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Article Guidelines

Submissions may be sent to Co-Editors-in-Chief, Ashley Nagrodski at anagrodski@smithfreed.com or Kelsey Shewbert at kshewbert@hwslawgroup.com.

  Format

  • Articles should be 500 to 1,500 words.  Articles providing a review or summary of WDTL events are typically shorter, 250-500 words. 
  • Please submit articles as Word documents, no PDFs.
  • Articles should have a title and provide the author’s name and firm/employer at the top of the page (e.g. “By: John Smith, Attorneys LLC.”.)  Submitted articles should be in Times New Roman with 12 point font. 
  • Include a brief author's biography.  We encourage authors to include relevant involvement with WDTL in their bio.
  • Please include citations and sources as appropriate. 


  Images

Photos and graphics are encouraged.  Please provide credit to the photographer or source and obtain approval from the creator and/or photographed individuals before submitting the photo.  Additionally, please provide a short one-sentence description of the photo. 


  Interview Submissions

For direct quotes of interviewed parties, we recommend that you obtain confirmation from the speaker before submitting. 


Topics

  • Article topics should be timely and of interest to readers of The Defense News. 
  • Content should be directed towards defense trial attorneys.  However, we also encourage the submission of articles addressing unique, interesting issues or focused towards a broader audience, if appropriate. 
  • Contact the editors before you begin your article in order to plan according to the production schedule and ensure that your article will not be duplicative of other content. 
  • The Defense News gives preference to articles that have not been published elsewhere. 


 Deadline

  • Contact the editors for deadlines and proposed publishing dates.  Articles are due approximately two weeks before each issue is scheduled to be published. 
  • ​The Defense News is published quarterly.  If the topic is more urgent, the editors may consider an email blast to membership. 


 Editorial Staff

  • The Defense News is published by a volunteer group of attorneys.  
  • The Defense News editors provide editing assistance for spelling, grammar, punctuation, and word choice.  Editors do not intend to change your words or ideas.  For more in-depth edits, our editors will contact the author for approval.  However, editors have the discretion to remove profanity or discriminatory content. 



 
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