“The Oscar is the most valuable, but least expensive, item of world-wide public relations ever invented by any industry.” These were the words of Frank Capra, the Italian-American director of many hits, including the 1946 Christmas classic, It’s a Wonderful Life.

The slew of awards open to private practice lawyers have almost the same number of categories, but some of these awards can indeed be richly deserved accolades reflecting the achievements of a law firm or its lawyers over the course of a year or even a career. Knowing which ones to invest time in before you audition is key, and the first is around the corner.

The content required to impress judges is not far different from the Oscars. Strong performances in outstanding roles that were groundbreaking in some capacity. Across the spectrum of awards – both legal and industry – getting familiar with what was innovative or groundbreaking in your transactions or cases is key and while it sounds straightforward, there are ways to bring these differences out.

Legal AND industry awards are hugely useful marketing tools – that boost a firm’s morale, stand out to new talent, celebrate milestone achievements, and can potentially be a bonus to clients if undecided on a firm to work with. The process itself is also useful in collating content that can be used in submissions and repositioned in articles.

As we head into 2024, one of the first awards just around the corner is LMG Life Sciences, which will this year honor those law firms and specialists for work carried out in the life sciences industry in 2023, across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. With a deadline of January 25, 2024, and a London ceremony in May, see if you fit the categories.

Firm categories include: • Antitrust & Competition • Corporate • Licensing and collaboration • M&A • Opposition procedure • Parallel import • Patent litigation – Biologics/Biosimilars • Patent litigation – Biotech • Patent litigation – Medical devices • Patent litigation – Pharmaceuticals • Patent strategy • Product liability • Regulatory • SPC litigation • Venture capital • White collar crime.

There are Individual and Rising Star categories, as well as Jurisdiction and Deal awards, the latter needing to be publishable. There are also in-house awards if you wish to nominate your clients to enter. LMG Life Sciences is one of the free-to-submit flagship awards in the healthcare and life sciences industry. More details here: https://www.iflr.com/pdf/life-sciences-awards-emea-2024-methodology-pdf

Other major awards for a range of fields include Infrastructure Journal awards, Global Real Estate Awards, World Tax Awards, Managing IP awards for Intellectual Property, and Benchmark Litigation awards. There are hugely popular awards for Chambers, Legal 500 and IFLR, as well as Mergermarket, Best Lawyers, Super Lawyers, Asia Legal Business Awards, and Women in Business Law for EMEA, Americas and APAC. There are also The Lawyer Awards, Legal Business Awards, and a real golden Oscar – the FT Innovation Awards.

We will cover the requirements, methodologies and best practices for all of these – and more – in due course, but wanted to focus here on key tips to prepare ahead of awards season. 

1 Familiarize yourself with the definitions and criteria
Look clearly at what the award is looking to see. Often, nominations for awards, as with legal directories, can fall short for failing to adhere to the specified requirements.

2 Prepare in advance
Do not leave until the last minute. Prepare a good month in advance, if possible, by getting the materials ready – be they previous award or directory submissions, recent matters in any billing or transaction database, and identify potential matters that may impress a judging panel –collecting any missing details from the lawyers on the matter.

3 Highlight significant cases, deals, or achievements,
While directory rankings can depend on a depth of work across a field, sector or team, awards can be awarded on ONE piece of outstanding work or one terrific lawyer who has had a tremendous year.

Awards could include advising on a complex merger that raises many hurdles at the Competition Authority, Supreme Court victories, the highest value transaction, the most interesting in the sector, an unusual structure not used for some time. The impact of the innovation on the client, firm or key stakeholders can also play a part. Consider where the lawyers delivered the most value and offer context to elaborate on the distinctiveness of the matter.

4 Talk to the nominee
Talk to the nominees to get insights and additional information that may help. While lawyers may be fully engrossed in their matters, doing what they do best, the wider impact or unusual nature of the matter can and does get missed. It is important to bring this out.

5 Be realistic about the chances of winning
Focus on quality over quantity when submitting deals and explain why it was so important to the client and, potentially, industry. Panels can often see through those long-shot submissions because they vaguely fit the criteria. 

We will cover each award in turn but follow us at Tier One for contact us for a marketing 2024 calendar you can use. We may even help you pick out an Oscar dress for the ceremony.