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    After the Bar

    Practice Management

    Marketing and Business Development Guide for New Lawyers

    Kate Ahern

    Jun 22, 2023

    2 min read

    0-3 Years Marketing Practice Management

    Summary

    • Marketing skills help new lawyers internally and externally market their legal services and provide value to their communities, demystifying legal concepts and making legal services more accessible.
    • This guide is designed to empower new lawyers by introducing the importance of marketing, discussing key marketing issues to consider in building your business development approach, how you can market successfully, finding your business development style, and helping you build your marketing plan to get started in business development as a new lawyer.
    Marketing and Business Development Guide for New Lawyers
    imaginima via iStock

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    Marketing and business development skills are key to succeeding in the legal industry. Unfortunately, law students are not typically introduced to marketing before starting practice. Marketing skills help new lawyers internally and externally market their legal services and provide value to their communities, demystifying legal concepts and making legal services more accessible. In addition, basic practice skills like marketing and business development help level the playing field for marginalized lawyers and promote access to legal help for those in need. 

    This guide is designed to empower new lawyers by introducing the importance of marketing, discussing key marketing issues to consider in building your business development approach, how you can market successfully, finding your business development style, and helping you build your marketing plan to get started in business development as a new lawyer.

    Please note: You may use this guide for educational purposes as a starting point in building your own marketing approach and plan. It’s up to you to find a marketing strategy that works for you and your practice and develop your style. Please carefully review and follow applicable professional responsibility rules in the state(s) where you practice before putting your business development plan into action. 

    Introduction to Business and Marketing Development

    This introductory session introduces the author and the importance of marketing and business development. We’ll discuss what you can expect from this guide and the roadmap we’ll follow as we progress through the other recordings.

    Marketing and Its Importance to Legal Practice

    We’ll start by discussing why marketing is important to legal practice, how it can affect your legal career, and what marketing can look like for lawyers. 

    The Value of Starting Marketing Early in Practice

    Next, we’ll discuss why you should start thinking about marketing early in practice. (Spoilers: Being new to practice can be a superpower in marketing!)

    How to Get Started

    In this section, we’ll go through some practical examples of how you can get started with marketing and business development from your first days in practice so you can start envisioning the reality of your business development strategy.

    Evolving Your Marketing Efforts as Your Career Moves Forward

    Building on the previous section, we’ll discuss how your marketing can evolve and grow as you continue in practice, so you can be prepared to keep your efforts going.

    Key Considerations in Marketing Efficiently

    Marketing doesn’t need to take a huge amount of time. Thinking it needs to occupy a huge portion of your time will likely keep you from marketing at all. In this section, we’ll talk about how to market efficiently so you can avoid overcomplication and burnout.

    Key Considerations in Marketing Well

    Building on our efficiency discussion, we’ll talk about some marketing best practices to keep your marketing effective and enjoyable. Most importantly, we’ll also talk about finding your own marketing style.

    Developing a Plan for Marketing and Business Development

    This guide is designed to help you implement and take action. In this section, we’ll talk about creating a marketing plan so you can be intentional about your business development efforts.

    Marketing Resources

    We’ll wrap up this guide by discussing ideas for ongoing marketing resources as you develop your marketing skills over your career.

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