How to build a Career Plan within a Professional Association for Lawyers
 

The legal world has its own set of norms and procedures, ranging from how to serve and add value to clients, to how to promote oneself and build a strong reputation based on credibility and differentiators. What connects this industry with others is how valuable connections are made.

One of the main tasks of legal marketing is ensuring that the law firm is present in the right spaces where it can identify and generate new business opportunities.

The focus should be on serving, supporting, and providing solutions to a broader range of people within the profiles identified by the team.

One of these key spaces is professional associations: trade associations, chambers of commerce, and other groups that allow lawyers to connect with new opportunities, which in turn helps with professional positioning.

Despite being an ideal environment for business development, it’s common to see many law firms simply pay for a membership without engaging actively in these associations. Some read the newsletters, attend a few events a year, and don’t go any further.

The main challenge for leadership teams in law firms is to generate a real return on investment in these spaces. But how can we measure something we aren’t being intentional about?

Before measuring, the focus should be on creating a career plan for each association, with clear objectives and a structured action plan to achieve them. It’s not just about saying that we are members of the most prestigious association or attending the annual event of the most influential chamber of commerce in our country.

What matters is being intentional with our objectives, dedicating time to them, and adding value from our role.

The main mistake would be participating with a "take advantage" mentality, seeking to exploit every professional in the group. While it’s true that we should be part of associations where we can connect with our target audience, this doesn’t mean we should act aggressively or inappropriately.

The right mindset is thinking about how we can serve others, how we can add value to the group—whether it’s by referring another contact for a matter unrelated to what we do, or exchanging ideas on common pain points across industries.

Two Key Actions within Professional Associations

It’s important to distinguish between two types of actions:

1. Actively participating to support the association or group. This involves collaborating in committees, offering talks, sharing valuable content, volunteering for projects, and other similar actions.

2. Attending events for networking and connecting with your target audience. Both actions are valid, but they should be balanced so that one doesn’t outweigh the other.
The first action will help you advance your career within the association, while the second will allow you to expand your circle of valuable connections. Both are essential for business development and should be combined to help you gain a position in the governing board of professional associations.

Key Principle for Building a Strong Career

The fundamental principle to build a successful career as a lawyer within a professional association is serving: doing so with kindness, humility, and generosity. Connecting, helping, and adding value are essential for standing out and unlocking new opportunities.

Steps to Building Your Career within a Professional Association

To summarize, in order to build a successful career within a professional association as a lawyer, we must be intentional about:

1. Setting clear objectives within the association. Whether it’s a professional association, chamber of commerce, or any other relevant group, we should set specific goals and a clear action plan to achieve them. If the firm belongs to multiple associations, it’s ideal to assign a lawyer to lead the firm’s presence in each one.

2. Dedicate time to the association. A career within an association is only built if we dedicate time to it. Can we really not spare 3-5 hours a month for professional development? It’s challenging, I know, but we need to reflect on the opportunities we are missing by not leveraging what the present offers us.

This time can be invested in activities such as sharing valuable content for newsletters, blogs, or social media, participating as a speaker in talks, helping organize events, collaborating in committees, or getting involved in volunteer activities within the association.

3. Show availability and willingness to help. It’s key to be open to collaborating on projects. This is also an excellent opportunity to practice active listening and connect genuinely with other association members.

4. Be genuine. Although it may sound like a cliché, this principle, combined with the idea of serving with kindness and humility, is priceless. Authenticity is the ticket to advancing to the next level in professional development.

Conclusion

To succeed as a lawyer within a professional association, it’s crucial to be strategic, willing to collaborate, dedicate time, and be genuine in making connections. By setting a clear career plan, engaging actively, and always seeking to add value, you can build a solid and successful career within professional associations.

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