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5 strategies to become a legal thought leader in 2022
Thought leadership is about far more than making a few LinkedIn posts, writes Phoebe Netto.
Phoebe Netto
Aside from prominent lawyers with high profile cases or constant media appearances, it is often hard for clients to tell the difference between reputable or not-so-reputable lawyers. Experience, effectiveness, and client experience are all hard to decipher without you pointing it out to potential clients. Thankfully, thought leadership is becoming an increasingly viable solution for a wide range of legal professionals.
A thought leader uses their expertise to share bold positions and advice on best practices. They believe that their view is either different to common practice or that they can shed light on an area that an audience wouldn’t understand.
Here are five tips for turning your expertise and experience into valuable thought leadership for your industry.
Lead before you thought lead
There’s no point in sharing your view on legal success without having previously achieved those wins yourself. If you haven’t already helped others to achieve success in real life, how can you hope to do the same through thought leadership?
In short, before you can become a well-known legal thought leader, you need to already be a leader in your area of expertise. That way, your advice and knowledge will be backed up by genuine, real-world experience – and it’ll be all the more valuable and credible for it.
Provide genuine help
If what you are sharing and standing for isn’t valuable or sought after by others, then you aren’t leading anyone. Anyone can have an opinion or think they know something that others don’t, but if it doesn’t provide genuine value, it’s basically a self-aggrandising soapbox.
Ask yourself, where can I add value, and how can I help people with the skills and experience I have? Then narrow that down to what you can have an opinion on, based on your experience, legal expertise, and what you consider best practice in your specialty. Identify why this matters to others and why they would care.
In sharing this advice, you are showing your expertise and your personal values rather than telling them. This is more trusted and creates connection, as well as provides proof of your unique selling points.
Avoid turning thought leadership into a pitch
Thought leadership should never be about personal promotion or self-serving selling. By sharing your own knowledge, advice, and experiences, you’ll be able to help others in the process.
Avoid clickbait or going in for a hard sell at all costs. Everyone knows that you saying, “call me for tips” or “call me to discuss how we could help you” is not-so-subtle code for “I want your money and will bait you with what seems helpful only to switch into sales mode”.
Instead, be generous because that is the kind of lawyer that people want to represent them. Share ideas, advice, tools, and informed opinions that attract attention and benefit the audience. In the process, your business is being seen and your expertise is being promoted in an inoffensive way.
Choose the right channels
Choose the right avenues to share your message. Where are the watering holes where your key stakeholders congregate and go to for credible information? Is it webinars, media outlets, seminars, or even monthly emails from other key leaders? Be there.
Inspirational advice shared in a media interview can be shared as quotes on LinkedIn with a great photo of you in action, or included in your email marketing. If you’re posting to LinkedIn, make sure you’ve shared on both your own personal profile and your firm’s page. Ask other members of your team to share it too, since LinkedIn tends to prefer posts from personal profiles over company pages.
Email signatures are an often-overlooked place of valuable real estate. Your team sends out emails to clients day in, day out. Make sure the world can view your most valuable thought leadership there, too.
Embrace your inner writer
Writing opinion pieces and advice articles is a great way to get your thought leadership seen by a wider audience. Start by researching the trade publications in your industry and figure out if they accept opinion pieces from external writers. In fact, the very publication you’re reading right now is a great place to start.
Take a look at the kinds of topics they like to publish and consider if you have anything interesting to add to the conversation. Chances are, you have a lot of valuable insight just waiting to be written.
If you specialise in a particular category of law, think outside the box on the kinds of publications you might be able to write for. For example, if you cover media law, consider pitching your content to media and marketing industry publications.
And finally, remember: avoid legal jargon at all costs.
Phoebe Netto is the founder of Pure Public Relations.
