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Are you a good lawyer?
You can be the best lawyer since Clarence Darrow but if nobody knows who you are and if nobody knows what you know, you will starve.
The only way to be certain that people will know who you are and what you know is to tell them.
Yeah, sure, you can take some pro bono work; do a good job, and hope that somebody notices. You can also go to work in a big firm and slave away for a decade or so and hope to have the freedom to select your clients one day.
Or you can be smart.
You can work on stuff other people are afraid of, do a good job, and tell everyone about it.
Here are some simple truths about working as a lawyer today:
Truth 1: Working in a big firm is the equivalent of slave labor. If you take a job in a big firm you will go unrecognized and under rewarded.
Truth 2: Working for someone else is ok as long as you get the full breadth of experience you need to be successful. This means you have to be free to make decisions on cases. You have to be free to select the cases you will work on. You have to learn by getting bloodied in the real world.
Truth 3: Marketing is essential to building relationships and relationships are essential to long term success. You must promote yourself. You must put your talent on display every chance you get. Sometimes you will look like a jackass. But more often than not, you will get noticed.
Truth 4: If you do not define yourself and your law practice, somebody else will. People will occasionally talk about you. If you do not dictate the terms of the conversation, you will not be happy with the reputation you develop.
Why have I chosen this day and this time to put these seemingly unrelated thoughts together? This is exactly the conversation I had with a highly successful lawyer this morning. They were thoughts formulated over a 30 year career.
I asked one question:
Given your success and experience, what would you tell a lawyer graduating from a top law school today?
I find it interesting that Lawyer Marketing and self promotion were top of mind when a successful lawyer provides career advice. There are a lot of soggy old lawyers who will not like that. After all, if you just be a good lawyer business will come…right?