Ten Things: How to Market Yourself (and Build Your Brand)

By Sterling Miller on March 31, 2026

My grandfather had a pretty corny sense of humor (which my daughters tell me is genetic… and potentially fatal). One of his favorite jokes was telling six-year-old me and my five-year-old brother that his basset hound kept elephants away from the house. We’d, of course, respond with, “There are no elephants in York, Nebraska, granddad.” To which he would reply, “That’s because she’s so good at her job!” You may be asking yourself why I am reliving this “Hee Haw” moment with you. It’s because one of the interesting (and painful) paradoxes of being an in-house lawyer is that the better you are at your job, the less anyone notices how good you are at solving legal problems. Why is this? Because, like my grandfather’s basset hound, keeping bad shit from happening is a relatively thankless job, i.e., good lawyering – the kind that keeps lawsuits from happening or contracts from going off the rails – looks like nothing happened. You are the Maytag repairman trying to explain to a mildly dubious audience that, due to your often heroic efforts, nothing bad has happened, i.e., the elephants have been kept at bay. It’s like trying to prove a negative. When you do get noticed, it’s usually because something you worked on went wrong, and now you are on the firing line for allowing it to happen. Is it fair? Nope. Not at all. But that’s part of the reality of being an in-house lawyer. What this means is that if you want to get ahead, get promoted, get more resources, get a raise, or pretty much anything else short of just keeping your job, you need to market yourself to the business. You need to build your brand. You may scoff at this, but if you are sitting around the legal department water cooler waiting for the business to recognize all of your excellent lawyering, you may be waiting a long f**king time. I made this mistake early in my in-house career, but I quickly realized that if you want to advance or get noticed, you need to learn how to market yourself both within the department and – for purposes of today’s post – to the business as a whole.[1] It’s not something that comes naturally to most lawyers, but that’s okay because this edition of “Ten Things” discusses just how to do this:

1. Why marketing yourself matters. Unlike working at a law firm, promotion, influence, and access within the company depend just as much, if not more, on perception of talent than actual legal talent (or the ability to generate millions of dollars in business). How the business “sees you” matters. They have no idea if you should sit on the Supreme Court or the People’s Court, but they know if they “think” you are a good lawyer. Your reputation inside the company, therefore, determines many things, including whether business teams involve you early, whether executives trust your judgment, or whether you are seen as a business accelerator (or a business blocker). This requires that you spend time thinking about and working on your image. I sat in on a lot of talent reviews as general counsel, in particular when the executive team was reviewing talent across the company.[2] My opinion mattered when it came to highlighting the lawyers who worked for me as high-potential talent. But if no one in that room had ever heard of you, my opinion was “okay,” but it did not move the needle for the room like someone from the business chiming in and saying, “I worked with her on a project, and she is fantastic.” That seal of approval from someone on the business side of the house can launch you into the fast track for promotion and “bigger things.” Does it mean you are the best lawyer in the department? Maybe. Maybe not. But it means that you have made an impression, and now the executives in that room think you are a star. If they think you are a star, guess what? You are a star! The challenging part here is finding the right level of self-promotion to avoid being seen as arrogant but ensuring your visibility and recognition of your value – things that matter dramatically if you want to advance.[3]

2. Understand the Business. Would it be a “Ten Things” blog if I didn’t mention the importance of understanding how the business works? No, it would not. So, let’s get it out of the way early. If you want to successfully market yourself, you need to show your audience that you understand how the business actually works. Being an excellent lawyer is just your ticket to the circus. Business leaders do care about legal risk, but they care about it in the context of the business and its strategic goals. They want lawyers who understand how the company makes money, what pressures their teams face, and what trade-offs are realistic. If you want “street cred” in the dark, scary alleyways of power, understand that the business values lawyers with commercial understanding and business savvy way more than lawyers with just top-flight legal skills. I know it sounds weird, but it’s true. Here’s what you need to know:

How the company makes money – what drives revenue?
What are the company’s products and services?
What is the marketplace like and who are the key competitors?
What are the company’s strategic plans for the short term and the long term?
What are the company’s goals and priorities and are you focusing on them?
What does the company “value” from the legal department, e.g., closing deals, speed to market, practical legal advice, and so on?
Basic business finance, i.e., how to read a balance sheet, cash flow statement, and profit & loss statement (P&L).

