On Monday 8th July, the LexRex team met en masse for a strategy day. On the agenda was growth, growth and more growth! Team building was also something we had decided to concentrate on, along with training for the most recent addition to the team, Asana. We wanted to hold our session in a nice venue, and The Principal hotel in Manchester didn’t disappoint. Squishy sofas, good coffee and lots of natural light kept us all happy; LexRex’s photographer Kenny took some amazing action shots along with head shots of our in-house VA / PA Kate and operations guru Sarah. Trip Report After a brew, the first stop was the trip report. This was recommended to me by one of my fellow NatWest Entrepreneur Accelerator cohorts and basically involved us all talking about our favourite ever holiday destination or experiences. Florence, Venice, New York and Sao Paulo all featured – we’re a well travelled bunch apparently. Amazing Asana Next on the agenda was the Asana training. I’ve been looking for something to give me an overview of what everybody is working on, set and track tasks and deadlines, and a depository for the never ending mini to-do’s to replace my faithful post-it notes / Filofax. Asana has achieved all of this and more, and we now also have embedded systems for new starters and new clients that we can just copy and paste as needed. Sarah (Operations) has done such a great job of taking my brief and turning it into an actual real-life solution. We are now a bunch of Asana fans and geek out quite regularly over what a life changer it is… Post-Asana training, we sat down for a spot of mapping and strategy creation, coming up with some really exciting PR, marketing and sales tactics for LexRex – underpinned by a super, measurable strategy of course. More on this front coming soon; keep your eyes peeled. Escape the Van Later on, and quite possibly the highlight of our day, we took part in Escape The Van; a mini-escape room on wheels. Don’t be fooled into thinking that small means easy though, it was tough. But being the naturally epic team that we are, the LexRex gals escaped with time to spare (4.45 minutes to be precise), The feedback from our host was that we were great communicators, and listened each time a team member had something to say. Good job we work in comms right…!? Post-Escape it was time to defrag; a couple of drinks back at The Refuge and then home. We had a super day and it was really fab to be able to bring the team together and focus on what I’m trying to achieve with the business, and agree upon how we are going to deliver. And best of all, it was a really fun day with loads of laughs. If you want to see some action shots of our strategy day – check out our LinkedIn video. To find out more about LexRex visit: https://www.lexrexcommunications.com/ You can also contact us on 0161 393 6121 or email us on info@lexrexcommunications.com About LexRex LexRex Communications is a boutique PR agency serving the legal services market. Working in partnership with boutique law firms and businesses that serve the legal profession, our team is passionate about the law and its practice. Managing director and founder of LexRex Communications Ltd, Victoria Moffatt is a former solicitor turned legal PR specialist. She practised in South Yorkshire and Leeds over the course of her 6 year legal career. Victoria honed her PR skills at some of the UK’s leading and award-winning PR agencies in Manchester; working across a variety of prestigious law firm accounts including regional big-hitters and Top 100 firms. Driven by great communications and measurable results, Victoria loves creating and implementing bespoke campaigns. Her strengths include understanding exactly what clients want to achieve, and creating strategies that meet their objectives. LexRex is singularly focused on helping the legal services industry stay in the news, for the right reasons. To find out more about our services, please visit: https://www.lexrexcommunications.com/ You can also contact us on 0161 393 6121 or email us on info@lexrexcommunications.com Connect with Victoria on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn
LexRex Communications has been shortlisted in the CIPR Pride Awards North West in the Media Relations category for its media relations campaign for Maguire Family Law on pre-nuptial agreements relating to pets, or pet-nups. The campaign, called ‘Pet-nups: a very modern legal solution’, generated 36 pieces of media coverage across international, national, consumer, lifestyle and regional media. One of the highlights of the campaign was a mention on the BBC’s satirical ‘Have I Got News For You’ current affairs show in April. In addition to media coverage, on Facebook alone the coverage generated 7.2k shares, 33.8k reactions and 55.1k comments. Annual social media click throughs to the Maguire Family Law website compared to previous 12 months increased: Facebook – 153% LinkedIn – 263% Twitter – 72% And between August 2018 and May 2019 unique website visits increased by 42% compared to the previous period. Victoria Moffatt commented: “It is great to be recognised by the CIPR for our work on this campaign. The pet-nup