Yes, you do care what happens in Tuscaloosa: The power of localizing national news stories

Google Stephanie Hicks.

What you'll find is a number of news stories from Alabama media outlets about a police officer who successfully sued the Tuscaloosa Police Department for workplace discrimination not long after she gave birth to her son.

"I loved my job in law enforcement, but I was demeaned, demoted, and discriminated against for choosing to be a mom," said Stephanie Hicks in a blog post for the American Civil Liberties Union.

You'll also find a handful of stories about the case courtesy of national media outlets, the ACLU and law publications. What you won't find so easily are local law firms blogging about the case — despite the fact that it impacts an incredibly large portion of the population. 

That's a huge mistake.

Yes, there have been several law firms from across the country that used the case to educate their audiences about the rights of working mothers — but they represent a tiny fraction of the total number of firms out there who take on work discrimination cases. 

I should say here that all news outlets across the country should have considered writing about the case — though very few outside Alabama did.

But consider what could have happened if a local firm took on the story. 

There's a greater chance a local news outlet would have read about it and used that firm as a source to talk about workplace discrimination in their local communities. Even if that didn't happen, readers of the firm's blog would likely have shared it with friends and family who might be impacted by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 and its history of litigation since then. (It's a fascinating history).

And in this specific case, the law firm would have seemed really on top of the news. Just two weeks after that federal appeals court upheld Hicks' suit, an officer in Frankfort, IL filed a similar discrimination lawsuit.

Any Chicagoland attorney who had thought about writing about the Hicks case — but didn't — missed out on a chance to promote their expertise and practice.