JDs Rising

By Michael Goodwin

One of the more popular topics on this blog is networking. Professional networking doesn’t come naturally to a lot of people, especially the 25 percent of people who consider themselves introverts.

It doesn’t have to be so daunting. In a widely-circulated podcast available at the ABA Journal website, Larry Kohn and Dahli Myers discuss how even “shy lawyers” can build their network and generate contacts. Among their suggestions:

1. Focus: You will always feel overwhelmed if you don’t have a plan. So identify your targets, decide who you want to meet, and think about the best way to meet them. Most importantly, decide what you want others to know about you. “If you use the shotgun approach, I think you will always appear needy, always appear desperate, always appear a bit tawdry, as if you’re just shilling for something, anything,” says Myers.

2. Think of “networking” as “research”: Often the same lawyers who hate to network love to research. Kohn suggests thinking of networking as a learning opportunity. Try to focus on what you can learn from the people you are meeting. “If you think of it as social, it will make you uncomfortable because you don’t like small talk, but if you think of it as research, you can immediately begin to enjoy it,” Kohn says.

3. Do good work: If you already have clients, make them happy. “Clients who are really pleased with their external counsel make it known to the world,” Myers says. If you are uncomfortable selling yourself, your satisfied clients may do the selling for you.

Kohn and Myers have a number of other good suggestions, and the entire podcast is worth a listen. For more on networking for introverts, click here and here.