There are many ways to do this, but the easiest and most impactful is to simply ask the business. Not only does that get you answers faster, it helps you build relationships, which we will discuss more below.

3. Become a problem solver. Many in-house lawyers make a very common mistake when dealing with the business – they lead with the legal issues vs. the solution to the problem. Droning on about legal risks and issues has its place, but leading off with all the problems you see is not the best way to build your brand internally. In fact, it usually results in the business “seeing you”[4] (and the legal department) slowing down deals, complicating things, and generally blocking progress. While all of this is likely very unfair, that’s how it is. And smart in-house lawyers recognize this and make the shift from problem spotter to problem solver. This doesn’t mean you ignore the legal issues and risk; it means you change how you present those things to the business. To start, you rarely – if ever – lead with ultimatums, i.e., “You cannot do that.” There are only a handful of scenarios I can think of where these would be the first words leaving your mouth. Instead, use what I call “the path forward” trick, i.e., start with how you would advise the business to get to its goal vs. why the goal isn’t possible. Here is an example:

“I understand why this project is important to growing our revenues this quarter. I see three paths forward on this. The first one is the safest in terms of legal risk, but it will slow things down. The second option speeds things up, but we will need to take some steps to mitigate the risks. And the third is really aggressive but is manageable in my eyes if we agree to stay on top of this project and monitor things closely. Now, here are the pros and cons of each approach…”

As you can see, the “path forward” approach allows you, as the lawyer, to discuss all of the legal issues but it recasts the communication of those risks as ways to solve the business problem and not just a list of all the reasons the project is doomed as doomed can be.[5] It’s subtle, but it’s powerful because it allows the business to see that you understand the business issues (e.g., this project is important to increasing revenues) and that you are providing solutions that vary with the amount of risk the business is willing to take. And that is key as well – the business gets to decide how much risk it is willing to take to get those extra revenues. The added benefit is that when the business sees you as bringing solutions to the table and providing legal advice as part of a discussion of options vs. an edict from on high, they will likely want to include you early and trust that you are providing legal advice that is tailored to the needs and goals of the business and not some abstract law school exam question.

4. Great work no one sees doesn’t build your reputation. This bit gets tricky because in order to ensure your visibility for great work, you need to be sure the business knows you are doing great work. That means balancing between creepy self-promotion and simply being visible to the business (a/k/a fogging a mirror). In general terms, you want to avoid bragging and taking credit loudly (self-promotion) and focus on sharing information and educating the business on legal issues and, importantly, how you and the legal department support successful business outcomes. It’s not as hard as it sounds. Here are a few ways to increase your visibility internally:

Meet with the business regularly – especially those you tend to support regularly (but look for opportunities to engage with business colleagues you do not work with much).
Participate in company events (and sit/engage with people you haven’t met).
Seek out opportunities to participate in cross-functional meetings (and look for chances to take a leadership role in a workstream – and not just as the “lawyer”).
Provide the business with regular updates on projects you are working on for them (and why they matter).
Do post-mortems after deals or big litigation, i.e., gather folks together to discuss what went right and what could be done better next time.
Give the business useful tools like checklists, playbooks, short updates on relevant legal issues, training on legal issues, etc.
Enhance your ability to think strategically about issues the business is facing and bring that to the table in addition to your legal skills.

You may have noticed that the above doesn’t require others to do anything. You are responsible for your career and you must be proactive unless your plan is to sit in the back of the room and go unnoticed.[6] Moreover, the importance of the things on the above list is that they all lead to exposure to business leaders (hopefully senior executives[7]) and that allows them to see you as more than just a lawyer, but as a business colleague with good judgment, people skills, and the ability to think commercially and strategically. And it allows them to talk about you in those talent meetings (and other meetings) first-hand as someone who “gets it” and is both a problem solver and understands how to give legal advice in the context of the realities the business faces. That’s how you advance.

