with our press shop. After earning a master's degree while also in DC, I returned to New Orleans in 2012 and started with Bond Public Relations, which is an independent PR firm, and worked with clients from law firms to business consultancies, various startups, even concert promoters, and hospitality companies, and really the list goes on there. But, I spent a decade with that firm before it was acquired by another New Orleans PR communications firm, Beuerman Miller Fitzgerald, which actually has really longstanding relationships with various Jones Walker attorneys. I served as Vice President of public relations for that firm before moving over to Jones Walker, which is the first in-house position I've ever had, and now I've been here for almost three years. 

Yasmin: That's awesome. First in-house position and you seem to be absolutely nailing it. 

Ryan: Thank you, it’s been a pleasure.

Yasmin: Of course, I mean, Jones Walker piloted Passle back in 2022, I think was when we started working with you guys. Can you tell us a little bit about that journey, what the firm was hoping to accomplish with using Passle and how maybe it helped shape the way Jones Walker as a firm was sharing their insights online?

Ryan: Sure. The Passle pilot was launched and completed before my time at Jones Walker. It comprised approximately 20 attorneys and ran for a month. Again, it was launched by my predecessor as well as current team members, Savannah Kirk, our PR Communications Coordinator here at Jones Walker, who's done an incredible job motivating and onboarding attorneys to the Passle platform. Before Passle, the firm really had no precedent for posting attorney-authored first-person content to the website, aside from a few dedicated team blogs, and there were only a handful of attorneys who were actively and regularly using LinkedIn the way that it really should be used. So those problems were solved together when Passle empowered Jones Walker attorneys to write their own insights in a really quick, but professionally branded manner. For those attorneys who've not always been comfortable sharing, engaging in LinkedIn, it also gave them a very structured and authentic way to approach content sharing and engaging with their networks. Many attorneys really do not like to call attention to themselves in a straight LinkedIn post, but this gives them a way to use that network to post branded thought leadership content, and I think that really does make a huge difference.

Yasmin: When did you start to realize that this content could be used for more than just LinkedIn sharing or even just client communication going back to, kind of, your PR background?

Ryan:  I feel like I knew pretty early on in the process, but at the same time, we also needed to onboard a critical mass of attorneys before we could really run with it. So, I would say about a year ago, when we integrated our platform with Mondaq, which is an impressive global aggregator and Passle partner as well, that's really when we started to take advantage of these tools for media relations purposes. When Mondaq began globally amplifying Passle posts, we started receiving more organic inbound media inquiries, mostly for bylined articles and trade journals, expanding those posts to long-form articles. Posts were really going further than the firm and attorney networks, and that led us to really, more seriously consider Passle as a step in our media relations program.

Yasmin: I love that. Ryan, when you joined the firm in 2023, what did you immediately see that others hadn't connected between thought leadership content and that PR opportunity? 

Ryan: Our PR team is always preaching to both attorneys and our team members, our business development partners, to repurpose, repurpose, repurpose. The business development teams, constantly working with attorneys on pitches, panel preparation, newsletters, conference remarks, blog entries, just a wealth of different uses, and we don't want those non-billable attorney hours that they spent on those, to die after their initial use. So, however we can amplify that hard work that's already been completed, we really want to do that. So, with Passle posts, there's so much good thought leadership information attorneys are writing, that we really need to take our own advice and repurpose, repurpose, repurpose. So, after repurposing so many times in the assets or messaging for media pitching, I recognize that a pain point of, basically playing a game of telephone with complicated points in either cases or legalese, sometimes information starting with an attorney, then translated through the BD team to our team, and then to our PR Partner, Hellerman Communications for a pitch, could lose just a very single specific point for media that could make or break a reporter or editor's next step to speak to our attorney. So, with Passle, our attorney's posts are broken down into very digestible articles that we can use as a pitch asset. Sometimes we can send a full post as a pitch asset, but sometimes maybe we really only need a piece of it to pair with, maybe, a court ruling, or a presentation, or a different asset that the attorney has, you know, previously given us. So, it really is a case of repurpose, repurpose, repurposing for us, and us trying to find the quickest, most direct path from that thought, to a media pitch. 

Yasmin: Ryan, can you walk us through how that process actually looks like from idea to implementation, especially basically that pipeline from post, or even just, you know, the idea of a post to actually turning it around and sending it out to, you know, media opportunities?

