How to raise your profile in the legal industry during lockdown

Yesterday, our very own Sophie Gould , Head of Learning and Development at F-LEX, chaired another successful virtual lunch for Paralegals, Junior Lawyers and Trainees in collaboration with LexisNexis UK and Crafty Counsel.  We were joined by the fantastic Charlotte Lakin, trainee solicitor at Global and founder of inlaw, who shared her top 5 tips for raising your profile in the legal industry:

1. Maximising your use of social media

Using social media as a platform to educate, share and engage with others is incredibly important and now is an excellent opportunity to really capitalise on this and maximise the potential of social media in raising your profile.  Given the current circumstances this is now our main channel of  interaction with one another and a great way for us to share legal updates and what we have been up to. Even on Charlotte’s own inlaw account, they strive to share a post every Monday on resilience for some much needed Monday motivation as well as important commercial and legal updates!

2. LinkedIn

Charlotte explained that initially, she used LinkedIn as a way of seeing what jobs were out there, and then realised that it was so much more multifaceted than that. The amount of other information that gets uploaded to LinkedIn is truly astounding - it is a great way to stay connected and access the great resources that are available. Charlotte highlighted the value  of connecting with people that you don’t necessarily know all that well, she has made some really interesting connections with people through doing this - it is even how she managed to find writers for inlaw and has been extremely insightful!

3. Engaging with other communities

Thinking back to 2015, Charlotte shared how she discovered the Junior Lawyers Division, which was something she didn’t really have much awareness of during her LPC. She signed up to attend one of their events and realised that there was so much more she wanted to get involved with, eventually becoming a student representative and elected to the executive committee. This role enabled her to help organise events such as the LPC Forum, providing a great way for her to network with her peers, understand what kind of issues were affecting junior lawyers and build her own profile as well. The opportunity of writing articles and meeting some excellent contacts facilitated this. Seeking out these fantastic organisations and thinking about how you can contribute, what you can learn and how you can get involved will reap significant benefits!

4. If it’s missing - set it up!

Thinking back to 2015, Charlotte shared how she discovered the Junior Lawyers Division, which was something she didn’t really have much awareness of during her LPC. She signed up to attend one of their events and realised that there was so much more she wanted to get involved with, eventually becoming a student representative and elected to the executive committee. This role enabled her to help organise events such as the LPC Forum, providing a great way for her to network with her peers, understand what kind of issues were affecting junior lawyers and build her own profile as well. The opportunity of writing articles and meeting some excellent contacts facilitated this. Seeking out these fantastic organisations and thinking about how you can contribute, what you can learn and how you can get involved will reap significant benefits!

5. Confidence is key

Believing in yourself, your endeavours and having confidence is crucial. Getting involved, sharing your opinion or even a legal update can be quite daunting sometimes as you may worry about what other people think. But you have to be confident in your own ability and what you have to offer and contribute! 

Sophie empathised with this, stating that as a junior lawyer she lacked confidence and thought that everyone around her was super confident but when you actually start engaging with others you see that even the most professional people in the industry are nervous as well - we are all human above all else and it’s important to remember that and believe in what you have to offer!

Useful resources from our collaborators

• Crafty Counsel’s Ben White discussed their latest project ‘During the Break’ which is a series of interviews conducted over zoom in the ‘guerilla’ style of filming Crafty Counsel has had to adapt due to the pandemic! View the series of videos here: During the Break

• Lexis Nexis is also providing a Covid-19 blog discussing issues affecting both in-house and private practice, with all of the latest breaking news surrounding the pandemic, Q&As and even a Coronavirus Toolkit! See the link here:  Lexis Nexis UK Covid-19 Blog

What’s in store for next week?

Next Wednesday Katie Barker, Corporate Associate at Addleshaw Goddard and Advisory Board of Aspire in-house junior lawyers network, will be sharing her top tips for networking!