Helping the Law Society rethink how it created value for members

The challenge

The Law Society of NSW wanted to demonstrate greater value to younger solicitors, particularly those working in larger firms.

Membership had recently become non-compulsory and having larger firms fail to renew would have a severe impact on the Law Society's authority and revenue. Meanwhile, the profession was changing quickly. Technology, globalisation, price pressure and shifting career expectations were creating new possibilities, but also greater uncertainty. Younger and mid-career lawyers were trying to make consequential decisions about specialisation, advancement, workplace relationships, changing sectors, working overseas and sometimes leaving the law altogether.

What they lacked was a substantial source of independent career guidance created specifically for the legal profession.

This was not initially a request for a new collection of webpages. It was an organisational problem: how could the Law Society become more useful and relevant to members navigating a less predictable professional life?

Finding the opportunity through member research

CareerHub emerged from a broader strategic review of how the Law Society created value for different parts of its membership.

Antelope Media examined existing member research, interviewed senior people across the organisation and assessed the needs of solicitors working in small, mid-sized and large firms, in-house and government roles, and rural and regional practice.

The review found that the Society was generally meeting members’ basic expectations, but relatively few regarded its work as exceptional. Some perceived it as traditional or out of touch, while different membership segments wanted markedly different forms of support.

One of the clearest gaps was independent career guidance. The traditional path through the profession was becoming less predictable, but lawyers had nowhere authoritative and independent to turn for practical advice about their options.

We recommended that the Law Society create a dedicated digital career platform combining practical guidance, career pathways, employment opportunities, professional development and regularly published expert content. That recommendation became CareerHub.

Our role

Antelope Media helped the Law Society find the answer.

Through our broader review of member needs, we identified the gap in independent career guidance and proposed CareerHub: a dedicated digital platform that would help solicitors understand their options, develop essential professional skills and make more deliberate career decisions.

On this basis, we conceived the CareerHub platform, determined what it should do and developed the content system that would make it useful. Our same strategic review also recommended a fundamental rethink of the Law Society’s CPD offering. The Society subsequently strengthened its CPD leadership and successfully revamped the program.

Our work included:

• audience and needs analysis
• the CareerHub concept and strategic proposition
• content strategy
• information architecture and sitemap development
• definition of the principal content pathways
• foundational website copy
• the editorial voice and approach
• feature-article planning
• commissioning, briefing and editing external contributors, and
• ongoing editorial development after launch.

Turning the insight into a digital product

The strategic insight was that the Law Society could provide value well beyond formal regulation and professional administration. It could help lawyers navigate the lived reality of their careers.

CareerHub was designed as a connected digital product rather than a static library of career articles. It combined evergreen guidance with regularly published expert content and linked career development to relevant jobs, education and continuing professional development.

The platform was intended to support lawyers through the questions that arise across an entire career: finding the right role, building professional skills, leading people, changing direction, dealing with difficult workplace situations and maintaining health and resilience.

That gave the Law Society an enduring editorial role. Instead of communicating only when it had an institutional announcement to make, it could become a continuing source of practical professional guidance.

Designing the information architecture

We developed the sitemap and organised the platform around the decisions, transitions and challenges lawyers actually encounter.

The main pathways brought together job search, career planning, essential skills, career profiles, learning and development, and supporting resources.

Within those pathways, users could explore subjects including:

• developing a career plan
• finding and securing the right role
• mentoring and networking
• working in private practice, in-house, government or community law
• moving overseas or returning to work
• going to the Bar or establishing a practice
• management, leadership and workplace relationships
• business development and client relationships
• resilience, mental health and work-life balance, and
• further study, specialist accreditation and professional development.

The architecture turned a potentially sprawling subject into a coherent professional journey. It also created a durable framework within which the Law Society could continue adding new material without losing the platform’s organising logic.

Writing for lawyers as people

The foundational content needed to sound markedly different from the formal institutional and legal writing familiar to the audience.

We wrote directly and conversationally. We addressed uncertainty, ambition, disappointment, workplace politics and the possibility that a legal career might not unfold according to plan. The copy used practical examples, cultural references and an encouraging editorial voice to make professional guidance feel immediate and human.

A page about career planning, for example, did not begin with an abstract competency framework. It acknowledged that many lawyers drift into roles because an opportunity arises, a salary is attractive or the next step appears obvious. It then helped readers assess what they wanted, examine their strengths and preferences, and turn longer-term ambitions into practical actions.

This tone was part of the strategy. CareerHub could not become a trusted resource by sounding like another policy document. It had to demonstrate that the Law Society understood members’ actual experiences.

Building a living content ecosystem

The core guidance provided the platform’s permanent foundation, but CareerHub was designed to remain active and relevant.

We developed an ongoing editorial program around feature articles, career profiles and specialist contributions. Antelope Media identified topics, found and commissioned contributors, prepared briefs, directed drafts and edited the resulting material for the platform.

New content could be promoted through member communications and connected with related guidance, jobs and professional-development opportunities. Public feature articles could introduce the platform to a wider legal audience, while deeper member content created a tangible benefit of membership.

The result was an integrated publishing model: evergreen guidance answered persistent questions, while commissioned editorial content responded to emerging issues and kept members returning.

What we delivered

• the original CareerHub concept
• audience research and definition of the unmet need
• the strategic proposition for the platform
• content strategy and editorial model
• information architecture and a detailed sitemap
• the principal user journeys and content categories
• all foundational website copy
• a distinctive, accessible editorial voice
• evergreen career guidance and essential-skills content
• feature-article and career-profile planning
• contributor identification and commissioning
• briefing, editorial direction and editing
• integration with jobs, education and professional development, and
• ongoing content development after the platform was established.

The result

CareerHub gave the Law Society of NSW a new way to demonstrate its value to the profession.

Instead of treating careers as a peripheral collection of job advertisements and occasional articles, the platform brought career decisions, professional skills, learning, wellbeing and employment opportunities into one connected experience.

Members gained a substantial source of independent guidance written specifically for lawyers and organised around the questions they faced throughout their careers.

The Law Society gained more than a new website section. It gained a digital product, a distinctive editorial voice and an ongoing publishing program through which it could remain relevant to younger and mid-career solicitors. Most importantly, it also retained all large firm memerbship.

For Antelope Media, the work demonstrated the full scope of our contribution: finding the strategic opportunity, conceiving the product, designing its content architecture, writing its foundation and helping it continue to grow.