Ryan: Sure. So, for the majority of our official established practices, we do have PR plans in place. We will work with our business development team and Hellerman Communications to determine if it fits in that specific PR plan, which I mean at this point, we can tell immediately, and of course, also need to determine if there is a conflict in moving forward with that. But next, we will analyze whether it's a better fit to pitch for a secured byline article opportunity, or if it would be best used to garner an interview for the attorney. Really, if it's a fresh new topic that we need to establish further industry credibility in, whether that's for tech or, you know, international trade or any other sector, it may be a byline article. If it's a post by a veteran attorney who's already an established thought leader on that specific topic, then we will find the most appropriate outlet or reporter for an interview. 

Yasmin: Brilliant. I feel like you guys have turned this into a science at this point between you and Savannah, so shout out to Savannah as well.

Ryan: Correct. 

Yasmin: Yeah, and obviously when you have a process that works so well, there has to be some really good examples of success stories. Can you share a couple of examples of this working in practice? 

Ryan: Sure. Yeah, actually we've seen it work in a couple different ways and some that we really weren't even expecting. So, I think probably one of the best examples this past summer, one of the partners on our construction team in the Atlanta office reached out to us with their BD contact as well to request some support in promoting thought leadership content. He had focused on the impact of steel tariffs on the construction industry. So, we recommended that he develop just a really concise Passle post to efficiently publish that information as soon as possible, and then suggested he share with his LinkedIn network to just initiate the discussion within his own contacts first while the Passle post had a little time to kind of move out, you know, through Mondaq and our other aggregators. At the same time, we planned a leverage that Passle post as an asset for media outreach to both business reporters, and construction industry, media editors, and reporters. As far as the results go, that Passle post itself got about 500 views, our media pitch grabbed the attention of Newsweek's Senior Housing Reporter, and he was quoted extensively throughout an article alongside executives from realtor.com, the National Association of Home Builders, S&P's Global Market Intelligence Team, and Redfin. So it really, it put him as a thought leader within that specific sector for what he had to say about those steel tariff impacts on the construction industry. That article, just alone, reached almost a million views across a couple of different platforms beyond with Newsweek included as well. But in addition, just posting that Passle post on LinkedIn, you got 65 clicks of the article and a steel industry CEO actually engaged with the post, and that started a conversation. So, following several meetings, discussions are still underway for possible legal matters for that steel company. It's funny because we've talked about the domino effect of this happening sometimes between attorneys. So, not only did that single partner get that much out of one, you know, post that took him about 45 minutes to write, but it caught the attention of his team co-leader, who's an attorney with very little time to spare for non-billable hours. And he came to us, inspired to sign up for an onboarding session, seeing that his team members were doing this the way that they should, and it was garnering that much attention. So the team leader, his first two Passle posts when he, you know, found a little bit, just a little bit of time to actually write them, they both garnered construction industry, trade media, byline articles. One was in a regional trade magazine and the other was in a major association, trade magazine. And after his third Passle post, we basically had to cut 'em off because he was just getting so many inquiries that he couldn't handle for non-billable time, because these got more than enough work in addition to being a team leader. So, that's a good problem to have. Another example, so our AI team is using the Passle platform to feed the blog content for their AI Law and Policy Navigator, which is their blog that we launched last June. I mean, we just, we got media attention off that just from the simple rollout of the blog, so that's just kind of a low hanging fruit thing there, and got great media attention just for a simple launch announcement. But since launching that blog last June, they did 35 Passle posts from June through December that garnered 40,000 plus views and 675 social referrals. So, they're getting attention amongst their own networks, number one, just from having the blog fed by their Passle posts. Their top post has about 2,700 views, and their number two post led to a co-written byline with one of the intellectual property team co-leaders in Bloomberg Law. So, that was also, you know, not just great content for the blog, caught the attention of Bloomberg reporters, but it was also really great for cross-selling, having the AI team and the IP team working together on a bylined article. And then one that has come up in the past two weeks, from that AI law and Policy Navigator blog, one of the AI team leaders wrote a Passle post in mid-October. He published it, and it was repurposed by one of our aggregators, and maybe October 15th, 16th, and then two weeks ago, we got a notification that a senior reporter for ‘TheStreet’, which is a really well-read business financial publication, had cited that aggregated Passle post and used our AI team leaders thought leadership extensively throughout the article. So, just within the past two weeks, a Passle post that was written in October is cited throughout a Street article that's got more than 41,000 views. So, the fact that we have an example that required literally zero outreach from the PR team out to media, just from one Passle post is great. So, if we can just have those, you know, amplified through our aggregators and this one, you know, would be Mondaq as well, that's great, you know, if they're going straight to media we have no problem with that, I wish they were all that easy.

