Why Networking Is Important in the Legal Profession?

If you have not done this at the beginning of the year, a mid-year resolution to attend more meetings and network more should be added to your list of goals for the year. By meetings, we especially mean law conferences, seminars, and summits where you have the opportunity to meet people other than those you see every day in the comfort of your daily practice.

A major takeaway from such meetings, apart from the new skills you acquire, is the richer network you build with likeminded people.

While networking may not seem difficult for people in our profession by the very nature of what we do, we sometimes fall into error of downplaying the need to network at legal conferences, trial summits, law events, seminars, firm events and all such meetings that bring people from various area of the legal profession to one place.

The purpose for networking is to seek out people of like minds who have interests, goals and ideas similar to yours and connect with them in a way that will be of mutual benefit to everyone involved. This process can yield amazing benefits for you both as an individual and in practice. The end of such effort is usually to make you a better minister in the temple of justice and to better serve humanity.

One of the benefits of networking is that it gives you further exposure. Being a part of the learned professionals do not make you omniscient or an island of knowledge, as the legal field is a vast one that keeps expanding annually. By being part of these conferences and actively participating through networking, you can have access to other people with knowledge in your field or whatever field you are interested in.

Through such meetings and interactions, you can get to know and keep abreast with fresh or recent happenings as related to your field of interest. So, whether you are in a bar association event, a criminal lawyer’s conference or a plaintiff lawyers’ conference, you can get to meet up with people of like interest and rub minds together, subsequently making you better solicitors and litigators. As always, two heads are better than one.

As law practitioners, we are all mandated to continue our legal education. Networking with your fellow students and even your CLE examiner can bring you more benefits along with your CLE credits. It could give you access to new business partners, employment opportunities, new recruits for your chamber and help you forge ahead in your career.

And the great thing is that you don’t necessarily have to be an extrovert or a great conversation starter to benefit from networking. When lawyers are gathered in one place for the express purpose of discussing the law and new trends in the law, you can be sure that they will indeed discuss the law. So, without having to do anything much more than attend these law events if that is all you choose to do, you have already amassed immense benefits for yourself.

Make that list of conferences you that will help you be the best at what you do, and make plans to attend them. And then attend these conferences and start networking. See you there!