August 8, 2025
Your Personal Brand as an Intrapreneur: How to Be Known If You Aren’t the Owner
BY: Brian Glass
Most conversations about personal branding in law focus on law firm owners and solo practitioners. But what if you’re an associate or your name isn’t on the door? Does that mean you’re destined to remain in the shadow of the firm’s name?
Absolutely not.
Personal branding isn’t just for firm owners. Whether you’re on the path to partnership or planning to launch your own practice someday, building your name within your firm and your broader legal community is critical. You don’t have to own the firm: you just have to own your reputation.
1. Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You’re an Employee
An “intra-preneur” is someone who treats their role inside an organization as if they were running their own business. Instead of waiting for the firm’s leadership to build your brand for you, take control of how you are perceived in your professional network.
The easiest way to start is to treat every client like they are your last. How would you treat a case if they were your only client, you had no marketing budget, and you had to rely on that client to refer you future business? You’d begin to develop a relationship with that client outside of the specific problems in their case. Your firm’s clients should know you, not just the name on the letterhead.
Clients don’t refer business to law firms, they refer them to lawyers. And the key is to become a lawyer that your client knows, likes, and trusts.
2. Get Outside of Your Boss’s Network
The easy trap to fall into as a young lawyer is to stay under the umbrella of your boss and their friends. If every potential referral source you’ve met has been through your supervising partner, they’re just going to continue to refer cases to the partner (not to you).
The good news: It’s OK. I made this mistake during the first part of my career also.
Here’s how you fix that: Look around your own network for lawyers your age and start hosting meetings. This can be as simple as you inviting seven lawyers from different practice areas to your office once a month for pizza and soda or as complex as you organizing regular networking dinners (your firm will probably even pick up the tab once you can prove this results in business).
Constructing your own network now sets you up as the hub, the go-to lawyer. If you organize these dinners or lunch-and-learns around your practice area (or marketing, or staff management, or literally anything else) people will simply assume that you are the expert in that area and the business will flow in.
3. Leverage Thought Leadership to Build Your Reputation
You don’t need to own a firm to build authority. You just need to start sharing what you know. Thought leadership solidifies your reputation and makes you the obvious choice for referrals and career advancement.
“Do good work and more work will come” is the lie that older lawyers tell you so that you don’t take their business. Post on LinkedIn, contribute to bar association newsletters, and create short, helpful content that speaks to your ideal audience. No one is going to come along and give you permission to begin to do this; just do it. The longer you wait to be invited, the longer you’ll wait to explode your book of business.
Young lawyers who actively engage in thought leadership create more opportunities for themselves, whether inside their firm or in the broader legal community.
Conclusion: Your Name Matters. Own It!
You don’t have to be the owner of a firm to build a standout reputation. As an intra-preneur, your goal is to create value, develop expertise, and make yourself known in and beyond your firm. By taking ownership of your personal brand now, you position yourself for greater opportunities, higher credibility, and long-term career success. No matter where you practice.
Start thinking like a brand today, and the opportunities will follow.