Legal Writer/Editor Thomson Reuters

Are you a JD feeling creatively constrained by traditional legal career paths?

Are you passionate about legal research and writing?

Are you excited to engage with a number of legal subject matter areas rather than being pigeon-holed into one practice area?

Thomson Reuters’ Audience Team of driven lawyers, JDs, and legally-curious writers is dedicated to providing quality legal content across a number of sites, including FindLaw.com and LawInfo.com. FindLaw.com is the number one destination for consumers with legal needs, with more than eight million visits each month. It is home to the largest online legal directory of lawyers. As a trusted source, millions of consumers and lawyers turn to FindLaw.com to learn about a legal topic, solve a legal problem, find a form, get practice tips or find a lawyer.

We are looking to expand FindLaw’s subdomain, Legal Professionals, to focus on content that is aimed to serve attorneys and others in the legal industry. We are also looking to gear up FindLaw’s sister site, LawInfo.com, which will serve a lay audience. LawInfo.com is a relatively nascent project that has kicked off in the past year, and for which we plan many robust content updates in the years to come.

We are looking for a Legal Writer/Editor to write, revise, edit, and integrate a variety of legal content, both consumer-focused content on LawInfo.com and legal professional-focused content on FindLaw.com.

The Team

Our Audience Team is a large team that works to develop and update legal content across a variety of interests and audiences, across an array of domains. In this specific role, you will work primarily with a smaller team consisting of a Senior Writer and a Senior Legal Editor (SLE). At the same time, you will be part of a larger team of about 20 full-time staff. You will also be working extensively with various contractors in legal writer roles. Many of these individuals are remote workers, and the ability to connect and communicate through a digital workplace is essential in this role.

Location: Work from Home

The Role

In your role as Legal Writer/Editor, you will:

• Create and edit accessible, informative, concise and useful content across multiple legal practice areas under the direction of the SLE and Senior Writer, and in collaboration with performance partners. Content includes legal articles, blogs, and more.
• Tailor your writing to distinctive audiences: some content will be aimed at legal professionals and will require a high level of authorship, detail, and formal writing; other content will be aimed at a non-expert audience and will require content to be “translated” to a more basic level of readability.
• Own and refine the process for updating legal content upon the passage of new laws and regulations (state and federal).
• Help the SLE and Senior Writer in overseeing the work of contract legal writers who will assist in writing and developing content for your projects. Edit the content of contract legal writers for legal correctness, style/tone/grammar, and SEO. Assist in coordination of contractors, sometimes serving as the. Eventually have the opportunity to mentor and help train other writers.
• Work with various features of web development and digital publishing, integrating key aspects of Search Engine Optimization, domain performance analytics, user experience, and digital marketing. Report to your SLE and Senior Writer on the success of content from data you will learn to gather using multiple measures (e.g., traffic, engagement, conversion) and different analytics software (Adobe Experience Manager, HotJar).
• Through the SLE and Senior Writer, use information from collaboration with our partner teams of Digital Marketing, Performance, and Social Media to optimize your content using best practices in tagging, keyword usage, headline creation, content optimization, and basic SEO. You will be encouraged to sit in on meetings with the SLE and Senior Writer and other members of the broader Audience Team as well as experts on other Thomson Reuters teams.
• Work with a larger team of editors, senior writers, and colleagues to constantly refine and improve content best practices. We are never satisfied, and we hope you aren’t either.
• Brainstorm content ideas and opportunities, address areas for improvement in content and the content creation process, review content deadlines, educate other writers on legal trends, and organize cross-content promotions.

What You’ll Gain

In this role, you will have the unparalleled opportunity to:

• Brainstorm and present your own project ideas for improving FindLaw.com and LawInfo.com.
• Develop pitch your own projects, and lead any projects approved by the team.
• Supervise and mentor contract writers for various team projects.
• Receive the mentorship of seniors and team leaders, who will help you thrive and who are passionate about listening to you and supporting you in developing your own future career interests.
• Be trained in a range of skills—from web development to publishing to marketing—that are well outside a traditional attorney’s wheelhouse.

Experience and Skill Requirements

You’re a fit for the role of Legal Writer/Editor if you:

• Have a Bachelor’s degree (required)
• Have a JD (strongly preferred)
• Have outstanding legal research skills and writing skills both in legal and non-legal writing
• Have professional legal practice experience with a focus on legal writing (preferred)
• Have law journal experience, preferably in an editorial position (strongly preferred)
• Have completed a judicial clerkship (preferred)
• Have written published content (not limited to the legal field), including experience in an editorial position
• Know basic HTML or programming languages and SEO best practices. The ideal candidate is internet-savvy with experience using social media tools such as blogs, social networks, microblogging, social bookmarking and/or social sharing and a good grasp on what makes content shareable across networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn
• Are a self-starter with the drive to thrive in a “start-up” environment while juggling multiple projects and deadlines

Required Application Materials:

Resume

Cover letter w/ At least 1 letter of recommendation from either a professor or supervisor

1 Transcript from undergraduate studies, and law school if applicable

1 writing samples:

If you are coming from law school or the legal field, include at least 1 legal writing sample, ideally published

At least 1 non-legal writing sample in any field or form

1 sample that demonstrates your ability to clearly explain lofty concepts to a lay or consumer audience and/or write content that is optimized for the web

Do you want to be part of a team helping re-invent the way knowledge professionals work? How about a team that works every day to create a more transparent, just and inclusive future? At Thomson Reuters, we’ve been doing just that for almost 160 years. Our industry-leading products and services include highly specialized information-enabled software and tools for legal, tax, accounting and compliance professionals combined with the world’s most global news services – Reuters. We help these professionals do their jobs better, creating more time for them to focus on the things that matter most: advising, advocating, negotiating, governing and informing.

We are powered by the talents of 25,000 employees across more than 75 countries, where everyone has a chance to contribute and grow professionally in flexible work environments that celebrate diversity and inclusion. At a time when objectivity, accuracy, fairness and transparency are under attack, we consider it our duty to pursue them. Sound exciting? Join us and help shape the industries that move society forward.

Accessibility

As a global business, we rely on diversity of culture and thought to deliver on our goals. To ensure we can do that, we seek talented, qualified employees in all our operations around the world regardless of race, color, sex/gender, including pregnancy, gender identity and expression, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, age, marital status, citizen status, veteran status, or any other protected classification under applicable law. Thomson Reuters is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer providing a drug-free workplace.

We also make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and for sincerely held religious beliefs in accordance with applicable law.

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More information about Thomson Reuters can be found on thomsonreuters.com.