The Role
Reports and writes timely news, analysis, and enterprise stories about New York litigation, courts, law firms, legal professionals, and related industry developments. Monitors dockets, filings, hearings, and trials; develops authoritative sources; explains complex legal issues clearly; produces five to seven stories weekly; and contributes to national coverage, newsletters, special reports, and live events. The role requires responsible use of AI and research tools, strong editorial judgment, accuracy, and frequent reporting throughout the New York region.
Summary Generated by Built In
Position Overview
Centellic, publisher of Law.com and the New York Law Journal, is seeking an enterprising, competitive and collaborative reporter to cover litigation in the state and federal courts of New York City, Long Island and Westchester County. This reporter will break news, develop sources and produce authoritative stories about consequential disputes, emerging legal trends, the lawyers and judges shaping the courts, and the business and strategy of litigation. The ideal candidate can move quickly on daily developments while building distinctive in-depth features for a sophisticated legal audience. This reporter will gain forward-looking insight, so that they can deliver reporting that helps our audience make critical decisions about their business.
This is a key role in our Global Newsroom, with the opportunity to shape coverage that matters in New York and resonates across the legal industry worldwide. The responsibilities are broad and the potential scope is vast, but you will not be expected to navigate it alone: you will have ample editorial support, clear guidance on priorities and the partnership of experienced colleagues with deep knowledge of the courts, litigation and the business of law.
What You’ll Cover
- State and federal trial and appellate courts across the five boroughs, Nassau and Suffolk counties, and Westchester County, including the New York Supreme Court’s Appellate Division, First Department in Manhattan and Second Department in Brooklyn.
- High-impact commercial, employment, real estate and other civil litigation and court actions of interest to lawyers and legal-industry leaders, complementing colleagues’ dedicated coverage of banking and financial-services litigation and judicial selection.
- Monitor significant verdicts and settlements, generally those valued at $10 million or more, and calibrate coverage to explain how the result was achieved, including the legal strategies, key arguments, evidence and other factors that shaped the outcome.
- Major criminal matters, white-collar enforcement and government investigations with significant implications for the New York legal community, including coverage of the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, leadership changes in those offices, and significant activity and leadership changes among state-level prosecutors.
- Court administration, ethics and discipline, procedural changes, and developments affecting our core audience of Big Law and midsize litigators and the legal ecosystem that surrounds them.
- Litigation practices, talent moves, law-firm strategy, legal fees, technology and other forces changing how disputes are handled.
- Law firms of particular interest include the litigation departments of Am Law 200 firms, as well as smaller litigation boutiques whose sophisticated matters often put them in court against those larger firms.
- Develop and own a national practice-area focus, producing distinctive coverage that connects developments across jurisdictions and serves Law.com’s broader audience.
Key Responsibilities
- Report and write timely, accurate news stories, analysis and forward-looking analysis or the New York Law Journal and Law.com, with opportunities for the work to appear across several other Centellic platforms.
- Understand and execute a content strategy serving both New York-based and national audiences, seeking out stories that help law-firm leaders evaluate developments, assess their implications and make informed decisions.
- Prioritize stories likely to resonate beyond New York, including matters with broad national application, emerging or cutting-edge litigation, and disputes involving well-known global companies.
- Produce five to seven stories per week, including at least one story grounded in deep enterprise reporting.
- Build and maintain a deep, diverse network of judges, court officials, litigators, in-house counsel, academics and other knowledgeable sources.
- Monitor dockets, filings, opinions, hearings and trials; identify developments early and explain why they matter.
- Translate complex legal arguments and procedural issues into clear, engaging journalism without sacrificing precision or nuance.
- Own major stories from initial alert through follow-up coverage, analysis and longer-term enterprise reporting.
- Generate original story ideas and use public records, data, research tools and source reporting to distinguish our coverage.
- Develop facility in using AI tools responsibly to help power data journalism, identify patterns, strengthen reporting and produce useful insights for readers, while maintaining rigorous editorial judgment and verification.
- Work closely with editors and colleagues across the Law.com newsroom on national and regional stories, newsletters, special reports and live coverage.
- Represent the publication professionally at hearings, trials, industry events and other newsmaking forums.
- Uphold rigorous standards of accuracy, fairness, sourcing, ethics and speed.
Location and Work Arrangement
This position is based in New York, with the team and office located in Midtown Manhattan, and follows a hybrid work arrangement. The reporter is expected to spend three days each week working in the office or reporting in the field, including covering proceedings in courthouses and developing face-to-face contacts at law firms.
