Ask an experienced lawyer to introduce a promising founder to a potential investor, and it happens within days. Ask the same person to call that investor six months after leaving the firm, and hesitation is common.
This hesitation has little to do with the relationship itself. It has to do with a reversal that a legal career rarely prepares anyone for. For decades, calls came in for reasons tied to the firm — or other people called. Clients with a problem, colleagues with a professional or personal question, opposing counsel to negotiate — the phone rang because the firm’s reputation, and the person’s judgment within it, made them worth calling. Reaching out first, with no mandate or specific occasion, and no reason beyond “I’d like to stay in touch,” therefore feels very unfamiliar.
Why networking is often harder for lawyers than it seems
Three factors make this especially difficult for lawyers — more so than for many other professions.
- Confidentiality was the highest rule. Years of protecting privileged information train a person to disclose carefully and reveal little without good reason. That reflex does not switch off easily.
- Many client relationships belong to the firm first, not to the individual. A large share of matters arise from the firm’s network and are the result of rigorous conflict checks. And even when a matter came to a partner directly because of their own reputation in the market, it is often deliberately folded into the firm all the same.
- The sheer volume of work and time pressure leave little room for conversations beyond the matter at hand. A personal meeting with clients is, for various reasons, fairly unusual — so, overall, little time tends to go into the personal relationships with the people one advises.advice.
The result is that many outstanding lawyers have a contact list filled with countless names, but no real idea which of these relationships still exist once the letterhead is removed. As we at WFA have observed elsewhere, this is one of the real reasons why experienced leaders “fall silent”—precisely at the moment when it would be beneficial for them and others to continue hearing from them.
The network you have and the network you’ll need
It helps to separate two categories of relationship, because they behave very differently once the title changes.
The first is the purely professional network that forms within the practice of law: clients, opposing counsel, judges, colleagues inside and outside the firm, and many more — all tied to a matter, or to the firm.
The second is the personal network — both the private one and the one within the professional network: people who would take a call because they know who you are, not because of the matter that connects you. A former client who stayed in touch for other reasons. A junior colleague, now general counsel at a corporation, who still asks for a candid opinion. A judge encountered once at a conference, who remembers a sharp question from the floor. A former law school classmate who has quietly been building a portfolio of board seats for years — but contact with whom was lost.
The task before leaving a firm is not to build an entirely new network from nothing. It is to work out, honestly, which relationships already sit in the second category, and which ones could move there with a small, deliberate effort. New personal relationships tend to follow almost automatically from that.
Building the network while still part of the firm
The most effective time to do this work is while still holding the title, the established platform, and the invitations that come with it. Waiting to start building personal relationships until departure is already decided — or has already happened — is a common impulse, but it makes life harder.
The following overview distinguishes what can be built before leaving from what usually has to be rebuilt afterward:
| Nature of the Relationship | Prior to leaving the firm | After leaving |
|---|---|---|
| Clients | Take conversations beyond the matter: ask about their business, their own career, and current challenges, not just the transaction | Reconnect with a clear, honest account of your own transition |
| Peers and former colleagues | Stay genuinely in touch with people who have already left the firm; they understand the transition and are often the best source of referrals | Reactivate dormant contacts one at a time, with a concrete reason to talk |
| Referral sources and intermediaries | Build direct relationships with recruitment firms, other consultants, banks, and auditors—not just through the firm’s business development activities | Ask intermediaries what they’re currently seeing in the market—not just whether there’s a specific opportunity |
| Public Visibility | Writing and speaking under one’s own name, participating in a committee or a nonprofit organization | Continue to publish and speak as an individual voice, perhaps even with a clearer personal stance |
Deliberately reactivating the personal network after leaving
After leaving a company, the natural tendency is often to wait to reach out until you have a complete new story to share—you want to have something interesting to say. A more promising approach is:
- Communicate openly early on
A brief, honest statement—“I’ve left the firm and am exploring what’s next”—invites support. Vague wording invites nothing.
- Give others a concrete, current reason to support you
“Let me know if you hear of anything” rarely gets a response. “I’m currently exploring board and advisory mandates in regulated industries and would value your perspective” usually does. It’s surprising how positively such openness tends to be received.
- Make Conscious Use of the Law Firm’s Alumni Network
Many law firms now maintain an alumni network. Treating this as a genuine resource—even while you’re still at the firm—rather than as a bothersome side issue can help you identify relationships that would otherwise take months to rebuild on your own. This circle includes many former colleagues who have taken exciting new paths and/or are themselves in transitional phases of one kind or another.
- Quality over quantity
The same discipline that applies to building the three circles of a professional network—recruitment consultancies, peers, and trusted professional contacts—also applies to any other transition into new roles.
Honest questions for an existing network
Much of one’s professional network remains the same. What changes is the reason for reaching out—and the honesty it takes to do so effectively.
It’s a good idea to ask yourself the following questions in advance, for example:
- Which relationships from my career were truly personal—and not just tied to a client?
- Who do I trust, even if we haven’t really spoken in years?
- What is the honest, current version of my story—the one I’d actually want someone to hear and engage with?
- Where am I visible today, outside of the work I bill for—and where else could I be?
What usually becomes clear is that your network extends further than you realize when you leave.