coverage to date has been outstanding and has propelled our client, Maguire Family Law into the spotlight both nationally and internationally. “Pet-nups are a novel legal mechanism that most people had never previously heard of prior to our work, and the respective teams at LexRex Communications and Maguire Family Law have been blown away by the extent to which they have been embraced by the media. It is great that the CIPR has chosen to recognise our work in uncovering and promoting a topic that has really harnessed the zeitgeist across the media.” The CIPR Pride Awards recognise the outstanding work delivered by the North West’s PR community for its clients and employers across the UK. The winners, selected by our team of leading industry experts, will awarded at a glittering award ceremony on 19th November at The Midland Hotel in Manchester. Read more about pet-nups here… Inews: ‘I gave up my house to keep my dogs’: We asked people how they handled pet custody after their break-ups The Guardian: I’m keeping the dog! The rise in pet-nups LadBible: Fifteen per cent of Brits Love Their Pets More Than Their Partner The Sun: Claws Are Out: Forget prenups, couples are now signing PETNUPS to ensure they can keep their in case of a split Daily Star: Will Lisa Armstrong lose ‘baby boy’ Hurley if she divorces from Ant McPartlin? The Mirror: Who gets. To keep the pet after a break-up – what the experts have to say Pretty52: Couples are getting Petnups to make sure they keep their pets if they split up Daily Star: Will Rebecca Humphries have to let Strictly’s Seann Walsh. See their cat Winston? Huffington Post: Love Island’s Dani Dyer And Jack Fincham Split, But Who Gets To Keep The Pet After A Breakup? Daily Express: Ant McPartlin divorce: Who is ex-wife Lisa Armstrong? Who will get custody of the dog? LexRex provides a wide range of services to the legal market, including PR and social media and works with some of the region’s most notable boutique firms. To find out more about our services, please visit: https://www.lexrexcommunications.com/ You can also contact us on 0161 393 6121 or email us on info@lexrexcommunications.com About LexRex LexRex Communications is a boutique PR agency serving the legal services market. Working in partnership with boutique law firms and businesses that serve the legal profession, our team is passionate about the law and its practice. Managing director and founder of LexRex Communications Ltd, Victoria Moffatt is a former solicitor turned legal PR specialist. She practised in South Yorkshire and Leeds over the course of her 6 year legal career. Victoria honed her PR skills at some of the UK’s leading and award-winning PR agencies in Manchester; working across a variety of prestigious law firm accounts including regional big-hitters and Top 100 firms. Driven by great communications and measurable results, Victoria loves creating and implementing bespoke campaigns. Her strengths include understanding exactly what clients want to achieve, and creating strategies that meet their objectives. LexRex is singularly focused on helping the legal services industry stay in the news, for the right reasons. To find out more about our services, please visit: https://www.lexrexcommunications.com/ You can also contact us on 0161 393 6121 or email us on info@lexrexcommunications.com Connect with Victoria on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn
Appointment news! LexRex Communications: We are very excited to announce our latest appointment by Court of Protection specialist Hugh Jones Solicitors, as we continue to expand our reach across the boutique law firm market. The LexRex team will be responsible for raising the profile of the specialist private client firm – one of the largest in England and Wales. Hugh Jones Solicitors is the biggest firm of independent Court of Protection solicitors in the country and was ranked in tier one by Legal 500 earlier this year. With many years’ experience, the team is passionate about safeguarding the welfare of clients in a professional, friendly and cost effective manner. Managing director of LexRex Communications, Victoria Moffatt commented: “Having worked as a solicitor myself, I’m acutely aware of how important Court of Protection services are. Hugh Jones Solicitors do an incredible job of supporting vulnerable individuals and it’s fantastic to be working alongside a firm with such strong principles and exceptional service levels. “LexRex is a fast-growing agency that is passionate about helping lawyers communicate effectively and we look forward to putting Hugh Jones Solicitors in the spotlight.” Rachel Dobson, managing director of Hugh Jones Solicitors, also commented: “When looking to improve our brand awareness, it was vital to find a partner that totally understands us and the complex market we operate in. “LexRex has a unique knowledge of the legal sector, which is invaluable and I have total confidence in the team’s ability to help us communicate in a strategic, engaging manner.” LexRex provides a wide range of services to the legal market, including PR and social media and works with some of the region’s most notable boutique firms. This