Skills Knowledge and Expertise
Qualifications
- Ideally two or three years in daily news, whether gained in legal news or on other news platforms. We welcome early-career journalists who bring strong reporting fundamentals, curiosity and a commitment to learning legal journalism.
- Strong news judgment and the ability to identify stories with significance beyond an individual case.
- Write with clarity and authority on litigation issues, including data‑informed explainers and forward-looking analysis that make complex developments more actionable for decision‑makers.
- Excellent reporting, writing, interviewing and source-development skills.
- Ability to learn to read and interpret complaints, motions, opinions and other court records. Prior legal reporting experience is helpful but not required.
- Sound understanding of journalistic ethics and a meticulous approach to facts, names, quotations and legal terminology.
- Ability to manage competing priorities, respond to breaking news and collaborate effectively in a fast-paced newsroom.
- Comfort using digital publishing, research, docket and audience tools; interest in learning new technology.
- Willingness and ability to travel throughout New York City, Long Island and Westchester County to cover trials, hearings and events as required.
- A bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional experience.
What Success Looks Like
Success in this role means consistently breaking important news, becoming a trusted source of insight on the region’s courts, building relationships that produce original reporting, and delivering work that helps legal professionals understand both what happened and what it means. The reporter will balance speed with depth, contribute actively to coverage of our audiences’ priorities and develop a recognizable, authoritative specialism.
About Centellic, Law.com and the New York Law Journal
Centellic is a global intelligence and information-services company that helps professionals make critical decisions on strategy, growth and risk through data, analysis and expert insight. Its portfolio includes leading platforms and publications serving the legal market.
We are an information services company, with journalistic roots and values: fairness, accuracy, usefulness to our readers, and service to the legal profession we cover.
Law.com is a leading media and intelligence platform for the legal profession, delivering news, analysis, data and resources across the business and practice of law, corporate legal departments, legal technology, U.S. jurisdictions and global markets.
The New York Law Journal provides authoritative coverage of New York’s courts, legal community and business of law. Its reporting, analysis and commentary serve attorneys, judges, court professionals and legal-industry leaders throughout the state and beyond.
Benefits
Our people are our most valuable asset, as such, we offer a wide range of benefits to help ensure that all are supported:
- 15 vacation days, 12 company holidays, three personal days, one day to volunteer at the organization of your choice, plus a day off for your birthday each year
- Choice of three Cigna health insurance plans, two dental plans, and vision coverage.
- Health Savings Accounts (HSA) and Flex Spending Accounts (FSA)
- Comprehensive wellness program
- Employer paid life insurance
- Employer paid short-term and long-term disability insurance
- Accident and critical illness insurance
- 401K and Roth retirement savings plans with employer matching
- Employee Referral Awards
- Tuition reimbursement after 1 year of service
- Commuter Benefits
The company is committed to accommodating people with disabilities. If you require any reasonable accommodations to be made, please let us know as part of our application page. If you are unable or limited in your ability to access job openings or apply for a job on this site as a result of your disability, please contact Margo DeAngelo at 646-530-5941.
We are an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, protected veteran status, or disability status.
We are an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, protected veteran status, or disability status.
About
Please visit our website for more information.
Skills Required
- Two or three years of daily news experience or equivalent reporting experience
- Strong news judgment and ability to identify significant stories
- Excellent reporting, writing, interviewing, and source-development skills
- Ability to learn and interpret complaints, motions, opinions, and court records
- Understanding of journalistic ethics and meticulous attention to factual accuracy
- Ability to manage competing priorities and respond to breaking news
- Ability to collaborate effectively in a fast-paced newsroom
- Comfort using digital publishing, research, docket, and audience tools
- Willingness and ability to travel throughout New York City, Long Island, and Westchester County
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional experience
- Prior legal reporting experience
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The Company
What We Do
Law Business Research (LBR) is a technology-enabled information services business powering the global legal industry with intelligence, analytics and performance data. We are a fast-growing, innovative company with a dynamic and diverse culture, and we take great pride in delivering a world-class, cutting-edge service to our global clients. By applying the latest technology to the fast-moving legal world, we enable our users to find their competitive edge and decide with confidence, armed with the insight they need. LBR delivers trusted intelligence and insight to users around the world through a range of tools and platforms that combine proprietary data and unique analysis. We make sense of complex, fast-changing information and enhance critical decision-making. With an international team of over 500 experienced professionals, LBR has a proven track record of informing, engaging and connecting legal practitioners. Our specialist platforms help clients enhance their decision-making, manage legal risk and drive improved performance.
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