Young Lawyers Can Do These Three Things to Set Themselves Apart

The legal profession has always been fiercely competitive. But the bar to stand out is especially high for young lawyers today.

Law firms and government offices are filled with talented attorneys who graduated from strong schools, earned impressive credentials, and work extremely hard. For junior lawyers hoping to build meaningful careers, the question becomes: How do you separate yourself from a crowd of capable peers?

Billing more hours or waiting for the right case to come along isn’t necessarily the answer. The lawyers who advance the fastest tend to think strategically about their professional trajectory early. They find ways to add value to their organizations, develop expertise that others rely on, and avoid traps that can quietly stall a career.

Young attorneys can use three practical strategies to set themselves apart.

Help solve your boss’ problems. Many young attorneys approach their jobs by focusing primarily on their own needs. Conversations with supervisors often center on requests: more training, a higher bonus, better assignments, or greater responsibility.

It’s important to advocate for yourself, but young lawyers should also recognize how these requests look from the other side of the desk. Managers and organizational leaders are juggling competing priorities, tight budgets, and constant demands on their time. When employees approach them only with requests, they unintentionally can come across as adding to their supervisors’ workload rather than helping to lighten it.

Instead of focusing solely on what you need, look for ways to help solve the problems your supervisors face every day. Ask questions such as:

• What are the biggest challenges facing our team right now?
• What issues are keeping you up at night?
• Is there anything I can do to make your job easier or help the team succeed?

When you take this approach, you become known as someone who helps solve problems rather than someone who creates demands.

Differentiate yourself. When I joined the Department of Justice, I was a newbie on a team of grizzled veterans. Many of the attorneys had investigated matters of enormous significance, those once-in-a-generation cases that define careers. I knew that moving up in the office food chain would be difficult. But I was unsure how to position myself to ascend, and I was too impatient to spend a decade waiting for a generational case.

I discovered a way to stand out largely by accident. I investigated a matter that hinged on a complex statutory provision. The statute didn’t have significant scholarship that laid out its legal landscape or analyzed its intricacies.

As part of my investigation, I collected a large volume of research, including relevant court opinions, obscure regulatory interpretations, and even a Harvard Law Review article from the 1950s. When I finished, I wasn’t sure what to do with the mountain of research I’d gathered.

Recognizing that others would likely have similar investigations in the future, I wrote an article that provided a roadmap for investigators by compiling the disparate caselaw into a single location, summarizing key elements, and providing important interpretative context.

Days later, my division leader walked into my office with one of the grizzled veterans in tow. They described a case they were struggling with that involved the same provision I’d examined. They read my article and—I couldn’t believe it—asked me for advice.

I later investigated a matter implicating a false statement provision and again summarized my research in an article, becoming the office expert on false statement issues as well.

Distinguishing yourself in a cerebral way builds your personal brand, helps your colleagues, and sets you apart. My path was writing articles, but that’s not necessarily the answer for everyone. It may be serving on a key bar association committee, organizing a series of firm-wide brown bags on pressing topics, securing a notable speaker for an office lunch, or teaching at a law school. There are endless options, but self-direction is key.

Be social, but stay professional. Socializing and developing appropriate relationships in the workplace is important but, in my experience, junior lawyers sometimes overvalue being social in their work environments.

Here’s the trap: Younger lawyers often end up becoming their firms’ de facto social chairs, thinking that organizing social outings will advance their careers. I recommend resisting that temptation.

Once a young lawyer falls into the role of organizing happy hours, celebratory lunches, and birthday surprises, they run the risk of getting pigeonholed as a socializer. And that reputation is hard to overcome one it solidifies. Junior lawyers should seek to distinguish themselves not for their event-planning, but rather their legal acumen.

Remember that office happy hours, holiday parties, and celebratory gatherings may feel informal, but they are still professional environments. Junior attorneys should remember that partners, supervisors, and colleagues are watching. Impressions formed in those moments can stick, and such settings can reveal more about a person’s judgment than what happens during the workday.

That means exercising discretion. Resist the temptation to treat the event like a fraternity party and maintain the same level of professionalism you would display in the office. Lawyers are trusted advisers to clients and stewards of serious responsibilities, and that expectation of judgment doesn’t disappear when the venue shifts from the conference room to the bar.

Reputations in professional environments often form in seemingly small moments. An offhand remark, a poorly delivered joke, or a lapse in discretion can travel quickly and linger long after an event has ended. Fair or not, those moments can shape how colleagues perceive your maturity, judgment, and readiness for greater responsibility.

The safest course is simple: Enjoy the camaraderie but always keep one foot firmly in professional mode. Your goal should be to leave colleagues remembering you as thoughtful, measured, and professional. You don’t want to be that person who lost their judgment after hours.

Ultimately, standing out as a young lawyer is less about waiting for the perfect case or logging the most hours and more about demonstrating judgment, initiative, and a genuine commitment to helping your organization succeed. Lawyers who focus on solving problems, building meaningful expertise, and conducting themselves with professionalism in every setting earn something far more valuable: the trust of colleagues and leaders.

And in the legal profession, trust often is what opens the most doors.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg Industry Group, Inc., the publisher of Bloomberg Law, Bloomberg Tax, and Bloomberg Government, or its owners.

Author Information

Mark Lee Greenblatt is an attorney, former Inspector General of the US Department of the Interior and chair of the Council of Inspectors General, and author of “Valor: Unsung Heroes from Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Home Front.”

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