Firms with summer associates have a tremendous opportunity over the next couple of months to leverage the power of the millennial generation. Today’s law students are more proficient with technology and in organic self-marketing than most organizations realize. Harness that talent and allow your summer hires to demonstrate their potential in these areas, particularly in a down market when everyone must increase their business development initiatives. A collaboration of this type between the generations is the ideal solution for law students seeking to distinguish themselves to employers and lawyers interested in raising their profile among prospects. Solo practitioners and firms without formal programs can enlist the help of students over the summer to jump-start their marketing efforts as well.
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One of the fastest and most effective ways to get started is with LinkedIn, a popular social networking site for lawyers. According to Steve Matthews, the principal of Stem Legal, a Web marketing company based in Vancouver, Canada, adoption of LinkedIn by legal professionals has grown from 118,000 in April of 2008 to 840,000 in May of 2009. “The growth indicates that the legal industry is starting to adopt Web 2.0 technology and that LinkedIn has the largest adoption to date.”
Each partner should pair up with a summer associate and ask him or her to either create or further build out their LinkedIn profile (with the oversight of the marketing team, of course). Matthews suggests spending eight to ten hours building an initial presence on the site, but then no more than 30 minutes per week. He encourages users to start by comparing their e-mail contact lists to the LinkedIn database. “The first step is to codify that personal network and get it into the digital space,” he said.