latest appointment comes hot on the heels of our appointment by legal innovator F-LEX earlier in the year. To find out more about our services, please visit: https://www.lexrexcommunications.com/ You can also contact us on 0161 393 6121 or email us on info@lexrexcommunications.com About LexRex LexRex Communications is a boutique PR agency serving the legal services market. Working in partnership with boutique law firms and businesses that serve the legal profession, our team is passionate about the law and its practice. Managing director and founder of LexRex Communications Ltd, Victoria Moffatt is a former solicitor turned legal PR specialist. She practised in South Yorkshire and Leeds over the course of her 6 year legal career. Victoria honed her PR skills at some of the UK’s leading and award-winning PR agencies in Manchester; working across a variety of prestigious law firm accounts including regional big-hitters and Top 100 firms. Driven by great communications and measurable results, Victoria loves creating and implementing bespoke campaigns. Her strengths include understanding exactly what clients want to achieve, and creating strategies that meet their objectives. LexRex is singularly focused on helping the legal services industry stay in the news, for the right reasons. To find out more about our services, please visit: https://www.lexrexcommunications.com/ You can also contact us on 0161 393 6121 or email us on info@lexrexcommunications.com Connect with Victoria on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn
This month, for a change, we’ve invited Stacey Meadwell, former national and sectors editor for key property title, Estates Gazette to share her thoughts on what makes a good expert source. Straight from the horses mouth… so listen up! Stacey, can you tell us why expert sources are important for journalists? In B2B journalism, expert sources are pretty much the life-blood for what you write. They give you news stories, market analysis and comment for articles. As a property journalist for 20 years, industry experts were who I turned to for feature ideas, quotes, confirmation and background information. I had go-to people who had their finger on the pulse and was constantly adding to my list of regular contacts. What I looked for in my network of experts was something interesting and different. It sounds simple but a lot of people I spoke to focused purely on what they were doing rather than thinking more broadly. And what did you look for in a good expert source? As regional and sectors editor, my job was to commission and write content that offered value or insight for our readers. So, I was looking for someone who wouldn’t just talk about what was happening but why it was happening and what the implications were. My go-to people didn’t talk about a single deal they had done but instead would talk about how three similar deals had been done in three months, picking out an emerging trend. A good expert source was someone who had an opinion and was prepared to tell it how it is or at least be pragmatic rather than always putting on a positive spin. I was once told I should be doing my bit to ‘talk up the market’ which just made me more sceptical. But the people I’d call or meet for a coffee weren’t just those that had interesting insight, they were also reliable. They were easy to get hold of, were around at the arranged time for calls and didn’t make promises they couldn’t deliver. Any horror stories? Every journalist will have a horror story. I had a feature planned around a piece of research. The research was ‘on its way’ right up until two days before press when my source admitted they couldn’t deliver. It left with me two pages to fill last minute and burnt bridges. In the days of digital media, journalists are under constant pressure to deliver and are always on deadline if they need a last-minute comment or opinion who are they going to call? About Stacey Stacey Meadwell was a journalist and features editor at EG covering London and the UK, as well as editing the sector supplements and UK Cities Investor Guide. She is now a freelance content writer, editor and moderator working with businesses within the built environment sector. You can find out more about Stacey and her services here: https://staceymeadwell.com/ About LexRex LexRex Communications is a boutique PR agency serving the legal services market. Working in partnership with boutique law firms and businesses that serve the legal profession, our team is passionate about the law and its practice. Managing director and founder of LexRex Communications Ltd, Victoria Moffatt is a former solicitor turned legal PR specialist. She practised in South Yorkshire and Leeds over the course of her 6 year legal career. Victoria honed her PR skills at some of the UK’s leading and award-winning PR agencies in Manchester; working across a variety of prestigious law firm accounts including regional big-hitters and Top 100 firms. Driven by great communications and measurable results, Victoria loves creating and implementing bespoke campaigns. Her strengths include understanding exactly what clients want to achieve, and creating strategies that meet their objectives. LexRex is singularly focused on helping the legal services industry stay in the news, for the right reasons. To find out more about our services, please visit: https://www.lexrexcommunications.com/
