Why should individual barristers be marketing themselves?

Why should individual barristers be marketing themselves?

Scala’s unique ‘Raise The Bar’ service is based on decades of experience working with barristers’ chambers. We’ve witnessed first-hand how the profession has changed over the years, often participating at senior management level as to how best to respond to the changes. From the introduction of Public Access work to, more recently, the long overdue drive to make the profession more diverse. Our knowledge and understanding of the profession is deep-rooted.

The profession is currently seeing a range of factors that, when combined, poses a risk of a disconnect in the client-barrister relationship. The shift towards reliance on IT and virtual meetings as a means of delivery of legal services, the growing emphasis on the strength of a barrister’s ‘personal brand’ (particularly online) to attract work, coupled with the ongoing commercial pressures faced by chambers.   

It’s these changes that have resulted in a need for individual barristers to take greater control of their own marketing and business development.

Chambers’ resources are increasingly stretched

According to statistics published by the Bar Standards Board in 2020, there were just over 17,000 practising barristers in the UK.  The majority, 79%, are self-employed working in chambers or alone as sole practitioners. Whilst chambers employ administrative and management staff to support their barristers, increasingly internal resources are being stretched, and the opportunity to devote time to barristers on a 1-2-1 basis is being eroded. Clerks are both brilliant and very busy people, and our service aims to complement their great work.

A research report by the BSB concluded that although the majority of barristers are self-employed, 43% market their services via a single website, “indicating that a greater reliance on an organisational-wide (i.e. chambers) approach to marketing”. Having worked with many chambers over the years, we know this to be true, not just in terms of website presence, but also marketing strategies more widely. It’s rare that we have worked with a barrister who has their own marketing and business development plan.

Whilst self-employed barristers may be commonly represented as a collective, they are also independent and therefore able to take control over how they market themselves, and their personal brand.

Building a personal brand as a barrister

It’s often difficult for barristers to see themselves as a brand, but just like any professional, barristers have one and it can be particularly powerful in attracting new work, or the right type of work.

Barristers have a website profile, a LinkedIn and Twitter presence, directory recommendations and name-checks on reported legal cases. The majority of barristers also undertake speaking opportunities and attend networking events.

Solicitors and Public Access clients are increasingly influenced by a barrister’s personal brand and use it to make informed decisions about whether to instruct. With physical promotional opportunities in the form of seminars, lectures and networking events likely to remain volatile in a post-Covid world, the strength of a barrister’s online personal brand is more important than ever.

Choosing to cultivate and nurture this brand in a strategic way is important for those looking to stand out from the crowd.

Low marketing spend

The same BSB research report revealed that “overall spend on marketing and advertising is low”, only 7% of respondents spend over 10% of their turnover, and 39% of chambers spend less than 1%. From our experience, we know that this marketing spend includes promotional items, web development costs and adverting costs. Fundamentally a spend that, in the main, isn’t directly linked to the marketing of an individual barrister.

Marketing and PR is also the most outsourced service by chambers, and therefore the extent of that agency’s working knowledge of chambers and the individual barristers that practice there, is a factor that a self-employed barrister should consider when reviewing their own marketing plans.

Public Access Clients

Clients via the public access scheme, either corporate or as instructing individuals, require a different approach to marketing. The traditional methods most frequently adopted by chambers of word-of-mouth marketing and online presence (mainly aimed at professional clients) are not sufficient.

As well as developing bespoke Public Access marketing plans that target individuals, there are huge opportunities with in-house legal teams who, according to BSB research, say they “do not know how to use the Bar and are uncertain where to go for guidance and are concerned about transparency”. Developing clear messaging, and using the correct channels of communication and engagement will enable individual barristers to not only showcase their legal expertise, but also connect on a personal level with potential clients.

All of these factors can be used to formulate an individual marketing strategy for barristers looking to grow this area of their practice.

For a free confidential chat about our affordable and high-quality 'Raise the Bar' service…email or call Natalie Rodgers, Managing Director, on 0114 407059 or NatalieRodgers@scala.uk.com