Getting your law firm quoted in Above the Law, the ABA Journal, and Super Lawyers takes three completely different workflows. Above the Law accepts pitches for ongoing columns from attorneys with a clear point of view, not one-off guest posts. The ABA Journal takes email queries to its tips inbox with a resume, clips, and a few paragraphs explaining the angle. Super Lawyers is not press at all, it is a peer-nomination and research process with annual selection cycles. Firms that treat all three the same way burn pitches in all three. Firms that match the right submission format to the right outlet land in all three within twelve months.
Here is the playbook for each one, with the actual submission paths, the editorial expectations, and the AEO payoff that makes the work worth doing.
Why these three outlets matter more than mainstream business press
Above the Law, the ABA Journal, and Super Lawyers sit in different layers of the legal media tier stack, but they share one trait. They are the outlets that AI engines cite most often when a buyer asks ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google AI Mode about lawyers. A Wall Street Journal feature is more impressive at a cocktail party. A Super Lawyers ranking, an ABA Journal feature, and a recurring Above the Law column will outrank that WSJ piece in the AI answer for “best [practice area] attorney in [city]” by a wide margin.
The reason is structured, repeatable, citation-quality content. The ABA Journal is read by roughly half of the country’s one million attorneys every month, according to its own audience data. Law360 publishes more than 200 stories per business day to two million legal professionals. Super Lawyers runs a multiphase selection process across all 50 states with public, structured ranking pages that AI engines index page by page. Above the Law, owned by Breaking Media, has a roster of attorney-contributors writing weekly columns that get scraped and cited across the legal web.
When AI engines decide which firms to surface, they pull from outlets they can verify, parse, and quote. These three meet that bar. Mainstream business outlets mostly do not.
How to get an ongoing column in Above the Law
Above the Law does not run guest posts. The site has no op-ed page and does not publish one-off submissions. What it does run is ongoing columns from attorney-contributors, and those columns are open to pitches.
The format the editorial team expects is specific. You send a short proposal, anywhere from a paragraph to a single page, describing the column you want to write. You include a sample post of 600 to 1,200 words. The column needs a clear subject matter focus or a specific perspective. Random commentary on the legal world will get rejected. A practitioner-led column on plaintiff-side mass torts, or in-house technology transactions, or appellate strategy in a specific circuit, has a much better shot.
The current editorial team is Joe Patrice and Staci Zaretsky as senior editors, with David Lat as editor at large and Elie Mystal as executive editor. The tone of the site skews sharp, opinionated, and aware. Pitches that read like marketing copy do not get read past the first sentence.
The practical playbook for a firm is to identify one attorney with a defensible point of view, draft two columns before pitching, and submit the proposal with both samples attached. The pitch should reference Above the Law columns the proposer has actually read, name a specific column slot the proposed contribution would fit, and explain why this attorney is the right voice. Firms that send a partner’s bio and a vague “we want to be featured” pitch do not get a reply.
The payoff is significant. A recurring Above the Law column gives the attorney a permanent author page on the site, a backlink to the firm, and a weekly citation surface for AI engines. Above the Law columns are indexed in ChatGPT and Perplexity answers about specific legal trends with high frequency. Six months of weekly columns produces more AEO value than a one-time Bloomberg feature.
How to pitch the ABA Journal and actually get a response
The ABA Journal accepts pitches through email queries to its tips inbox. The submission format is published on the site and is concrete. Send a query of a few paragraphs explaining what you plan to say, why it is important and interesting, and how you plan to report it. Include your resume, your published clips, and a brief explanation of your expertise in the subject area.
The Journal is interested in informal, conversational writing aimed at attorneys across the country. It does not run academic papers or law journal submissions. It rejects columns whose sole purpose is to promote a product or business the author is involved with, and it requires disclosure of any material connections to technology or services discussed in a piece.
Lead times run four to eight weeks for features. News coverage moves faster. The Journal also runs a Your Voice essay submission process for shorter opinion pieces, which has its own editorial flow and a higher acceptance rate than feature pitches.