What happens in a radio interview? It’s a question I’m asked a lot when I’ve placed clients on various regional and national radio shows. And I was recently able to bag my own opportunity to talk about an area I know lots about – working from home. Having worked from home for nearly seven years, it’s something I’m used to doing, and I have A LOT of processes in place to enable me to squeeze every last second out of my working day. Ironically, my success on this front has now led to me needing some support (check out the job description here – just in case you know the perfect person!) And of course employees tend to mean premises – so my working from home days are now probably numbered. Anyway, long story short – BBC Radio 5Live put out a #journorequest on Twitter recently asking for homeworkers to get in touch – which I did (please do leave a comment or give me a shout if a post on #journorequest would be helpful!) The researcher and I arranged a phone call and then chatted about my three ‘top tips’ for homeworkers. I was then scheduled into the Wake up to Money programme for the following morning. It’s well worth a listen if you’re an early riser btw. After the event, I shared a post on LinkedIn and several people were interested to know – what actually happens when you speak on the radio? So here’s my blow by blow account. It’s worthwhile noting that some opportunities, such as longer expert interviews, may require a visit to the studio. I was able to contribute over the phone from my house. Slightly unfortunately for my sleep regime, my slot was at 5.50 am which necessitated an early start. It isn’t uncommon for ‘normal’ people (i.e. not celebs) to have to fill unsociable slots, so it does rather go with the territory. After a quick brew, the producer called me at around 5.40 and kept me on the line. I could hear the live show through the microphone. The producer and I had a quick chat and she explained that I would wait around 5 minutes, and would then be dialled directly into the show. Sure enough, I was dialled in right on cue, and introduced. I was asked for my top tip on working from home. I actually gave three top tips, which is what I’d been briefed to do. I was on air for no more than a minute or so, and the whole thing was very simple. In case you haven’t spotted it – you can listen to the segment by clicking on the play button at the top of this post. Like anything, radio appearances improve the more that you do them! And it is important to ensure you sound natural and not like you have over-practised. I think I perhaps need to cut down on my ‘err’s and ‘y’knows’ but actually, these intonations tend to buy me thinking time. So it’s a balancing act. Being perfectly honest, I think radio is an absolutely fantastic route into the media, and it is usually much easier to score an expert spot on the radio than it is on TV, for example. Radio often has huge reach, and the social media kudos that can generated after a radio appearance is huge (for example my original post on LinkedIn has, at the time of writing this, had more than 1700 views, which is not to be sniffed at). Anyway, I hope this account of my experience of speaking on the radio has been helpful, and if you are wondering whether media relations (i.e. this) could help with any aspect of your business – please leave a comment or get in touch. Victoria Moffatt is the founder and managing director of LexRex Communications, and a former solicitor. To find out more about our services, please visit: https://www.lexrexcommunications.com/ You can also contact us on 0161 393 6121 or email us on info@lexrexcommunications.com About LexRex LexRex Communications is a boutique PR agency serving the legal services market. Working in partnership with boutique law firms and businesses that serve the legal profession, our team is passionate about the law and its practice. Managing director and founder of LexRex Communications Ltd, Victoria Moffatt is a former solicitor turned legal PR specialist. She practised in South Yorkshire and Leeds over the course of her 6 year legal career. Victoria honed her PR skills at some of the UK’s leading and award-winning PR agencies in Manchester; working across a variety of prestigious law firm accounts including regional big-hitters and Top 100 firms. Driven by great communications and measurable results, Victoria loves creating and implementing bespoke campaigns. Her strengths include understanding exactly what clients want to achieve, and creating strategies that meet their objectives. LexRex is singularly focused on helping the legal services industry stay in the news, for the right reasons. To find out more about our services, please visit: https://www.lexrexcommunications.com/ You can also contact us on 0161 393 6121 or email us on info@lexrexcommunications.com Connect with Victoria on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn
