A Guide for Lawyers and Legal Professionals on “Spring Cleaning” Your Brand
- Shanice Naidu-Jimenez, Esq.
- May 13
- 5 min read
Spring is here! This season of reflection, renewal, and growth is the perfect time to refresh and promote your individual brand. Here are some tips for “spring cleaning” your online (and offline) presence to increase your opportunities for continued growth, success, and advancement. Inspired by lawyers and other legal professionals, this guide can be applied to any industry and profession.
Step 1: Identify Your Current Goals and Relevant Experience
To create or renew your brand, start by identifying your goals and developing a strategy to attain them. By having a focused career plan, you can then selectively present your significant accomplishments, professional background, skills, knowledge, etc. that align with your goals. For example, if you are seeking more responsibility or autonomy at work, you may consider quantifying the amount or frequency of significant activities and favorable outcomes (e.g., number of deals closed, depositions taken and/or defended, verdicts reached, etc.) to demonstrate your advanced skills and competencies required to handle your own matters.
If you’re aiming to become a specialist, you may consider identifying specific assignments, projects, or cases that demonstrate your expertise or familiarity in your preferred practice area or industry to create and develop a personal niche at your current or prospective place of employment.
It is important to carve out dedicated time to evaluate your evolving career goals and whether you are on a viable path to achieve them. Self-reflection is necessary to identify the information needed to best promote yourself for professional growth and advancement opportunities. Our Self-Assessment and Action Plan are useful resources that can assist with this step by helping you identify your unique objectives and create a SMART (i.e., specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) plan of action for success.
Step 2: Concisely Articulate Your Unique Skillset
After you have identified your goals and your experience relevant to pursuing and achieving those goals, the next step is to effectively verbalize your unique skillset. Updating your resume is a practical exercise in this step of “spring cleaning” because it encourages you to carefully assess how you present your academic and professional experiences and credentials, knowledge, interests/passions, skills, etc. and whether that narrative best showcases how you are an ideal candidate for whatever opportunities you are seeking (e.g., increased responsibility or autonomy, becoming a specialist, partnership/promotion, transitioning to an in-house role, etc.). Below are some tips to help find the right words to best articulate how you can add value to a specific role, client, or company/firm/organization.
Provide specific examples (without infringing on any applicable confidentiality rules/policies), including quantifying or qualifying activities where appropriate
Example: Defended 60 client depositions in the past year in complex matters; Supervised 3 junior attorneys to prepare for discovery conferences and motion hearings; Quantify book of business or number of clients/matters handled in your niche legal practice
Use action words to describe your responsibilities
Example: Communicate with our clients about resolution strategies; Draft frequent and timely client communications, including analysis of verdict exposure
Succinctly and accurately address any special or missing information
Example: Anticipating questions about brief time with an employer, you may highlight favorable unique circumstances (e.g., Invited by Partner from prior firm to join team at new firm); Include volunteer experience relevant to the narrative you are trying to present to secure a future role
After completing this exercise, you should have a current, crisp, and engaging resume. You can use this updated resume to ensure your LinkedIn profile is up to date. Many recruiters and prospective employers will use LinkedIn when searching for candidates so it is important that your LinkedIn profile reflects all of your relevant experience and skills. Having up to date information, both online and off helps ensure you’re ready for any unexpected job opportunities that come your way.
Step 3: Strategically and Effectively Market Your Brand
Now that you’ve identified your goals and updated your resume and LinkedIn profile, you’re ready to promote yourself both online and off by being active within your network (i.e., your colleagues, supervisors, direct reports, other coworkers, clients, vendors and other third-parties, opposing counsel, classmates, mentors, acquaintances, relatives, friends of friends, recruiters, etc. from past and present). The more you strategically engage with your network, the more your network will think of you for new opportunities that align with your professional background and goals.
An initial point of outreach may be your current team. If your professional goals can come to fruition with your current employer, one way to market your brand is to pitch a proposal to a trusted supervisor/partner about ways you can add value to your team through internal advancement by highlighting your skills and experience that are essential to the roles you seek. In the right environment, this method can lead to your next ideal role without the need for a lateral move.
If a lateral move is the only option or you are otherwise open to exploring lateral opportunities to achieve your career objectives, then branching out to the rest of your network through in-person communication or other outreach (e.g., emails, text messages, phone calls) is another method towards career advancement. Meeting with mentors or periodically checking-in with contacts, including, but not limited to, recruiters, hiring managers, or classmates and former colleagues who have connections to employers of interest, is a way to place your name and experience on their radar for potential opportunities that align with your career goals.
Keep in mind people are more likely to think of you and will be more eager to vouch for you if you have a genuine relationship with them. Best practice for networking is to be sincere with your communications and consistent—don’t only reach out to people when you need something. For example, send birthday wishes or seasonal wishes or congratulations on a life event (e.g., new job/promotion) to maintain periodic contact. As part of those communications, you can always drop a line about your current professional activities and future goals to keep your network informed about your career (e.g., “Happy Holidays! Last month, I secured a favorable verdict on my case involving…and I look forward to expanding my trial experience in this practice area/industry. For now, I’m going to enjoy the holiday season by doing…How are you?”).
Direct and consistent communication with mentors and other members of your network takes time and effort and is likely not a realistic method for marketing your brand to a broad audience, including people who are not yet in your network. LinkedIn is the most efficient way to market your professional brand to a wide audience, including people who do not yet know you, but would otherwise be interested in hiring you or recommending you for opportunities that align with your goals. Our guide on How to Maximize Your LinkedIn Presence offers additional tips on how to showcase your brand and grow your network.
Spring is an ideal time to start the process of renewing your brand: the vibes of the season can be motivating, and because the entire “spring cleaning” process takes time, you can focus attention on marketing your brand during the typically slower summer months and realistically aim for progress on achieving your goals towards the end of the year. Connect with one of our recruiters today if you’re interested in exploring a new opportunity. Follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram for more resources, including our guide on How to Maximize Your LinkedIn Presence.
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