5. Build relationships across the organization. While discussed somewhat above, this is so critical to your ability to market yourself, I am going to spend some time specifically on the importance of building relationships across the company. To make it really simple: internal marketing is really just relationship building. In-house lawyers with the strongest reputations tend to know many people across the company, understand internal politics (see below), and have mentors/trusted allies in different parts of the organization, i.e., people who will speak well about you when your name is mentioned. But it all starts with your willingness to get out there and meet people not in the legal department. Start with your internal clients, i.e., sales, product, marketing, operations, finance, HR, IT, compliance, etc. Whoever you work with the most should be on your list. If you are traveling to different offices for any reason, ask for the opportunity to meet with the leaders of that office. You may get turned down, but more likely than not, some will accept and you will gain new contacts within the business. And these meetings do not need to wait for legal issues to arise, just schedule coffee or lunch for an informal chat. Ask them how they got to the company (their career path), ask about what they/their team does, ask about priorities and goals and how you and the legal department can be better partners. Ultimately, you want leaders across the organization to think of you as the “go-to lawyer” because you are someone who:

Is easy to relate to and work with.
Responds quickly (even if all you are saying is that I got your email and will respond as soon as I can).
Explains things clearly.
Understands the business.
Meets deadlines.
Provides practical advice.
Avoids surprises.

6. Stop communicating like a lawyer. One of the most effective ways to build your brand internally is to stop communicating like a lawyer. This means you need to lose the legal jargon, overly cautious tone, long explanations, and – most importantly – wishy-washy recommendations. You are a business person with a law degree, write like a business person and not like a lawyer. Think about it like this: if you were sitting across the table from someone and trying to explain a legal issue, would you use a bunch of jargon and caveat everything you talk about? No, you would not (unless you are really weird). You would try to speak as plainly and clearly as possible. That’s how you should communicate with the business every day. You are not writing to a senior partner at a law firm or a district court judge; you are writing to someone who needs to understand what you are telling them. Make it easy for them to understand. This means a handful of things that likely need to change with your communication style. Here are the basics:

Say it/write it as simply as possible.
Use bullet points and put the answer up front (not buried on page 12 of your ungodly long email)
No jargon. No footnotes. No Blue Book.
Keep it short, concise, and action-oriented (use active voice).
Lead with the solution, not the legal issues.
Give your recommendation on what the business should do (and why you feel that way).
Set out the options and the pros and cons of each.
Keep it practical – the advice has to work in the world in which the company operates.

Here is an example:

Bad:

“There are a myriad of concerns and legal considerations that may create potential regulatory exposure for various aspects of the proposed action. Below, I set out the relevant legal case and regulatory precedents and evaluate each legal issue thereunder to provide a solution scheme for the business to decide amongst a set of salient legal options that could minimize risk to an appropriate and acceptable level…”

Good:

“There’s moderate regulatory risk here. We can make this work if we add these three protections…”

It is pretty clear which writer is the problem solver and which writer is the problem. Don’t be the problem, be the solution.

7. Develop a reputation for good judgment. There are numerous soft skills that matter for in-house counsel, but if I had to choose one (especially when it comes to building your brand internally), it would be developing “good judgment.” I say this because the business seeks out and trusts lawyers who demonstrate that they a) can balance risk and business needs, b) know when something truly needs to be escalated, and c) know how to stay even-keeled even during the most stressful moments. Unfortunately, a lot of what goes into developing good judgment comes with just being around for a while, i.e., the older you get, the better your judgment. So, chalk one up for oldness! But, even before Father Time does a number on you, there are ways to hone your judgment even in the early days of your career. The first step is to avoid extremes, i.e., not everything is high risk and not everything is “do what you want business, it will all work out…” This means you need to get really good, really fast at “risk calibration.” If something is low risk, then generally tell the business to proceed. If something is medium risk, work through the steps you can put in place to mitigate the risk. And if something is high risk, figure out how to escalate to leadership to make the call (i.e., the right person is making the call). Being consistent in how you operate within this continuum of risk will serve you well in terms of building up your credibility, e.g., “Sterling is only going to make a fuss if the issue involves high risk.” When your advice and actions are predictable and thoughtful, business leaders are much more likely to rely on it and take you at face value. Your brand becomes, “has good instincts and is pragmatic about risk.” In short, start early in your career with the following:

