Legal Jobs & Careers | Jobs & Careers

The problem with the legal profession in general is that many lawyers fail to take the time to consider that law is a business and that their careers are businesses as well. Countless lawyers have gone out of business because they didn't acknowledge this fact.

1. Your Legal Career, Like Any Business, Needs a Marketable Product
Every business needs to have a marketable product in order to succeed. While other businesses sell all sorts, your business is selling yourself. This "product" will need careful management throughout your career. The importance of having a marketable product begins very early in your legal career. In order to enter the legal profession, you need to take certain steps. If you are a lawyer, the steps should be fairly obvious. First, you need to obtain an undergraduate degree. You need to perform at a level appropriate to the type of position you eventually want. Along the way, you will presumably do certain things, such as work on a journal or law review. These are additions to your product. You are making an investment of both time and money in your product. The next step comes when you take an exam (i.e., the Bar Exam) in order to get a license to sell your product. Once you have been admitted to the bar of your jurisdiction, you are formally able to do business.

As a small business operator, you are going to face countless decisions on running your own business. You need to remember that every decision will affect your marketability. In law practice, there are innumerable choices as to how lawyers operate. They may brand themselves as a big firm lawyer, small firm lawyer, solo practitioner, government lawyer, in-house lawyer etc. Whether lawyers are working on their own or for a large firm, they are always in charge of their own career. Look at the legal field like the business world as a whole. You will be able to sell your product in certain areas and to certain audiences better than others. Everything depends on having a marketable product throughout your career.

The point of any business is survival and growth. You need to consider your business's needs and run it accordingly. As a lawyer, you are marketing a set of problem-solving skills. One of the most important aspects of running your business involves the type of work. If you do tax law, you will help people deal with tax issues. In operating in a certain practice area, it is important to understand that some have more market appeal. There are certain specialties that may be bad business to choose. Less than three years ago, corporate work was enormously in demand. Currently, however, this market is doing horribly. Corporate lawyers who performed well in high-profile firms are redundant. For many, corporate law would be a poor choice, as there is no demand for the product. In this current economic climate, bankruptcy would be a more prudent venture for the business-minded lawyer. Your geographic area, the stability of your current employer and opportunities for advancement are all factors to keep in mind. These are all things that will have a bearing on your business's success.

2. The Importance of Your "Brand" to Marketing Your Product
When you are working in the practice of law, you need to have a good brand. If you are operating your own law firm, the quality of your brand will determine the number and type of clients. If you are practicing in a large law firm, the quality of the work you do, your interpersonal relationships and a variety of other factors will determine the strength of your brand. All brands have certain attributes, and over time, you will develop a certain brand.

There are certain things that come to mind when you think of any brand. RC Cola creates a different thought to Coke. The places you work and your practice area(s) will have a bearing on your brand's quality. Generally, better brands can charge more and have more interest in them than poor brands. All of the rules of the business world apply to managing your own brand. You need to be recognise how you want your brand to be viewed. Think through what type of brand you want carefully and ensure that you manage it effectively.

3. How to Market Your Brand and Product for Maximum Possible Success
Everything that happens to your legal career is the result of selling your product on the marketplace. The amount of money you can charge will be influenced by your type of brand. You could start out in a horrible law firm, as thousands of lawyers do each year. Several years later, many of these same lawyers may be earning in excess of 500,000 per year. The reason this happens is how these lawyers market their brand.

Marketing is the single most important thing you can do for yourself. Marketing is about how you package yourself, the things you say and the market's perception of what you offer. However, you might not want to market yourself to a large law firm, indeed, you may not want to work for someone else at all. Instead, you may simply want to open your own practice and market your services there. When you market a product, you need to appeal to people on both an emotional and rational (cost) level. When marketing personal services, which your legal skills are, people tend to want to deal with people like themselves. For that reason, large law firms prefer a certain type of lawyer, small law firms prefer a certain type of lawyer and certain types of clients (rich, poor and in between) prefer dealing with a certain type of lawyer. Thus, your product is likely to be better accepted in some areas than others.

4. Conclusions
You are a product. Your legal career is a small business. Run it like a small business and realise the importance of your brand. Crucially, realise the need to have a market for your product. If you remember this, you will be well served throughout your legal career.