Although not technically vital, LinkedIn for lawyers is fast becoming a powerful tool, not only for networking but also for positioning yourself ahead of the crowd in the search for a new legal role. Visiting your LinkedIn profile is the best way for legal recruiters to get a sense of who you are behind the resume and how you might fit into their law firm or in-house community.
For this reason, making sure your LinkedIn profile is at its best should be a top priority for all attorneys and legal professionals searching for a new opportunity! Don’t make the mistake of underutilizing your LinkedIn account. Check out our top 5 tips for making sure you’re maximizing LinkedIn:
1. Professional Profile Picture and Cover Photo
First impressions are everything! Make sure you put your best foot forward with a professional profile picture and cover photo for your legal LinkedIn profile. We recommend using your firm headshot or just a clear picture of your head and shoulders. A cityscape (use free stock photos from Unsplash) or your firm’s branded cover photo is a great option for your cover photo. Just remember that while LinkedIn is a social networking platform, it is a platform for professionals, so your profile picture and cover photo should reflect your professional persona.
2. Practice area in the Headline
This tip is pretty straightforward, just make sure that you include your practice area and job title in your headline (e.g. “Capital Markets Attorney” or “Intellectual Property Associate”). This will ensure that your legal LinkedIn profile can be easily found by legal recruiters and law firms searching for your expertise.
3. Clear and Concise “About” Section
It can feel tempting to leave the “About” section of your legal LinkedIn profile blank, but doing so means missing a vital opportunity to present your personality and practice in the best possible light to recruiters and colleagues alike. This section of your profile should detail what you do, in a conversational yet professional manner. It should be 1 or 2 paragraphs maximum and in the first person. Avoid simply copying and pasting your law firm bio, as this comes across as unoriginal and lazy!
4. Maximize Visibility with Skills
Make sure you use the “Skills” feature throughout your lawyer LinkedIn profile to maximize your visibility to recruiters. Ensure the skills you pick are specific to your expertise and practice area as opposed to more general. For example, go for skills like “Litigation” or “Corporate Law”, rather than “Teamwork” or “Communication Skills”.
5. Be Engaged!
Now that you’ve maximized your profile, it is time to become an active member of the legal LinkedIn community! Engage with other people’s content and updates by liking and commenting. Share posts and articles that interest you both personally and professionally. Send and accept connection requests to build your network. Doing this not only demonstrates that you are an active member of the community, but it is also a passive way of showing your values and personality to anyone who visits your profile.
Conclusion
In the modern legal world, LinkedIn for lawyers is the number one method of forging and projecting your professional brand to the world. As legal recruiters and firms increasingly incorporate LinkedIn into their recruitment process, it has never been more vital to ensure that you’re presenting yourself well on the platform.
Resume Legal
Are you struggling with getting your LinkedIn up to scratch? Want professional guidance? Resume Legal knows LinkedIn inside out: we can help make sure your profile matches your resume in every detail, speaks powerfully to your background, knowledge, and skills, and lands in every search you want to come up in.
Contact us today to learn more about our LinkedIn Optimization services!