Recruiting recruiting recruiting here at LexRex Communications… Account managers / senior account managers WE WANT YOU! As LexRex continues on its very exciting journey across legal services, and into infinity and beyond — we need help! We are looking for an enthusiastic individual who loves all things strategic PR. If you are our future self-starter account manager or senior account manager – please get in touch. Working across a wide range of legal accounts touching both b2b and b2c audiences across all channels; our PR superstar loves people, enjoys writing, understands the need for strategic, measurable delivery and puts the client at the heart of everything they do. Legal PR experience would be great, BUT we are recruiting for the right person here, and we can teach you! We are a small team so a willingness to dig in is a must. If supporting the growth of an amazing PR consultancy sounds like your bag – get in touch and we’ll buy the coffee. Our benefits are flexible so most ‘must haves’ can be accommodated. You can find out more about LexRex here, meet the team and take a look at some of our current clients. Job description Deliver and support the creation of communications strategies Full media relations remit – research, identifying and leading on breaking news, copywriting, pitching, journalist and client liaison Copywriting – awards, content, bylines and more Relationship management with clients Strategic direction and support managing director Work closely with our social media and administration teams Manage and support junior colleagues Reporting and administration About LexRex Created in 2013 by a former lawyer, LexRex Communications is a PR and communications consultancy operating across the legal services market in England and Wales. We work with a range of businesses, from boutique law firms through to legal innovators at the forefront of the delivery of 21st century legal services. Our approach to everything we do is strategic. We work out what our clients want to achieve and delivery PR and communications strategies that help support and deliver those aims. PR is a challenging and exciting career choice, and we want to work with people who have the drive and willingness to become the best in the business. So if you’re looking to work for a consultancy that champions excellence, get in touch.
We’re really excited to announce that LexRex Communications has been accepted onto the NatWest Entrepreneur Accelerator. The fully-funded programme aims to support fast-growth owner-managed business that are looking to scale, or that are already expanding. Managing director of LexRex Communications, Victoria Moffatt commented: “In 2018/19 we had an exceptional year, our most successful in almost seven years in operation. In 2019/20 we have set some very ambitious targets as the business looks to grow further. Our first success in 2019 has been our appointment by legal innovator, F-LEX, but we are also celebrating a 100% retention rate across of all of our clients in the period 2017 to date. “At LexRex we strive to provide not only exceptional PR and communications strategy and delivery, but also to give the additional value that comes from a deep understanding of the law, legal profession and legal markeplace. Legal PR is such a technical area that specialist skills are absolutely fundamental. With all of this in mind, we are looking forward to being challenged by the specialist growth and development team at NatWest and hope to be in an even stronger position by the start of 2020.” LexRex Communications is a specialist PR and communications consultancy serving the UK legal market. LexRex works with boutique law firms, challenger businesses and legal innovators across the UK. Victoria Moffatt is the founder and managing director of LexRex Communications, and a former solicitor. To find out more about our services, please visit: https://www.lexrexcommunications.com/ You can also contact us on 0161 393 6121 or email us on info@lexrexcommunications.com Connect with Victoria on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn
We are really excited to announce LexRex’s appointment by legal resourcing platform F-LEX on a retained basis. F-LEX is an online portal providing law firms and in-house legal teams with on-demand access to paralegals and law students, on a short- medium- and long-term basis as required. A disruptive innovator in operation since August 2016, F-LEX has appointed LexRex to direct and manage its strategic communications as the business reaches for expansion across the North and wider UK in 2019 and beyond. Managing director of LexRex Communications, Victoria Moffatt commented: “This is a really exciting appointment for LexRex. The UK legal scene is absolutely booming for disrupters and innovative models at the moment, and F-LEX is a fast-growing business with big plans for the future. I’m very excited to announce our partnership and look forward to supporting F-LEX over the coming months.” CEO and co-founder of F-LEX, Mary Bonsor also commented: “As ex-lawyers and now entrepreneurs in the legal marketplace, Victoria and I naturally have a lot of common ground, and it is great to have found a partner in LexRex