As we put the full write-up of the British Legal Awards to bed for the final issue of 2012, it seems an apt moment to reflect on the achievements of the legal profession in what proved yet another challenging year. And they are considerable. Law is a startling success story for British business, contributing over £20bn to the domestic economy annually and in the region of £3bn in exports – a figure that has nearly tripled against a decade ago. 

And this a material underestimate, since such official figures focus on private practice and fail to capture the huge expansion of in-house legal departments over the past 20 years. Well over 250,000 are employed in the law and directly-related fields in the UK.

In addition, the high regard for our judiciary and wide currency of English law helps attract inward investment in the UK, supports the City as a global hub and boosts the UK's soft power abroad. 

The UK has furthermore produced many of the world's top law firms despite being only a mid-sized economy, while our legal firms have consistently been at the cutting edge of legal service innovation and governance for 25 years.

True, law is a conservative game compared to many industries. But in the context of professional services and compared to other legal markets, UK firms are on another plane entirely. Pound-for-pound, the UK has the best-run law firms in the world.

Yet stepping outside the legal goldfish bowl, how would you know any of this? The odd speech from Kenneth Clarke, maybe? With the honourable exception of The Times, the disdain most media outlets have for law as a business is barely concealed.

Take a look at how little coverage Norton Rose's merger with Fulbright & Jaworski received outside the legal media (or, for that matter, Herbert Smith's tie-up with Freehills). These are industry-defining deals going unreported in newspapers that find space to recount a £50m high street buyout. 

My point? The legal profession should unambiguously talk up its own successes. Much of it comes down to the contradictory character of the profession, which combines arrogance with a strong streak of insecurity and depreciation. But if the profession is hoping for the Government to suddenly notice its lustre, it's going to be a long wait.

Titles like Legal Week can – and hopefully do – play their part in recognising the law's successes. But there is no substitute for the profession itself putting a strong message to clients, the business community and the wider world concerning the contribution of the legal industry. That doesn't mean spinning some reality-defying vision that ignores the less appealing aspects of the profession such as high costs and conservatism – but those issues get plenty of attention as it is.

So here's something to think about for 2013: if you don't sell yourself, who will?