Networking in Action: A Guide for Women Building the Future of Law
Whether you’re building a legal tech company, leading AI transformation in your organization, or exploring career and leadership opportunities in AI, your network is pivotal to your success. For most of us, our current networks our not calibrated for the AI era. Afterall, we are in the field-building phase of the AI era in law, with new institutions, leaders, and power dynamics still emerging. Now is the time to take stock of your network and develop a strategy for building a future ready network to help you succeed in the new era.
Read our insights on what the research says about effective network-building and steps you can take to supercharge your network for the AI era of law.
Networking 101: What the Research Says
What is the ideal network size and structure?
Small or large? Small and mighty is okay. Maybe even better in some ways.
It’s the structure that matters. The types of connections in a network and “the connections” of those connections matter more than sheer size of the network. For example, a contact with an investor who focuses on your sector is more important than numerous finance contacts who don’t support your sector.
Centrality is key
Multiple studies point to importance of networks characterized by close contacts. Having a close group of people with whom you interact frequently is best. (Yang and Chawla. 2019)
According to a recent study by the US based women’s leadership group Chief: closeness and Frequency of Contact Matters. The study found that over 80% of high performing women leaders interacted with their networks regularly.
Composition-Diversity matters
Networks that include members from diverse sectors are the most beneficial. Think finance, operations, marketing, legal. All the sectors you or your business collaborates with to do what it does. Geographic diversity is important too regional, national, global.
Leveraging “Dormant” ties.
The research shows that contacts with whom you have not maintained touch over the years are important resources. Studies show that there are unique qualities to these relationships for example university friends may share a bond that endures despite the passage of time and years. When reactivated, they are often extremely helpful. Reach out and invigorate your ties with former work colleagues, schoolmates, and communities you may no longer actively interact with.
Networking Strategies: Leveraging Groups
Networking in groups can be intimidating, but there are ways to make it easier and more effective. The most important steps you can take are to be intentional and to develop a strategy.
There are many different types of groups may be pertinent to your networking.
Group Types:
Legal Professional Associations & Industry Groups
Adjacent Industry Communities, e.g., fintech, govtech, regtech, healthtech
Business eco-system groups, e.g., finance, marketing etc.
Alumni Networks
Community Groups, economic development, public interest
Each group type holds different benefits. You need to be strategic in evaluating your options. Consider why you will join a group and what you hope to obtain from participating. Consider specific benefits of different groups. Does it address a gap or weaknesses? Have potential to strengthen your contacts in a key area?
Before You Commit: Five Questions to Filter Opportunities
Whether you’re considering joining a group, attending an event, or accepting a coffee meeting, run through these filters:
1. Strategic Fit
Does this opportunity connect to a specific goal I’m working toward in the next 6-12 months?
2. Network Gap
Does this give me access to people, sectors, or perspectives missing from my current network?
3. Reciprocity Potential
Can I offer genuine value to people in this space, not just extract it?
4. Cost and Energy Math
Is the time, energy, and financial investment realistic given my current capacity?
5. Compounding Returns
Will relationships built here strengthen over time, or is this a one-time transaction?
Networking Strategies: Events
1.Event selection – In-person & Online
Map key industry events for the year
2. Event Preparation:
Establish Goals
Research Attendees & Speakers
Arrange Meetings in Advance
3. During Events
Networking opportunities include Coffee Breaks, Receptions, Breakout Groups
To maximize your effectiveness, consider:
Connecting with a speaker
Approaching someone you identified in advance but didn’t set a meeting with.
Look for individual who participated in a breakout session with you. You likely share an interest with them. Deepen the connection.
Leverage Social Media
Write about the event. Like posts by other attendees. Monitor the organizers postings and look at who comments. Reach out to others whose comments resonate.
4. Follow-up
Maintain the momentum and maximize opportunities by following up with your new contacts in soon after the event.
Networking Strategies: Online Beyond LinkedIn
Explore a diversity of platforms, Slack, Substack. Engage with online newsletters
Meeting requests. Reach out to individuals who may be peers, partners, or hold expertise that may be helpful to your venture or professional goals.. Request a brief virtual chat. Meeting strategy and follow-up. Make sure you set goals for the meeting and have an agenda for yourself. After the meeting send a thank you note right away.