Yasmin: It's really awesome and I think it makes everybody really happy. I'm sure it makes you guys super happy. To your point, and you know, when you guys get your media program to the point where you don't have to do the outreach, you know, the content, and your experts, your attorneys are speaking for themselves. That's a huge win.

Ryan: Right.

Yasmin: I'm sure it probably led to a lot more attorney engagement, I mean, you mentioned that ripple effect. People started probably jumping on board as you mentioned, you know, like they almost got so much engagement where they were like, I can't even handle doing this, or you know, like we shouldn't even, I can't, we can't handle all the inquiries. But has this really helped broaden this whole philosophy of people, kind of, jumping in and focusing on thought leadership as an initiative at the firm? 

Ryan: Yeah, I mean it really has, and you know, I just mentioned that domino effect earlier, just tracking and amplifying those PR success stories and including real internal case studies, and the training, and presentations, we do to practices in teams has really been important to show the attorneys how to, not only use that Passle platform from a technical standpoint, but how to understand the full lifecycle of thought leadership and what they can accomplish in a pretty quick manner, tell you the truth. Well, we started out with many of the larger group trainings. We've been more diligent about sharing those results we've accomplished as a firm with Passle. So, the training has really shifted to more one-on-one or small group training of the attorneys that are eager to get involved. And, you know, those attorneys, you know, they'll look to the side and see what one of their other team members are doing and seeing the attention they're getting, whether from clients or media from quick Passle posts and just spending, you know, 40 minutes putting down some ideas that are, you know, forward. We've got to the point where the attorneys are now reaching out to us to request their trainings now that they've seen what others are achieving. 

Yasmin: I mean, Ryan, I wish we could sit and talk about this all day because there's so much we could probably learn from what you guys are doing, but I guess for my last question for you. A lot of firms are struggling with what you guys have been able to do so successfully. What are the three things that firms should start doing when they want to build a consistent PR pipeline, and especially kind of getting that engagement from their lawyers? 

Ryan: First, I would say, offer a workshop-style training with a group of their peers so, you know, obviously, you go through the platform structure and how to actually sign up and get it onboarded. But, in those, we've seen really good success leaving time for the attorneys to try out writing and submitting their first post in those sessions. You know, once it's, I wouldn't say outta a sight outta mind, but they're more likely to do another one if they've done the first one with us in the room or with other attorneys also posting as well. We've really, I mean, we've started seeing more attorneys use a platform after workshop-style training when they could go through the lifecycle of a Passle post with real-time guides and just see how easy and efficient it is. I think a good case, this is the second best performing post we've ever had, came from a training session this past summer. So that's number one. Number two. I think it's a really good starting point and springboard for attorneys to put out thought leadership on new topics they're interested in developing and, you know, trying to position themselves as a thought leader. Sometimes, it is hard for them to know where to start, they may have really good ideas or may see something really big coming down the road, but turn around and are looking for a plan on how to become that visible and this is a really good tool to be a starting point. And then third, and I kind of mentioned a little before, but just tracking and sharing the results. I just cannot stress enough the domino effect of this because success breeds attention.

Yasmin: I love that. Ryan, thank you so much for taking the time to join us, especially during Mardi Gras. 

Ryan: Sure, yes. 

Yasmin: For the folks who are listening, thank you for taking the time to listen. This is probably one of the best podcast episodes I've ever recorded because this is, kind of, the keys to the castle, so appreciate you taking the time to share your guys' secret sauce.

Ryan: Sure. Absolutely. 

Yasmin: So, thank you very much, Ryan. Have a great rest of your week and have a good weekend. 

Ryan: Thanks again. 

Charlie: You can follow the Passle CMO Series Podcast on your preferred podcast platform. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next time.