The Professional Development Series is designed to offer insights to students preparing for success in the professional world. It can often be hard to know where to start; this series will explore creating connections, non-academic experiences, and securing internships.
“Legal networking refers to the process by which lawyers and other legal professionals establish and maintain connections within their field. This involves interacting with peers, mentors, and potential clients to share information, resources, and support. The primary aim is to create a web of contacts that can provide mutual benefits in terms of knowledge, opportunities, and professional growth.” – American Bar Association
As pre-law students, you have likely heard about the importance of networking in the legal field and may feel pressure to begin building legal connections as early as possible. Networking is an important tool in building a supportive network that will directly contribute to helping you achieve professional goals, navigating professional challenges and opportunities, and offering trusted guidance and insights throughout your career. The act of “networking” takes many forms and is an important professional skill that you will continue to develop throughout your academic and professional journey. Because networking plays an important role for all professions, the prospect of networking can be daunting for undergraduate students, especially those interested in law who may feel that professors, judges, and attorneys are inaccessible to students. However, understanding that in its simplest form networking fundamentally comes down to the first step of creating and building connections can lessen anxiety.
Making connections is something that you already do in other aspects of your life almost daily. Networking is about developing and refining your existing skills of connection building for a professional setting and through a professional lense. It is also important to think about the types of individuals with whom connections can be beneficial to your goals and growth – appreciating that building connection with different types of professionals and individuals can all assist you. Finally, as you begin efforts to create connections – you should set realistic goals. Your networking efforts should not be centered solely on what you can gain from those individuals either now or ultimately in the future. Networking is about creating long-term relationships that start simple with creating a connection to build upon.
As you explore future law school and legal careers, you likely want to learn more about the legal profession or get your feet wet by speaking with an attorney. You can start developing networking skills early by taking intentional steps to establish connection and building professional relationships that focus on both the legal profession, but also other aspects of your professional and academic development.
- Create strategies to create initial connects and build relationships with professors, upper-level students, supervisors from all types of jobs and professional experiences, advisors, administrators, and other individuals who know you from different aspects of your life.
- Engage in different types of activities – attending receptions, open office hours, or seek out informational interviews. Use these interactions as a chance to hone social skills and practice communicating professionally, learning how to address others in a professional manner, especially prior to a job, internship, or interview.
- Have a goal of developing a wide range of connections that can assist you with common reasons to network such as gaining guidance and mentorship, securing recommendations or references needed for an internship, scholarships, awards, and, inevitably, support for law school applications.
Professionals, especially those in the legal field, are eager to support students, emerging leaders, community members, and individuals who are up-and-coming in their industries. Approach initial interactions with the goal of taking advantage of their knowledge and insights only – trying not to focus on the result of a future letter of recommendation or a job opportunity. In fact, the best networking relationships happen when you are genuine, authentic, and show sincere interest in what the other person says and does.
