Together, they were responsible for an incredible 37,397 pieces of online insight during 2020. By comparison, the top 200 firms produced a cumulative 33,823 insights between them in 2018, according to research by sales and marketing technology platform Passle, ‘2021 Thought Leadership Index’.
Norton Rose Fulbright led the way in terms of sheer volume, producing 1,920 insights over the year, averaging more than three per lawyer (the average across the top 100 was 1.14). CMS (1,124) and Linklaters (1,038) were the next most prolific.
While larger firms produced the most content, the index found a core group of smaller firms has been punching above their weight. Media firm Wiggin LLP created 816 insights, which equates to more than eight posts per lawyer.
Passle ranked the top 100 firms on their combined knowledge pieces, social media activity and followers, with Norton Rose in the top spot followed by Kingsley Napley, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Linklaters, Taylor Wessing, Burges Salmon, Slaughter and May, Lewis Silkin, Irwin Mitchell and Osborne Clarke.
For social media, LinkedIn was the favoured platform, with firms averaging nearly 27,000 followers. Eight firms have more than 100,000.
On Twitter, the average number of followers was 7,930, with DLA Piper the only firm with more than 40,000 followers, while Allen & Overy, Irwin Mitchell and Hogan Lovells had more than 30,000 each.
Only seven of the top 100 were not using YouTube, but Slater and Gordon can be crowned YouTube king with nearly 11.5m views last year. Irwin Mitchell came second with 940,000.
Adam Elgar, Passle co-founder, said: ‘Particularly in the early days of the pandemic, firms were able to assist their clients and the wider business community hugely by ramping up their insights on the legal implications, with many creating dedicated knowledge hubs.
‘People buy expertise but they also buy people. The savvy use of social media to share insights about both the law and the firm is a great way to sell yourself to potential clients.’
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