July 20, 2015 | less than a minute read

How to survive lawyer networking events

Passle

If the word 'networking' fills you with dread, you might be interested in this article, in which Stephen Furnari, via body language expert Vanessa Van Edwards, shares his survival tips.

The two main takeaways are: stand where people are exiting from the bar, and have a good conversation starter ready (such as 'working on anything exciting lately?').

I'm always a bit skeptical about adopting specific body language, such as the head tilt, but overall, there are some good ideas in there. As always, having a strategy for these stressful situations can help enormously.

I like networking as long at it’s the one-on-one variety where you get to sit down and really learn something about the other person. If find that fun. But networking events…if you put me in a room with lots of other professionals and leave me to “mingle”, I feel like a gangly, awkward mess dressed in a nice suit. I envy people who can work a room with ease. Those people who have quick lines or funny anecdotes at the tip of their tongue. It’s not a skill I’ve mastered. I don’t enjoy doing it. And as a result, networking events have never been a big part of my law firm’s marketing mix.