Accept “managed” risk (you’ll never get to zero risk unless you want the business to die).
Offer the path forward, not just constraints.
Know when speed matters more than precision (which is more often than you may think)
Look to enable the business safely and reasonably, not perfectly.

For more on this, see my “Ten Things” post on Spotting, Managing, and Reporting Risk.

8. Don’t be the bottleneck. As you build your reputation and brand internally, in-house lawyers often run into a unique problem – they become the “go-to person” for legal work and suddenly everything flows to you. While this seems like a good problem to have, if you are not turning things around quickly, that slow response time can start to cut away at your brand. You become a victim of your own success! Consequently, as you develop your brand, you also need to develop your plan on how to handle success. Here are a few things you need to do:

Learn to prioritize your work properly. You need to spend most (but not all) of your time on the things that matter most. See my “Ten Things” post on How to Prioritize Your Work as an In-House Lawyer for more.
Be practical in everything you do. Sometimes good enough is good enough. Just like sometimes, the best answer is the simplest. See my “Ten Things” post on How to be Practical.
Become an expert delegator. Once you have mastered a task, your next thought should be who else needs to learn how to do this, and how can I delegate things that I have mastered to those who need to learn? See my “Ten Things” post on How to Delegate Properly.
Create scalable processes to help you get work done faster, e.g., templates, checklists, playbooks, self-service options, etc. See my “Ten Things” post on How to Create Checklists.
Avoid things that drain time without adding value, like many meetings. See my “Ten Things” post on Escaping Meeting Hell.
Don’t let email control your work day. It’s a tool, not the world’s longest to-do list. See my “Ten Things” post on Slaying the Email Jabberwocky.
Use Generative AI tools to get more done in less time. See my “Ten Things” post on 100 Practical GenAI Prompts for In-House Lawyers.

Nothing builds and keeps a good brand internally like delivering fast and practical legal support. And if you really want to go deep on productivity, check out my book “The Productive In-House Lawyer: Tips, Hacks, and the Art of Getting Things Done” (especially the section on “Good enough is good enough” at page 300).

9. Navigate internal politics. I know this doesn’t sound like a lot of fun, but there is no way to market yourself and avoid internal politics. This means you need to learn how to navigate them and to do so with good judgment and integrity because those are the brand attributes of successful in-house lawyers. Your goal isn’t to be the smartest person in the room; it’s to be the most trusted. Here are five things to do to help successfully navigate the minefield:

Think of internal politics as “stakeholder management.” The most effective in-house lawyers don’t see politics as something negative; they see it as (i) understanding incentives, (ii) communicating strategically, and (iii) grasping how influence works. Your goal is to be known as someone who gets things done in a complex organization. Build a reputation for reliability, i.e., you deliver consistently, you meet deadlines, and you follow through. This is how you start to capture trust
Map power – not org charts. Titles rarely tell the real story within a company. Work to identify (i) who actually influences decisions (often not the most senior person); (ii) who the CEO/business leaders trust (and become friends with that person); and (iii) informal power brokers (e.g., key revenue drivers – people who drive revenue drive decisions). One easy way to look at it is this: “If this decision really mattered, whose opinion would carry the most weight?” Those are the people you want to impress. In the simplest terms, learn to manage up.
Pick your battles (ruthlessly). Not every issue is worth escalating. You want to be known for speaking up on high-risk, high-impact issues and not get wrapped around the axle on low-stakes issues. In other words, if you escalate and fight over everything, you lose influence. If you escalate the right things, your opinion carries weight because they know you are not going to make a big deal about shit that doesn’t matter.
Handle disagreements professionally. You will disagree with business stakeholders. It is not a matter of if, but how often. It is not the disagreement that matters as much as how you handle disagreement, which defines you and your brand. You want to: (i) be direct, but not adversarial; (ii) always focus on risks and trade-offs, not personal positions; (iii) never embarrass someone publicly; and (iv) not be afraid or too proud to change your mind. Maintaining relationships is critical when managing stakeholders.
Maintain your moral compass. Managing politics doesn’t mean you lose your moral compass or ignore the rules of professional responsibility. Ultimately, to succeed as an in-house lawyer, you must be known mostly for sound judgment, integrity, and courage when it matters. None of this is easy. In my experience, most executives want to hear what they need to hear and not just what they want to hear.[8] Dealing with internal politics should never push you into compromising your professional standards. And if that is the price to pay to play, I would strongly recommend you find a new job.

