“If you’re a small or midsize law firm operating with a lean budget looking to elevate your reputation, enhance your business development efforts, and compete with industry giants, a results-based system like FAME is likely the solution you’ve been waiting for.”

If you’re working on a Public Relations plan for 2026, especially if you’re setting a budget, you’ll want to think in terms of measurable results – not just time spent.

John Hellerman has great insight that can help you reframe your approach to PR, so you pay for impact rather than time. Below are four articles that are must-reads, each with a different angle on making PR more effective.

1. “Everyone Wants Fame.” FAME (for Focused Authoritative Media Exposure) replaces retainers with results-based PR. Firms pay only for tangible outcomes—like quotes or articles—gaining national visibility, boosting business development, and ensuring every dollar spent delivers measurable, cost-effective impact. Read it here.
2. “Stop Wasting Money on PR: Why Every Firm Needs an After-Placement Plan.” This article digs into what happens after PR placements—how you follow up, amplify, and use the exposure to drive real value. It argues that without a post-publication strategy, you lose much of the potential ROI. Read it here.
3. “Gamify Your PR for Biz-Dev Gold.” Hellerman makes the case that gamification isn’t just buzz—it can shape internal behavior, motivate teams, and help tie PR activities to business development outcomes. If your budget is tight, creative mechanisms like this stretch your resources. Read it here.
4. “You Down with Other People’s Content?” As firms budget for the year ahead, ROI is top of mind: how do you get the most out of every dollar? One of the smartest—and most overlooked—tools for maximizing ROI is three simple letters: OPC (Other People’s Content). Read it here.

If you have questions – on how to apply these in your firm, how to reallocate budget, how to measure results, etc. – feel free to reach out to John Hellerman at jhellerman@hellermanllc.com. He’d be happy to help map things out to your specific situation.

“By scoring it, PR stops being vague. It stops being a “nice to have” marketing activity and, with points, becomes a strategic business development tool.”

Earned media can transform how lawyers – and other professionals selling their expertise – network and build credibility, as John explains in his Legal Management article, “Scoring PR: Creating Business Development Gold with a Gamified Earned Media Program,” (ALANET.org, 5/9/25).

By assigning points to media placements based on impact, prestige, and strategic value, firms can track progress and compare the performance and visibility of partners, offices, and even competitors, to prioritize the results that truly move the needle. It also helps CMOs advocate for more resources by tying PR success to business outcomes.

The result? Engaged lawyers generating relevant thought leadership that sustains lucrative relationships and leads to new business opportunities.

Whether you’re building credibility, attracting laterals, or supporting a key practice, utilizing a points-based system and gamifying the results makes PR a strategic tool, fueling momentum and engagement while delivering tangible business development benefits.

Can’t get past the ALA paywall?  Read a draft of the article here — and read an American Lawyer published case study of our proprietary, points-based PR engagement, called FAME (for Focused Authoritative Media Exposure) here.

Initially published in February 2013 by a distinguished group of lawyers and industry executives, Law2023 is a collection of well-informed predictions that sought to provide a roadmap for the changes that would shape the legal field throughout the next decade. The report mapped out some of the most significant trends in technology and economics, and indicated cultural developments about how law firms actually work. Now – five years later – the Law2023 team is reconnecting, on February 27, to rate their predictions, talk about what went right (and wrong), and take another crack at telling the future.

Some of the professionals who will be joining the ‘crystal ball reading’ include:

• John Hellerman;
• Deborah Knupp, Managing Director at Akina;
• Sam Shipley, Chief Information Officer at Bricker & Eckler
• Tim Corcoran, Principal at Corcoran Consulting; and
• Jason Bovis, Chief Strategy Officer at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP.

In 2017, the Hellerman team was tasked with positioning Nadia de la Houssaye, a partner in Jones Walker’s Business & Commercial Litigation Practice Group and chair of the Healthcare team’s telemedicine section, as a thought leader in the telemedicine market, which was and is poised for exponential grow. Until we were retained, the main focus of the industry was on delivery of services versus the legal matters associated with it. The challenge was to shift the conversation to include legal issues and position de la Houssaye as the ‘go-to’ legal counsel in the market.

It is paramount that the telemedicine industry understands legal issues within its work, and I am thankful Hellerman helped me make these issues known.

To instigate this shift, we secured press attention and speaking opportunities for de la Houssaye with credible industry media outlets and associations. The strategic outreach campaign consisted of:

• Securing quotes in local, national, and trade media outlets on emerging issues and trends;
• Building relationships with key reporters through meet-and-greet opportunities;
• Identifying and pursuing speaking opportunities; and
• Developing awards and rankings submissions for targeted opportunities.

The outline of and effort on these activities developed in a very short timeframe. Team meetings were scheduled to ensure everyone was kept well-informed of progress; new and coming opportunities were evaluated in a timely manner and capitalized on strategically; and changes in telemedicine laws were constantly monitored for use as new talking points and messaging.

At the conclusion of this time-sensitive outreach campaign, the most notable achievement was de la Houssaye being asked to not only keynote the American Telemedicine Association’s annual conference – an event at which she had never been more than one of the thousands of participants – but to also program all of its legal content. She was also featured in two Bloomberg articles and asked to speak at three additional telemedicine events.

To benchmark de la Houssaye against her competitors, we developed a points-based value system for the known universe of credible media outlets that could support and influence positioning her as an industry leader. Against this list, de la Houssaye scored 200% greater than her competitors (24,000 vs. 11,000). This proved the outreach campaign not only shifted dialogue within and about the industry, it successfully positioned de la Houssaye as the preeminent attorney and thought leader in the market. It is worth noting the outreach campaign achieved its goal on a modest, low five-figures budget and answered the ever-present question of return on investment when de la Houssaye’s reported adding 12 new telemedicine clients post campaign, including a large $50M telestroke integration project.

de la Houssaye said: “The Hellerman Communications team has been absolutely incredible, and I couldn’t be more grateful for how they positioned me as a leader in my field, which led ultimately to the growth of the firm’s telemedicine practice. It is paramount that the telemedicine industry understands legal issues within its work, and I am thankful Hellerman helped me make these issues known. By doing so, our firm is seen as the most knowledgeable in the telemedicine field, and I am extremely grateful for our competitive edge.”