Substance and Form: The Elements of a Lawyer Brand

Substance and Form: The Elements of a Lawyer Brand

The third article in the “One of a Kind” series I am writing for Attorney At Work was published today. It focuses on the importance of building a personal brand in order to build a profitable practice. The article discusses the distinction between personal “reputation” and personal “brand,” and discusses why personal branding is important and how to do it. Please check it out if you get a chance. You can also read the full text below:

Branding. It’s one of the most overworked and overanalyzed topics in the marketplace of ideas. Paradoxically, or perhaps consequently, it’s also one of the most misunderstood. This misunderstanding isn’t a definitional one. There’s a general consensus that a brand “is the sum of what others think of you” or something similar.

But there are two pertinent, preliminary questions beyond “what is branding?” worthy of exploration: Why is it important? And how is it done?

The Expertise Effect

The Expertise Effect

The second article in the “One of a Kind” series Jay Harrington is writing for Attorney At Work was published today. It focuses on the importance of building, maintaining, and promoting one’s expertise in a narrow, discreet practice or industry in order to establish an interesting and profitable legal practice. Check it out if you get a chance or read the full article below:

There are countless ways lawyers can and do compete with one another for work. We have price — what work costs; process — how work is performed; personality — the lawyer’s and her firm’s; place — one’s geographic location; principles — “honesty,” “integrity,” “work ethic.” Those and countless others that don’t start with “p” are all characteristics that lawyers emphasize in an effort to differentiate themselves.

But these are not the fields on which you want to play. Expertise, narrowly defined, is what good clients crave and are willing to pay a premium for. Unlevel the playing field. Become an expert.

17 Things I Wish I Knew as a First-Year Associate

17 Things I Wish I Knew as a First-Year Associate

A family friend will be graduating from law school this spring and starting his career at a large law firm next fall. Asked to provide some advice, I started compiling tips and recommendations — things to do and not to do. As I considered my own experiences as both a new and senior lawyer, I quickly formulated a list that required a scroll rather than a Post-it and subsequently decided to write an article on the things I wish I knew as a first year associate.

Attorney at Work, a website that focuses on legal marketing, business development and practice management tips for lawyers and legal marketing professionals, recently published the article. The full text can be read below:

A family friend will be graduating from law school this spring and starting his career at a large law firm next fall. Asked to provide some advice, I started compiling tips and recommendations — things to do and not to do. As I considered my own experiences as a first-year associate at a big firm, and subsequent experiences as a more senior attorney, I quickly formulated a list that required a scroll rather than a Post-it.

There are so many things not taught in law school that are only learned by young lawyers through the hard-knocks school. These tips are intended to help young lawyers develop the attribute that is the single-most important building block for future marketing and business development efforts — namely, becoming an excellent attorney.