10. Market externally too. For the most part, marketing yourself means marketing to your business colleagues at your current job. But there is another reason to market yourself, and that is to the outside world. There are two reasons for this.[9] First, despite your efforts, you may never be properly recognized for the value you add at your current company. It happens. When it does, you have two choices: suck it up or leave. Second, even if the business gives you a parade each week, you never know when the opportunity of a lifetime may find you. In either case, if you are not allowing yourself “to be seen” by the world outside the walls of your current employer, then the opportunity to move on to something better may pass you by. There are lots of ways to do this, but I am going to focus on what I think has become the best place to market yourself here in 2026 – LinkedIn. Many recruiters, internal and external, start any search with LinkedIn, so that is where you need to make sure you stand out. Here are some tips to make yourself “discoverable” on LinkedIn (without saying “Open to new opportunities”):

Think like a recruiter and like a business-minded lawyer, i.e., optimize your profile for search while presenting yourself as a commercially focused legal advisor.
Use a headline that says more than just your boring ass job title, e.g., “Corporate Counsel,” and highlights your areas of expertise (e.g., commercial contracts, privacy, regulatory, etc.) and industries you support. Recruiters search by terms, so use them!
In your “About” section, show your value, e.g., how you help the business move faster while managing risk. Provide a few examples of impact (e.g., improving contract turnaround times, enabling product launches, building compliance frameworks, etc.).
In the experience section, focus on outcomes (and not just responsibilities). For example, show how you drove business results, reduced risk, or improved processes, and quantify where possible (e.g., “Implemented contract process changes that increased revenue by over $100M in one year”).
Highlight skills to align with the job you want (e.g., SaaS agreements, GDPR/CCPA, employment, investigations, and so on). Endorsements and recommendations from business stakeholders, not just other lawyers, are helpful too. Similarly, being the leader of an organization or gaining accreditations are also ways to impress recruiters and business leaders.[10]

Finally, stay visible and engaged on LinkedIn. You do not need to write a missive every week. Just share your insights, comment on developments in your space, or post about lessons learned in your work. All of these signal that you are current, commercially focused, and engaged – things that recruiters look for when searching for in-house lawyers.

Here is an example of the above:

Headline:
Senior Corporate Counsel | Commercial Contracts | Data Privacy & Compliance | Trusted Business Partner

About:
I’m an in-house attorney who helps high-growth companies manage risk without slowing down the business. With 10+ years of experience across technology and consumer products, I specialize in commercial contracting, data privacy, and building scalable compliance frameworks. In my current role, I reduced contract cycle times by 35% by redesigning templates and playbooks, while ensuring alignment with evolving regulatory requirements. I’m known for being a practical, solutions-oriented partner to sales, product, and leadership teams with the ability to translate complex legal issues into clear, actionable guidance. I enjoy roles where legal can act as a strategic enabler of growth, not just a gatekeeper.

