In our age of competition and connectedness, law firms face an unprecedented challenge of branding, and BigLaw – the world’s biggest and most Summit Law successful law firms – tend to play the long game. For BigLaw to “win”, it must continue to enhance its business brand in order to attract and retain its clients and its lawyers. The question is: Are its lawyers playing the same game?
The Personal Brand
In today’s mobile job market, many lawyers may be shorting the market. And they have the tools to do so; the very same, standard equipment Summit Law LLP that BigLaw issues to each lawyer when she joins the team. Any lawyer intent on “winning” quickly learns to use those tools to build expertise in an area(s) of market opportunity plus a personal brand to market it.
Personal Brands Distinguish Attorneys
At Penn Law School’s Inaugural Women’s Summit, approximately 200 members of the Penn Law community gathered to celebrate the leadership and trailblazing work of Penn’s national and international women lawyers. As the Summit made clear, Penn Law’s women have a lot of wins, branding and otherwise, to celebrate.
The agenda included a session captioned “Building Your Professional Brand, Online and Offline”, during which panelists and attendees shared the significance of individual branding as a business development tool. They discussed the importance of creating a specialty practice, and the many ways in which to declare oneself an expert – by blogging, posting articles on LinkedIn and Facebook, posting pictures on Instagram, hosting personal and professional websites, tweeting, speaking at conferences, and participating in trade events.
In addition to developing business, branding helps attorneys take control of, and effectively own, law practices. Consequently, personal branding plays an important role in accelerating a lawyer’s journey to professional achievement, increasing her value within the law firm, and contributing to the firm’s financial success. It is no wonder that BigLaw supports its lawyers in developing their individual brands – those brands are as important for individual attorneys as they are for the law firm.