that will support F-LEX as we roll-out a variety of new initiatives and look for further growth in 2019.” All F-LEX members are pre-approved and then hand-matched to each paralegal role, providing in-house legal teams and law firms with flexible, high quality legal support, both individually and in bulk, and at very short notice if required. You can read more about our appointment here and here. Check out some of our other clients here. Image: L – R Eimear McCann, Head of Northern Hub, F-LEX; Mary Bonsor, CEO of F-LEX; Victoria Moffatt, managing director, LexRex Communications – Ends – Notes to editors About LexRex LexRex Communications is a boutique PR agency serving the legal services market. Working in partnership with boutique law firms and businesses that serve the legal profession, our team is passionate about the law and its practice. Managing director and founder of LexRex Communications Ltd, Victoria Moffatt is a former solicitor turned legal PR specialist. She practised in South Yorkshire and Leeds over the course of her 6 year legal career. Victoria honed her PR skills at some of the UK’s leading and award-winning PR agencies in Manchester; working across a variety of prestigious law firm accounts including regional big-hitters and Top 100 firms. Driven by great communications and measurable results, Victoria loves creating and implementing bespoke campaigns. Her strengths include understanding exactly what clients want to achieve, and creating strategies that meet their objectives. LexRex is singularly focused on helping the legal services industry stay in the news, for the right reasons. About F-LEX F-LEX is a next-generation, disruptive legal business, providing law firms and in-house teams with a genuine and viable alternative to fixed staffing levels and expensive overheads. F-LEX enables law firms and in-house legal teams to access highly qualified, pre-approved and hand-matched paralegals quickly and efficiently, providing individuals through to entire teams, flexibly and for as long as required. All F-LEX paralegals are law students, law graduates or trained solicitors of 0 – 2 years PQE, with varying real-life skills and experience enabling them to meet the the demands of each role, being hand-selected by F-LEX’s resourcing team to meet the brief provided by each client. The F-LEX paralegal team has particular strength in supporting document review and disclosure matters, contracts, legal research and administration, contract drafting and review, along with GDPR related matters including subject access requests and compliance. F-LEX’s clients include ASOS, LexisNexis, Graze and arm; and law firms TaylorVintners, gunnercooke, ignition law and Winckworth Sherwood. F-LEX is headquartered in London, with a northern hub servicing the northern region based in Manchester city centre.
Today we’re talking about how to write a winning award submission. As awards shortlistings and wins can be used very successfully as part of an integrated communications strategy, it seems sensible for us to share some of our winning tips! *Plug alert* We draft a lot of award submissions, and it is very rare for our copy not to result in a shortlisting. Our clients have also won a fair few awards over the years as well. If you’re already on the road to success with your drafting, you might want to check out our post on maximising the PR opportunities of winning awards (also contains some handy links to the awards we recommend). Anyway… back to our award-winning advice… 1. Do your research We only ever advise our clients to enter an award we think they stand a very good chance of winning or at least being shortlisted. Otherwise *vanity project alert* what’s the actual point? 2. Go through the award criteria with a fine-toothed comb Check, check and check again that you can meet and potentially adduce evidence if necessary for at least 90% of the criteria requirements. If there are a couple of areas where you are struggling, consider explaining why you don’t quite meet the criteria, or even outline the plans you have in development to meet them. Or just develop the areas in question and wait for 12 months. 3. Check if there are any other requirements over and above the criteria Whilst the submission criteria need to be your ‘go-to’, quite often there are requirements for covering statements, additional evidence and broader criteria. They are frequently hidden (helpfully) away from the individual criteria – so do a bit of digging. You don’t want to have your submission dismissed on a technicality. 