Online Events. Online events create an opportunity to connect and network with speakers and participants during and after the event. Take note of individuals you want to meet. Reach out and let them know you enjoyed their presentation or connect with them on LinkedIn. Request a virtual coffee.
Networking 101: Master Interactions
✓Connect
Initiate conversations confidently and establish rapport.
✓Develop a pitch to impress
Clearly articulate who you are and what you seek.
✓Listen actively and show interest
Engage fully, ask questions, and remember details.
✓Reflect & Note Follow-up Items
Consolidate insights and plan next steps to build relationships.
Networking Strategies: You Made A New Connection. Now what?
Keep the relationship warm
Send immediate follow up note
Do something to help them right away
Send an article
Forward a LinkedIn post
Call an event to their attention
Make a connection for them
Send Check-in notes, set calls, schedule coffees
Supercharging: Effective Management
✓Develop a schedule
Integrate networking into your regular routine.
✓Set weekly goals
1.Maintenance of current contacts,
2. Outreach to new contacts
✓LinkedIn Connections
e.g., 5 per week
✓Follow up with new contacts
✓Reflect and Adjust Strategy
Keys to Successful Networking
Networking can be a powerful tool for female founders and other women building the future of law, but it requires strategy and intention. By focusing on building authentic relationships, being clear about your goals, and giving as much as you take, you can create a supportive and effective network that will help you achieve your business objectives.
Nimble. You need to think critically about what relationships and connections you need right now to reach your goals and the goals for your business. Your network might be great, but it doesn’t include people you need to help with the tech for your business or your current goals, e.g., building a career in AI governance, you need to be nimbleand adjust your networking focus to align with your current needs instead of relying on contacts you already have who may not be able to address them.
Boundary-Spanning, HBR highlights the importance of connecting with people who have different business functions or sectors and geographies. What types of people are not in your networks but should be?
Energy-Balanced. Be energizing to others excite them with your ideas, knowledge and skills. Show them your value and build trust and support with small gestures.
Levin, Daniel & Walter, Jorge & Murnighan, J.. (2011). Dormant Ties: The Value Of Reconnecting. Organization Science. 22. 923-939. 10.2307/20868904. The social networks literature suggests that ties must be maintained to retain value. In contrast, we show that reconnecting dormant ties – former ties, now out of touch – can be extremely useful. Our research prompted Executive MBA students to consult their dormant contacts about an important work project; outcomes compared favorably to those of their current ties. In addition, reconnecting previously strong ties led to all of the four benefits that are usually associated with either weak ties (efficiency and novelty) or strong ties (trust and shared perspective). These findings suggest that dormant relationships – often overlooked or underutilized – can be a valuable source of knowledge and social capital.
Greguletz, Elena & Diehl, Marjo-Riitta & Kreutzer, Karin. (2018). Why women build less effective networks than men: The role of structural exclusion and personal hesitation. Human Relations. 72. 001872671880430. 10.1177/0018726718804303. Studies have shown that women’s professional networks are often less powerful and effective than men’s in terms of exchanged benefits, yet the motivations that underlie the networking behaviours remain less well understood. Based on an interview study of 37 high-profile female leaders working in large German corporations, we found that not only the extrinsic barrier of structural exclusion from powerful networks, but also the intrinsic barrier of women’s hesitations to instrumentalize social ties are key to answering our research question: Why do women build less effective networks than men? Our analysis points to the existence of structural exclusion resulting from work-family conflict and homophily. With regard to personal hesitation, we identified two elements that were associated with under-benefiting from networking: moral considerations in social interactions and gendered modesty. Our study makes two important contributions. First, by highlighting personal hesitation as an intrinsic barrier, it extends the understanding of women’s motivations for networking based on social exchange theory (SET). Second, based on structural barriers and personal hesitation, it develops a grounded theory model of networking that offers a holistic understanding of reasons that, from the perspective of the focal women, contribute to gender inequality in the workplace.
Keys to Successful Networking
Keys to Successful Networking