As a law student, I loathed “networking.”

As a law student, I loathed “networking.”

—To me, it meant awkward alumni dinners, bar ass’n meetings, and cocktail mixers with lawyers 20–40 years older than me.

—I spent events like those wearing a plastic smile, laughing at jokes I didn’t understand, and feeling like a complete idiot.

So I stopped going. I told myself my top grades were enough:

“If I graduate at the top of my class and get into a BigLaw firm, I don’t need to network.”

I believed this with great conviction.
And for a while, it seemed true.

In the 1990s, even my dad—a former Wall Street securities lawyer—told me not to worry too much about networking:

“If you do great work at a big firm, the institutional clients will just be passed down to you over time.”

🔹 For a decade in BigLaw, that advice seemed right.

I billed the hours.
I collected the praise.
No one said “business development.”
No one said “you need your own clients.”

🔻 Then the economy collapsed.

The institutional clients disappeared.
Overnight, “business development” became the buzzword everyone was talking about.

But I had absolutely no network to lean on.
What I did have was three kids under seven and a crushing billable workload.

I tried mightily for another seven years, but I never developed any meaningful, scalable business.

It taught me a brutal truth: you cannot outwork an empty network.

🔹 In 2021, as a new business owner, I was again starting from scratch and faced the daunting prospect of finding every single one of my own clients.

I had no particular reason to be optimistic given my track record.

But the difference this time? LinkedIn.

“Networking” now feels completely different.

I see it as making new friends and finding ways to help them.

That’s not awkward at all.
It’s actually pretty damn fulfilling.

⬇️

So if you’re a law student who hates “networking,” you don’t need another lecture about going to receptions you dread. You need a playbook that shows you how to:

-build a thoughtful LinkedIn presence,
-reach out to lawyers without feeling salesy or weird, and
-nurture relationships over years, not hours or weeks.

 That’s why I’m THRILLED to tell you that your playbook is here.

Spencer May’s new book, “Memorable Law Students” is exactly what I wish someone had handed me in 1993. Spencer May

It reframes networking as building real relationships and gives you concrete, doable steps to start now—especially on LinkedIn—without becoming someone you’re not.

If you’re earlier in your career than I was when everything changed?

PLEASE: learn from my regret, not your own.

👉 You can pick up your copy here:

https://lnkd.in/emTAVpWy

💌 Amanda

P.S. What was your early experience with networking?

What helped you get over the awkwardness hump?