4. Highlight the criteria Read through the criteria carefully and critically, then highlight (using a pen and highlighter if needs be) each key element. You’ll need to methodically ensure you describe how you meet each one in turn. 5. Avoid waffling Get to the point – elaborate if necessary and if it adds weight. But if you start talking fluff, sack it off. 6. Be clear Ensure that what you have written is penetrable for a lay-person. Don’t expect the judges to work hard to understand your submission. Your job is to make it easy for them to select your entry and put it on the top of the pile. 7. Show don’t tell Make the most of facts, figures, statistics, quotes, testimonials, media coverage and any other evidence to hand that can be used to back up the submission criteria. You may well be the best employment law firm in the UK, and you can say that. But if you can back it with other award wins, outstanding client testimonials, 100% year on year turnover increase and a Legal 500 tier 1 listing, for example, the judges are going to be much more likely to believe you. 8. Signpost Give the judges what they want. There will be certain phrases you have highlighted that really match your strengths, so steal and repeat them to highlight your successes in that area. By using the criteria phraseology verbatim you are mentally allowing the judges to give great big ticks against your name and the criteria they are looking to hit. 9. Take the judges on a journey… Work out your story; what makes your firm, you, your junior practitioner, team, whoever you are writing for – different? Work out the back-story and how to tell it, and your submission will genuinely come to life. 10. Know your audience and write for them Are the judges lawyers, lay-persons, business people, journalists? A mixture of all these? Understand who they are, and then write for them. Avoid jargon, explain technical details if necessary, and keep things relatively simple. 11. Be confident, not arrogant Write hopefully and confidently and sell the nominee’s strengths. But be careful to avoid arrogance, bluster and hyperbole. 12. Read your submission out loud You may want to find a room to do this… but it is a genuine suggestion and us pro’s do it all the time. Read the copy out load and you’ll find a number of surprisingly awkward sounding phrases. You’ll also weed out repetition of words and phrases, and where you’ve missed words by accident. You’ll feel like a wally for about a minute, but it’s worth every second, I promise. 13. Stay within the word count Sounds obvious but just stay within the word count. Check whether additional evidence is permitted and if it is included within the word count. Some judges will stop reading at the end of the permitted word count so don’t bother chancing it. Equally, don’t feel you have to meet the word count. If you can get your point across succinctly within 700 of 1000 words, don’t feel you have to pad for a further 300 words. 700 is fine. 14. Have it checked This is a slightly controversial one. I always have my submissions checked and signed off by clients, but because I know them and their businesses so well, it is usually a matter of approving and filling any gaps. It can be helpful to have an award submission checked but ensure whoever you ask understands what you are trying to achieve and isn’t a real-life submission grinch who will suck the life out of your beautifully crafted copy. 15. Bring in the professionals Obviously not everybody writes beautifully and award submissions are time consuming. So if you are really struggling, get some help. Award wins can not only help to drive new business, raise a firm, team or individuals’ profile, and help to generate media opportunities, but can also act as a kitemark of quality, success or peer approval. Here at LexRex we draft submissions and provide awards consultancy to lawyers across the UK. So if you fancy adding the phrase ‘award winning’ before your name, why not get in touch
#RadicalManchester and Womanchester… Welcome to International Women’s Day 2018. Here at LexRex Communications we are jumping on board Marketing Manchester’s fantastic #RadicalManchester initiative which, amongst other things involves renaming our fantastic city #Womanchester for the day (great job guys!) We have decided to support the initiative by ‘going purple’ – you may have noticed a slightly different hue to the LexRex logo today. We are also making a charitable donation to Manchester’s Pankhurst Centre, a museum and women’s community centre located in Emmeline Pankhurst’s home in recognition of the great lady herself, and in support of the #Pankhurst100 efforts. We thoroughly support the #IWD cause – which seeks to end gender disparity across the world. Here at LexRex, quite a few of our clients are female owner-managers of law firms, each of whom are achieving fantastic things within their businesses. LexRex Communications’ managing director, Victoria Moffatt commented: “International Women’s Day represents a great opportunity for women in business and beyond to celebrate the work that they do and the benefits they deliver within their business, the greater business community and the economy as a whole. “Whilst the fight for gender pay equality is very much ongoing, I see International Women’s Day as a chance to also review how far we have come over the course of the past 100 years, and mark our individual and collective successes in the workplace.” For more information about the #RadicalManchester campaign and Womanchester name change, check out Marketing Manchester’s press release or visit www.radicalmanchester.com or www.womanchester.net. You can also follow the #RadicalManchester hashtag on Twitter. The hashtags for International Women’s Day 2018 are #IWD2018 and #PressforProgress.
