The American Lawyer
Address:105 Madison Avenue, 7th Floor
New York , NY 10016-6901
USA
Contact: Mark Obbie, Executive Editor (news and features); Judy Lopatin, Senior Editor (Lifestyle - "The Lawyer's Life"); Dirk Olin, National Editor (commentary and book reviews); Jim Schroeder, Senior Editor (law firm management columns); Mark Voorhees, Senior Editor (law office technology and intellectual property stories); Amy Singer, Senior Writer (European legal business). All editor contacts are on their website's contact page. Also see their writer's guidelines.
Email Address:
Website: http://www.americanlawyer.com
Phone: (212)313-9000
Fax: (212)481-8255
Description of Publication:
10%-15% freelance. The American Lawyer is a glossy feature magazine about the business of large American law firms and the leading personalities in that business. We don't write so much about law as we do about lawyers, and because our readers work only at the largest law firms, we don't pay attention to everyday legal news. The American Lawyer has a proud tradition of publishing long-form narrative features. Most of our feature well, however, is staff produced. Freelance opportunities exist in the front of the book and the various departments. We generally do not have assignments to dole out to freelancers; we save those for staff. But we will buy from freelancers if you have a good story to tell. Occasionally works with new writers on front of the book pieces. Circ. 17K. Monthly. Pays on acceptance. Period between acceptance and publication depends on department, but generally averages about one month. Buys all rights. First-rights contracts are possible under certain circumstances. No reprints. Responds promptly. Provides samples to writers if they're interested in your story pitch. Subscription varies depending on place of employment; standard annual subscription price is $350. Guidelines online at http://www.americanlawyer.com/guidelines
Current Needs: Not to be standoffish, but we really don't 'need' anything from outside of our staff. We welcome original ideas that work in our book -- things we want to have but hadn't thought of. Submit query and writer's bio by email to editorial (at) amlaw.com or directly to editor in charge of a particular department (see contacts named above, and on website's contacts page).
Pay: Generally pays $1/word, but it depends on the nature of the piece and is set as a fixed fee (e.g. $600 to $700 for the front of the book, $1500 for a management column, etc.). Articles average 500 to 700 words for the front of the book to 1300 to 1500 words for columns and up to 5,000 for features (which we rarely freelance).
Hints: Know our book (which you can get a feel for by looking at our table of contents on the website for the current and many past issues). We get lots of off-topic pitches about how a state court ruling is affecting divorce litigation in TK state, or on a wacky small-town lawyer with a super-wacky hobby. Nix that. We write for and about big-time lawyers at big law firms, in big cities. Understand what those people do for a living, and what they care about. We want stories about the people behind the legal-news headlines, not breaking news about changes in the law. Because we are mostly staff produced, freelance pitches to us are purely opportunistic: meaning we don't have assignments to hand out, in general, but we react to original ideas that appeal to us.
Photos/Art: We handle this if we commission a piece. The American Lawyer is lavishly illustrated and photographed. Pay varies.