The pitching playbook that works for the ABA Journal looks like this. Identify a topic that has a specific news hook, a specific data angle, or a specific practitioner insight that is not already in the publication. Search the Journal’s archive for the past 12 months on that topic before pitching, and reference what you found in the pitch. Name the specific reporter or editor whose beat your topic falls under. Offer a sourced angle, not just a quote.
A firm that pitches “our managing partner is available to talk about AI in legal” gets no response. A firm that pitches “we tracked associate billable hour expectations across 47 BigLaw firms for 2026 and have data showing a 7 percent drop from 2024 levels, with the cuts concentrated in five practice areas” gets a reply within a week. The Journal runs on reported data, not opinions.
If the Journal accepts a query, the contributor signs a contributor agreement and retains copyright. The article runs on the site with a permanent URL. ABA Journal articles consistently appear in Perplexity citations for legal trend queries and in Google AI Mode answers about specific practice areas.
How Super Lawyers actually selects who gets ranked
Super Lawyers is not a publication you pitch. It is a ranking platform with a patented multiphase selection process, and firms that treat it as press will get ignored. The selection runs once per year per state, and it has three phases.
Phase one is peer nomination. Super Lawyers sends every attorney licensed and practicing for five or more years in a given state an email invitation to nominate. Each attorney can nominate up to 21 candidates: 7 inside their own firm, 7 outside their firm, and 7 in the Rising Stars category for attorneys under 40 or in practice less than 10 years. In-firm nominations are counted only if an equal or greater number of nominations come in from attorneys outside the firm. That rule is the one most firms get wrong. A managing partner who only collects nominations from their own associates is wasting time.
Phase two is the research department. Super Lawyers’ research staff evaluates every candidate against 12 indicators of peer recognition and professional achievement. The indicators include verdicts and settlements, transactional and pro bono work, scholarly lectures and writing, education and employment background, bar association activity, and other professional credentials. Research staff pull from national and local legal trade publications, court records, and proprietary databases. Attorneys who have a strong public footprint in legal trade press (Law360, ABA Journal, state bar publications) score measurably higher in this phase.
Phase three is the blue ribbon review. The top candidates by combined score from phases one and two are invited to serve on a blue ribbon panel for their practice area. Panelists rate other candidates on a one-to-five scale. The final list pulls the highest combined scores from each of four firm-size categories. Solo and small-firm attorneys compete against other solo and small-firm attorneys, not against BigLaw partners. That structure is why Super Lawyers selections show small-firm names alongside BigLaw on the same lists.
The playbook for a firm that wants Super Lawyers selections is operational, not promotional. Every five-year-plus attorney in the firm should be invited to nominate every year. Every attorney targeting selection should build a Tier 1 and Tier 2 legal trade press footprint over the 12 months before the selection cycle, because the research phase will pick up those clips. Every attorney should keep an updated CV with verdicts, publications, and lectures listed, because Super Lawyers research staff verify those credentials.
Selections are announced state by state on rolling calendars throughout the year. Once selected, attorneys get a permanent profile page on superlawyers.com, which is one of the most heavily cited domains in AI search for legal queries. The 5W Citation Source Index has tracked Super Lawyers among the top citation domains across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Mode for queries like “best [practice area] lawyer in [city]” since AI search launched in earnest.
How to use HARO and Qwoted to land legal trade press faster
HARO and Qwoted are reporter source platforms that legal reporters use to find quoted experts. Both work the same way. Reporters post a query with a deadline. Sources reply with a pitch and credentials. Reporters pick the source they want to quote.
Legal queries on these platforms run daily. A managing partner with an established practice area can land two or three quotes per month in legal trade outlets through Qwoted alone, with about 30 minutes per day spent reviewing queries and writing pitches. The trick is responding fast and writing pitches that quote-ready reporters can lift directly into the story.
The structure of a pitch that gets quoted looks like this. Open with the answer to the reporter’s question in two sentences. Add a one-sentence credential that proves the attorney has standing to answer. Offer one specific, quotable line that the reporter can drop into the piece. Sign off with the attorney’s name, firm, and a direct contact. Reporters at Law360, the ABA Journal, and the regional ALM titles use HARO and Qwoted constantly. A firm that responds to relevant queries within an hour and writes pitches in this format will land trade press quotes consistently.
