A pattern I often see with BigLaw women

I was leading a group call on how lawyers identify what actually makes them chosen.

What my clients said is extremely common.

“I don’t even recognize it as special. That’s just my natural way of being.”

“I often think of 'strengths' as something more… substantive.”

There is also an identity layer to this.

Women, and especially women carrying additional layers of identity beyond gender (such as race or economic background), receive strong and consistent messages not to claim their seat too directly.

So it makes sense if acknowledging your personal strengths feels uncomfortable. Even when they are the reason clients trust you.

Branding, the first stage of my BNRI framework, has two parts:

1. Internal clarity
2. External positioning

External positioning includes your niche, the problems you solve, and the experiences that make you a natural choice.

Today we look inside.

What are the traits clients actually experience when they work with you?

One thing that continues to surprise many of my clients:

They assume expertise is what wins work.

There are thousands of lawyers within most specialties with similar credentials.

So why does business go to some and not others?

It is rarely credentials.

Developing your network and making the ask are critically important. But that is not the whole picture.

You become unique and compelling when you can articulate how existing clients experience working with you. That means:

Your judgment.
Your communication.
Your steadiness.
Your ability to make complex situations feel manageable.

We discount these things because they feel natural.

We did not have to learn them.

It's just who we are.

One woman realized her ability to stay calm under pressure was exactly what her institutional clients rely on during high stakes litigation.

Another saw that her ability to explain complex issues simply was not just good lawyering. It builds enormous trust and client buy-in of her work.

Another recognized that her instinct to focus on the client experience, remembering small details that others typically miss, was directly tied to her ability to retain and expand relationships.

This is built into how I teach Branding inside BNRI. Both the internal recognition and the external articulation.

Because if you cannot clearly see your value, it becomes much harder to name it.

And if you can't name it, others miss it.

I wrote up the exact positioning process I use with my clients to help them identify this. If you are curious, you can download it here (and for some of you, it will show up as an attachment).

Most of you high performers are sitting on very valuable differentiators that you have never been taught to name. And then own.

That is fixable.

xo,

Rachel

P.S. If you want to think this through together, we can do that in a private strategy session. You can book one here.