GGU School of Law|Law Career Development

                   Creating Your Professional Identity

by Melissa Smart (GGU JD 2012) 
LCS Graduate Fellow

Your professional identity (also called professional brand) is something that is essential to create and cultivate as you begin your legal career.  Your professional identity includes your reputation in the legal community and therefore is something that you should guard with the utmost care.

So what exactly is one's professional identity and how does one cultivate it?  Here are some elements that comprise one's professional identity and tips on how you can incorporate these elements into your own identity.

Professional Network
Those in your professional network help guide and inspire you as a new attorney.  They can be very influential and can help shape your professional identity.  As you attend networking events hosted by Bar Associations or other organizations, you are building your professional network and thus building your reputation in the legal community.  Growing your professional network by attending events, joining Bar Association sections or committees that focus on your preferred practice area, or volunteering at pro-bono events and/or training classes are all great ways to expand your network and create your professional identity.

Professional Interactions
Your professional identity includes how you interact with others - those within the legal profession, and those outside of it.  It is important to always be professional, polite, and accommodating.  Your professional reputation is something you have been building since the beginning of law school, and it is very easily tarnished by engaging in poor interactions with others.

Commitment to Your Area of Law
Recently, I have had the opportunity to go on informational interviews with attorneys (some of them partners) in the field of law that I wish to practice.  All of the attorneys I have met with have shared one same piece of advice - show commitment to the area of law in which you are hoping to find a job.  Commitment to a particular area of law is part of your professional identity and can be shown in various ways.  If you interned or externed in that field, discuss it!  If not, you can show your commitment by attending CLE trainings or volunteering to do pro-bono work.

Professional Goals
Setting short-term and long-term professional goals will help you focus your professional identity.  You can use these goals to help articulate your identity when you meet new contacts at networking events, informational interviews, and job interviews.  Come prepared with a succinct one to two sentence "elevator pitch" about yourself that conveys who you are and what you want to do.

Want to Learn More About Branding?  LCS will be co-sponsoring a workshop on "Personal Branding in the Workplace" on November 1 from 5 to 6:30 pm at GGU in room 5207.  Please RSVP for this event at http://tinyurl.com/ggupersonalbranding. And don't hesitate to talk with Jan Nussbaum in LCS if you have questions or concerns on how best to establish your personal identity or brand.