The downstream value of HARO and Qwoted is the citation footprint. Each Law360 or ABA Journal quote produces a sourced citation that AI engines pick up. After six months of consistent pitching, a firm builds a tier of trade press clips that compounds in both Google search and AI search.
How to sequence a year of pitching across all three outlets
A 12-month sequence that lands a firm in all three outlets looks like this.
Months 1 to 3. Identify one attorney to develop as the Above the Law columnist. Draft two sample columns. Build a Qwoted and HARO response routine. Pitch trade press through reporter source platforms three times per week.
Months 4 to 6. Submit the Above the Law column proposal. Pitch one ABA Journal feature query per month with a sourced angle. Continue HARO and Qwoted pitching. Collect the trade press clips that will surface in Super Lawyers research.
Months 7 to 9. If the Above the Law column lands, start publishing weekly. Pitch a second ABA Journal angle. Begin the internal Super Lawyers nomination push: every five-year-plus attorney nominates the firm’s targets and an equal number of outside attorneys.
Months 10 to 12. Track Super Lawyers research outreach. Publish year-end columns and pitch year-end trend pieces to the ABA Journal. Use any landed press to support the next year’s Super Lawyers cycle.
By month 12, a firm running this sequence will have one to three Above the Law columns running, two to four ABA Journal features published, six to twelve trade press quotes from HARO and Qwoted pitching, and a Super Lawyers selection cycle in motion. That portfolio compounds across SEO, AEO, and direct buyer credibility.
FAQ
Can a small law firm get into Above the Law?
Yes. Above the Law’s contributor roster includes attorneys from solo and small firms, particularly in specialized practice areas where the contributor has a defensible point of view. Firm size does not determine pitch acceptance. The clarity of the column concept and the quality of the writing samples do.
How much does it cost to be in Super Lawyers?
Selection is free. Super Lawyers makes its revenue from optional profile upgrades, print magazine ads, and rights to use the Super Lawyers logo in firm marketing materials. The selection process itself is independent of paid placement. Firms cannot buy a Super Lawyers ranking.
How long does it take to get an ABA Journal feature published?
Feature lead times typically run four to eight weeks from accepted pitch to published article. News pieces move faster. Your Voice essays have a shorter editorial cycle. Submitting a pitch with a clear data angle, a named reporter, and reference to the Journal’s recent coverage shortens the response time and increases acceptance odds.
Do AI engines cite Above the Law more than the ABA Journal?
For legal trend and opinion queries, Above the Law columns appear in ChatGPT and Perplexity citations frequently because of the volume of attorney-bylined content. For substantive legal explainers and feature reporting, the ABA Journal carries more weight. A firm with placements in both outranks a firm with placements in only one across the full range of legal AI queries.
Should a firm hire a PR agency to pitch these outlets, or can it be done in-house?
Both work. In-house works for firms with a marketing director, a clear editorial calendar, and partners willing to write. Agency work moves faster, knows the editors, and runs the Super Lawyers nomination cycle as an operational program. Most firms doing this well combine both: an in-house lead for partner-bylined content and an agency that runs reporter outreach and submission cycles.
The takeaway
Above the Law wants columnists with a point of view. The ABA Journal wants reported queries with data and named angles. Super Lawyers wants peer nominations and a verifiable trade press footprint. Three completely different workflows. Three of the highest-value citation surfaces in legal AI search.
Firms that build all three over 12 months end the year with weekly Above the Law columns, feature placements in the ABA Journal, a Super Lawyers selection, and a base of HARO and Qwoted trade press quotes underneath. That portfolio is what AI engines surface when buyers ask for the best firm in a practice area, and it is what builds the kind of compounding credibility that mainstream business press cannot replace.
If you want help mapping your firm’s path into Above the Law, the ABA Journal, and Super Lawyers, get in touch or run the ROI calculator to see what an integrated press and AEO program looks like for your firm.
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