In today’s fast-paced, noisy and distracted world, it’s hard to get someone’s attention for a mere moment. Who has time for lunch with a lawyer these days? Or a better question, do you have time for lunch? Instead, why not kill two birds with one stone and invite a client or prospective client to collaborate on a thought leadership project? By doing so, your invitation doesn’t come across as one-sided and transactional, but rather mutually beneficial.

As a young lawyer who is now fully engaged in the practice of law, you’ve just turned pro. While there were smart, insightful people in your law school class, this is an entirely different level. The competitive academic playing field is nothing compared to the professional one you’re now playing on. At times you’ll feel like you don’t belong, like you don’t know what you’re doing. But keep the faith. You’ve almost certainly experienced similar discomfort before, and you overcame it. And you can do it again.

One of the best tools that lawyers can use to bolster their thought leadership is LinkedIn. There are some obvious ways to use LinkedIn for thought leadership, such as sharing articles you’ve written and published elsewhere, which need no further explanation. In this article, I provide four recommendations on how to use LinkedIn not merely as a place to promote content, but rather as a testing ground to make your thought leadership better.

Most law firms engage in various forms of content marketing. Fewer actually practice true thought leadership marketing, however. Content may generate clicks but thought leadership establishes expertise, deepens relationships, and leads to new business. My strongly held beliefs about thought leadership marketing for lawyers are based on a decade’s worth of experience. As a lawyer myself, I don’t fault you for wanting more objective evidence. So here goes. What follows are seven statistics that speak to the importance of thought leadership. 

I live in Traverse City, a small town on the shore in northern Michigan. In the summer, we swim in Lake Michigan. In the winter, we hit the slopes. If I want to keep my beer cold at the beach, I buy a Yeti. If I want to keep my body warm while skiing, I buy North Face. I don’t shop around for the lowest-price cooler or jacket. I invest in the best product that I know is going to solve my issue, and I’ll pay the premium price the brand commands. Similarly, while few clients relish the idea of hiring a lawyer, they desire the outcomes that only a lawyer can deliver.

The old trope that “clients hire the lawyer not the law firm” still holds true, but it’s the lawyer’s expertise, not personality, that clients care most about. Sure, all else being equal, a client prefers to both trust and like their lawyer. However, between the alternative of an affable generalist and a curmudgeonly expert, the client will opt for results rather than rapport every time. It’s no longer (if it ever was) a relationship game, it’s an ideas game, and experts are winning. In 2020, thought leadership is more important than ever.

A new year is upon us. Will 2020 be the year you start getting serious about marketing and business development? Isn’t it time to be more purposeful and intentional about building your network and establishing yourself as an authority? Nothing is stopping you other than a limiting belief that it’s someone else’s job to bring in business. The good news is that you don’t have to be perfect. You just need to get started.