Experience:
Senior Corporate Counsel, ABC Tech Company

Negotiated and closed 200+ commercial agreements annually, including SaaS, vendor, and strategic partnership contracts
Reduced average contract turnaround time by 35% by implementing standardized templates and self-service tools
Led company-wide GDPR and CCPA compliance initiatives, mitigating regulatory risk across global operations
Advised product and engineering teams on privacy-by-design, enabling successful launch of new data-driven features

*****

Building your brand and marketing yourself is not something that happens overnight. It has to be done over time, and you need to take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way. And it’s not always the “crisis” moments that cement your reputation (though those do help). More often than not, it is small interactions over time with the business that shape their long-term perception of you. It starts with just asking yourself what you want to be known for, e.g., pragmatic problem solver, trusted advisor, good judgment, calm under pressure, etc. Most likely, it’s some combination of things. It then comes down to learning how to successfully market yourself to the business. The goal ultimately is trust. Businesses promote and reward lawyers they like and trust (and businesses find lawyers who can market themselves in the right way – internally or externally).

Sterling Miller

March 31, 2026

My newest book (number seven), More Slow-Cooker Savant, is out now! I think it has sold something like 30 million copies – if you round up. A lot. Join the cool kids and buy a copy right now!

The Productive In-House Lawyer: Tips, Hacks, and the Art of Getting Things Done, is available for sale. You can buy it here: Buy The Book!

My fifth book, Showing the Value of the Legal Department: More Than Just a Cost Center is available now, including as an eBook! You can buy a copy HERE.

Two of my books, Ten Things You Need to Know as In-House Counsel – Practical Advice and Successful Strategies and Ten (More) Things You Need to Know as In-House Counsel – Practical Advice and Successful Strategies Volume 2, are also on sale at the ABA website (including as e-books).

I have published two other books: The Evolution of Professional Football, and The Slow-Cooker Savant. I am also available for speaking engagements, webinars/CLEs, coaching, training, pet sitting, bartending, and consulting.

Connect with me on Twitter @10ThingsLegal and on LinkedIn where I post articles and stories of interest to in-house counsel frequently.

“Ten Things” is not legal advice nor legal opinion and represents my views only. It is intended to provide practical tips and references to the busy in-house practitioner and other readers. If you have questions or comments, or ideas for a post, please contact me at sterling.miller@outlook.com or if you would like a CLE for your in-house legal team on this or any topic in the blog, contact me at smiller@hilgerslaw.com.

[1] I want to thank my friend Talia Jarvis, CLO at Closed Loop Partners, for suggesting this topic and for providing me with a lot of great thoughts and ideas. She remains the only person I have allowed to post on the “Ten Things” blog. If you haven’t read her awesome post on what you need to know as a woman in-house lawyer, fix that mistake and read this: What You Need to Know as a Woman In-House Lawyer.

[2] In most companies this is the infamous nine-box discussion. If you want to know more about this particularly weird and unhelpful shit show-arama, see The 9-Box Grid: How to Use It and Its Limitations.

[3] If this seems a bit overwhelming or if you are suffering from imposter syndrome, consider hiring a coach. You may think only senior executives hire coaches. You would be wrong. They can help anyone overcome things that are blocking advancement, including teaching you new skills, building your executive presence, helping you feel more confident, and seeing your blind spots. For more on this, check out these two fantastic articles: Unlocking GC Potential: How Executive Coaching Drives Success and Finding the Right Executive Coach for your GC Journey

[4] Again, we are talking about perception and not whether it is true or not.

[5] See also my “Ten Things” post Making Legal the Department of Yes.

[6] I’ll admit that this was my plan in law school and it usually worked. When it didn’t, it was not pretty. Let’s just say a lot of people wondered how the hell I got in the door in the first place. And not just my mom and dad!

[7] And even if they are not senior business leaders now – they will be some day!

[8] There are, of course, plenty of exceptions. The good news is that a lot of them end up in politics.

[9] There may be more but damn it’s late and I’m getting tired. So, you can go figure out numbers three and four and let me know what you come up with.

[10] You probably won’t impress many lawyers, but that’s not always your audience.