How to Make More Meaningful Connections in the Legal Profession

When you’re in the legal field, you may meet dozens of people each week. When combined with time limitations, this can make it difficult to develop meaningful connections with contacts in your field. However, every connection is an opportunity to develop your career, expand your knowledge, and better serve your clients. Making it a priority can be incredibly rewarding.?

At Urban Legal Recruitment, we’ve seen the difference that high-value connections can make in a person’s career and daily life. Today, we’d like to share some of the top ways you can make meaningful and lasting connections in the legal profession.?

What Does a Meaningful Connection Look Like in the Legal World??

There are many reasons you might want to make a connection with someone, whether you want to give or receive mentorship or referrals, or just exchange industry knowledge and ideas with others. In some cases, relationships will lead directly to new business opportunities.?

Connections are also an important way to open doors in the legal world, allowing legal professionals to pursue their goals and develop their careers.

There are three basic steps to building meaningful connections:?

1. Creating Connections
2. Building Relationships
3. Maintaining Long-Term Connections

Connection-Creating Strategies

Being Open to New People & Opportunities

Although most of us have the best of intentions when it comes to networking in our industry, we often fall into habits and patterns that restrict us from meeting new people. Here are a few ways you can bring the potential for regular connection back into your day-to-day activities:?

• Join a professional association or club
• Visit or join a networking group?
• Attend industry events or community events?
• Reach out to people directly on social media, such as LinkedIn
• Start new conversations with people at places you already visit (gyms, golf clubs, etc.)?

Deciding Which Connections to Pursue

Although it might be tempting to develop lasting relationships with everyone you meet, you need to be strategic in the management of your time and energy. To make sure you can invest confidently in the relationship, ask yourself a few of these questions:?

• Can we both benefit from this relationship?
• Do I feel fully comfortable with this person?
• Is there a way we can collaborate directly or indirectly?
• Is there the possibility of a long-term connection?

Also consider how a person makes you feel after you initially connect. Do you leave a conversation feeling uplifted, motivated, or determined? Were you able to give or gain something new??

Relationship-Building Strategies

Setting Regular Meetings or Check-Ins

We’ve all experienced the excitement of being at an event and meeting someone we’d like to connect with further, but then forgetting about it until much later. To avoid this, you can set up a meeting as soon as you meet with someone, and then schedule regular meetings or check-ins with that person. This doesn’t have to be weekly or even monthly; an annual check-in with someone can go a long way toward building a relationship over time.?

Bring Something to the Relationship

Relationships are always about exchange—the exchange of ideas, knowledge, referrals, networks, and resources, to name a few examples. When you meet someone new and decide you’d like a meaningful connection with that person, consider what you can bring to that exchange. To be clear, there doesn’t need to be a direct or equal exchange. However, when you bring something to the relationship, you establish trust and goodwill.?

Maintaining Long-Term Connections

Checking in with Previous Contacts

Sometimes, life and business gets in the way of our relationships. It’s a natural progression, but can leave you feeling out of touch. Luckily, it’s easy to re-establish a connection with people you’ve lost touch with by simply reaching out. Send them a note or message to know you’re thinking about them, and ask them a question to start a conversation.?

Connect with Our Legal HR Experts

At Urban Legal Recruitment, we believe there is nothing more valuable than a trusting and meaningful relationship. Our recruiters are always looking to connect with people in the legal industry, from those seeking positions and those hiring legal experts, to those who are just interested in learning more about the HR aspect of the legal world. If you’d like to connect with us, reach out! We would be happy to connect and start a conversation.

If you’re looking for a new position in the legal field where you can create more meaningful connections, search through our current career opportunities.