A Secret Guide for All New lawyers
What you will wish you knew.
The life of a Law student is never easy. From day one you will be reading cases, planning arguments, learning advocacy skills and yet somewhere amidst the hours of reading in the library you will be expected to ‘market’ yourself.
What on earth does this mean?How Will I learn how to do this?Who will teach me ?
Surely as a law graduate you will be able to move swiftly from life as a student into the professional world of business equipped with all the skills you learn at University?
On graduation you will have:
A Degree ( Bachelor of Laws)
Great time management skills
The ability to work as a team.
The ability to critically analyse a set of facts.
The ability to find the law and apply it to the case at hand .
THIS IS IT ………………………..This is what will take you into the REAL world of law
WRONG.
There is something far amiss in this line of thinking.
Once you’ve handed back your gown and had the family photographs and the graduation celebration and once you have undertaken the Diploma in Legal Practice or PEAT1 or LPC – you will learn very quickly that YOU’VE MISSED SOMETHING.
YES- YOU HAVE MISSED SOMETHING THAT YOU NEEDED FROM THE FIRST DAY AT LAW SCHOOL
You will wish you could rewind your degree and go back to-day one because here is what you are not taught at Law school.
HOW TO MARKET YOURSELF and GET COMMERIAL REAL LIFE EXPERIENCE
I KNOW this because as I embark on the world of real law in the real world I look around me and see many law students who might have first class honours degrees but have focussed only on law for the last 5 years.
I want to give you a quick secret guide. Its my own tips that you can use from TODAY.
1. Set up a twitter account.
2. Link Twitter to your Facebook.
3. Set up a Linkedin Account.
4. Set up at least one blog – I have a few
5. Set up a Digg Account
6. Set up a YOUTUBE channel
7. Set up a Moviecom.tv channel
8. START connecting with lawyers ALL OVER THE WORLD.
9. Subscribe to on-line journals
10. Write for on-line journals
11. Talk to your Law Society
12. Enter Competitions
13. Join a mooting club and learn advocacy skills.
14. BLOW YOUR OWN TRUMPET
15. Google yourself –what do you find ? If you cant find you no one else will either.
16. Connect with other students around the world and learn HOW they study law.
17. BE an innovator in YOUR law school- get involved.
18. Write on areas of the law that interest you.
19. Make short video clips and post on your channels
20. Network both on-line and real life – Take every opportunity to meet lawyers.
21. Talk to people you know who might one day become your clients – what do they want from a lawyer and listen, really listen.
GET COMMERCIAL EXPERIENCE NOW – Don’t wait for your training contract.
You will not learn any of these things at LAW school. No one will show you how to do it until you find your self hunting for a traineeship and realise that if you had started 5 years ago you might have had a better chance.
I will be posting tips on all of these topics to help.
Do it and start today – It’s YOUR career.
You can reach me by email legaleaglehynes@yahoo.co.uk
On twitter legaleaglemhm
Legaleaglemhm's Blawg 
Certainly all this stuff can help drive business your way but it cannot make you a good lawyer. The ultimate marketing tool is your skill and expertise as a lawyer.
I have done many of the things you refer to and spend considerable amounts of money on web marketing, seo, ad-words etc (check out my website) and old fashioned advertising BUT
Nothing is more important than your reputation. You can’t buy this overnight or get it by having x no. of followers or friends or business connections. Mostly it takes hard work and dedication.
Social media and it’s marketing has a place but it should never overshadow the real business of lawyering.
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Hi Phil
I absoluety agree – what would be the point of marketing something that was of poor quality.
Universities churn out academically brilliant law graduates but fail to teach them anything about how to ‘market ‘themselves.
Many lawyers are excellent at ‘lawyering’ yet in this economic climate fail to attract new clients because they may be great lawyers but they spend their time working IN their business and not ON their business.
Thanks for a great comment.
Michelle
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The problem with lawyers Michelle, is that a lot of them feel that the law is ‘above’ other professions and people. So there has been always been a sneer campaign against those lawyers who advertise. The whole media of marketing legal services is though of as too American and not to be taken seriously.
As you rightly state, you can be an excellent lawyer but without marketing yourself you’ll starve before the work comes in. In days gone by a case or two a year would be sufficient to pay your bills. Not so these days.
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