Most lawyers write their LinkedIn profile for other lawyers, yet the people reading it are usually someone else: a founder who needs a shareholders' agreement, an accountant with a client to refer, a recruiter filling a legal counsel role, a general counsel hunting for outside help. A LinkedIn profile for lawyers also has a problem most professions skip, because your bar or regulator may have views on how you describe yourself. Both can be fixed in an afternoon.
Write practice areas the way the reader searches them
"Corporate and commercial" tells a founder very little. Neither does "dispute resolution", and I say that knowing half the profession uses it. The reader has a problem with a name: a landlord keeping a deposit, a co-founder walking out, a dismissal letter on the kitchen table. They type that problem into a search box, or they ask someone who knows you and then check your profile before calling.
So treat each practice area as a skill and name it at the level a buyer of legal services would recognise. "Employment law" works as a category. "Redundancy consultations for retailers", "executive exits" and "whistleblowing claims" are what make someone stop scrolling. Your skills section deserves the same pruning: keep the areas you would take a call on today, put them in the order you want to be found, and delete whatever you last touched as a trainee.
A LinkedIn headline for attorneys follows the same logic. Here are two versions for an invented lawyer, Dana Whitlock:
- Before: Attorney at Whitlock & Moss LLP, JD, Member of the State Bar
- After: Employment attorney for restaurant groups: wage claims, handbooks, executive exits
The first is a directory entry. The second tells a restaurant owner they have landed in the right place, and it says what Dana does without saying how good she is. That difference matters later in this post.
Describe matters without naming clients
Your duty of confidentiality reaches further than most profile advice assumes. In many jurisdictions the existence of an engagement is itself protected unless the client has agreed or the matter is already on the public record, and a press release from your firm does not automatically give you personal permission to list it. Check the firm's policy first, and the client's consent where that applies.
The workaround happens to read better anyway. Give four things: the type of matter, the side you represented, the sector, and the stage you carried it through. Here is the deal-tombstone line many corporate lawyers reach for, followed by a safer version (the project and the figure are invented):
Before: Advised Project Falcon on its landmark $40m cross-border acquisition, a highly complex transaction closed in record time.
After: Acted for the buyer, a family-owned logistics group, on a cross-border share acquisition, from term sheet through closing.
The second line loses the adjectives and nothing else. A client reading it still learns that you do this kind of work, for this kind of company, end to end. Litigators can use the same shape: "Defended a machinery manufacturer in a product liability claim, from pleadings through appeal." If a number could identify the client, drop it or use a range, as the piece on confidential numbers explains.
In-house and private practice profiles read differently
A private practice profile has a commercial job. Your reader might hire you or refer someone to you, so the About section should say who you act for, on what kind of problem, and how to reach you. Experience entries can stay at the level of matter types, grouped by year or by firm.
In-house, there is no client to win. Your reader is a recruiter or your next general counsel, and they want to know how the business used you. Describe the size of the legal function, what the company does, and which decisions you sat next to. For example: "Sole lawyer at a 200-person software business, covering commercial contracts, data protection and board support through two funding rounds." One caution here: your employer may have a policy on discussing its legal affairs publicly, and that policy usually applies to your profile as well.
If you are moving from one world to the other, rewrite rather than edit. "Matters" becomes "business problems" on the way in-house, and the reverse trip needs named practice areas again, because a client cannot buy "business partnering". Your profile can stay broad, while the lawyer CV carries the detail tailored to one application. Postulit turns a LinkedIn profile into a CV, so the cleanup you do here also gives you a first draft of that document.
Where conduct rules may apply
None of this is legal advice, and the rules differ widely. US state bars do not all say the same thing, and the SRA in England and Wales has its own approach for solicitors. In many jurisdictions a LinkedIn profile counts as a communication about your services, so advertising rules can reach it, including the parts you filled in years ago and forgot. Read your own conduct rules before relying on anything below.
"Specialist" and "expert". Some bars restrict "specialist" or "certified" to lawyers who hold a recognised certification, and a skill label can fall under the same restriction as a sentence in your About section. Plain descriptions of what you do tend to be safer: "my practice focuses on", "I act for", "I advise".
"Best", "leading", "top". Comparative claims are hard to substantiate, and a number of regulators are wary of them. That includes ranking badges you did not earn personally. A headline that describes the work avoids the question altogether, which is why Dana's version above is written the way it is.
Results. "Won every case" or a stated success rate may be treated as misleading, because past outcomes depend on facts the reader's case may not share. Some bars ban such claims and others ask for a disclaimer. Check before you write one, and be especially careful with settlement amounts.
Endorsements and recommendations. A written recommendation from a client looks a lot like a testimonial, and testimonials are one of the things regulators may restrict. It can also reveal that the client hired you, which takes us back to confidentiality. Skill endorsements carry a smaller version of the same issue: someone who never saw your work is vouching for it on your page. Where the rules are unclear, a recommendation from co-counsel or a former supervisor is usually easier to defend, and you can hide anything you would not want to explain.
Paralegals and legal staff
Paralegals, legal assistants, contract managers and compliance staff need sharper profiles than most of them have, and their main risk is different. Avoid any wording that suggests you are a licensed lawyer if you are not, such as "legal advisor" or "legal consultant", where it could mislead. Use your real job title. Your confidentiality obligations follow the same pattern as above, and your supervising lawyer may answer for what you post.
Be specific about the work: "Litigation paralegal: document review for commercial disputes, trial bundles, court filing deadlines, case management systems." Hiring partners and legal operations managers tend to look for exactly that. The paralegal CV guide covers the document side.
One hour this week
Open your profile next to your conduct rules and work through this in order:
- Rewrite the headline as who you act for and on what.
- Read every experience entry for client names and anything that would identify one.
- Search the page for "specialist", "expert", "best", "leading" and any result you claim.
- Review your recommendations and hide those you could not defend to your regulator.
If one wording still leaves you unsure, ask your bar's ethics service or a colleague who handles professional conduct questions, then change the line before you start sending the profile to anyone.