Why do some negative professional impressions fade quickly while others can follow a lawyer for years? And what can you can do when an outdated reputation begins affecting your opportunities? In BigLaw, reputations are often formed from relatively small samples of behavior, particularly as teams become more distributed and partners have fewer repeated interactions with individual associates. A single difficult matter, missed deadline, or awkward client interaction may disappear with time and better performance. But sometimes an isolated event moves quickly from an event to a perceived pattern to an identity: "She struggled on this matter" becomes "She struggles with complex matters," or "He did not handle that client call well" becomes "He is not good with clients."
I explain four factors that make reputations particularly difficult to change: repeated behavior, repetition of the description itself, the severity of the underlying issue, and the influence of the person who formed or continues spreading the impression. I also discuss one of the biggest problems lawyers face when a reputation becomes entrenched: that it can begin limiting the very opportunities they need to prove it wrong. If partners believe you are not good with clients, they may stop putting you in front of clients. If they believe you are not ready to run matters, you may stop receiving matters to lead. At that point, reputation is no longer simply describing your career. It is actively shaping it.
I also explain how to determine whether the reputation you fear actually exists before trying to fix it. Rather than interpreting one staffing decision or stray comment as proof, talk with people who know what is being said when you are not in the room and ask specifically where people see you as strong, where they have reservations, and what gives them confidence or pause about your readiness for the next level. Once you identify a concern, determine how widely it is held, where it originated, whether it is based on multiple experiences or one person's opinion traveling through the firm, and whether the people who hold it have enough influence to affect staffing, evaluations, or promotion decisions.
Finally, I discuss how to move from a vague label that you hear about yourself such as "not commercial" or "needs too much supervision" to learning what the specific behavior is underneath it, honestly assess whether that behavior is still true, and deliberately create new evidence that gives people a reason to update their view. And if your performance has changed but your firm's perception has not, I explain when it may be worth asking whether you are dealing with a development problem you can fix, a reputation lag you can overcome, or an environment that has stopped updating its assessment of you.
At a Glance
01:20 Why one bad impression may disappear while another follows a lawyer for years
03:32 How one incident can move from an event to a pattern to an identity
04:45 How one partner's opinion can spread through a firm without additional firsthand evidence
05:13 Why some mistakes carry far more reputational weight than others
06:18 How a reputation can eliminate the opportunities you need to prove it wrong
07:15 How new evidence and influential advocates can help change an established reputation
08:58 The questions to ask people who know what is being said about you when you are not in the room
09:47 How to determine whether a negative perception is widespread, consequential, or already fading
10:30 Why vague feedback such as "not commercial" is impossible to fix until you identify the underlying behavior
12:04 How to deliberately create contradictory evidence and enlist credible advocates
12:28 When changing firms can create a genuine reputational reset
13:23 Five questions to ask when an old reputation may be affecting your career
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Show notes: https://www.lauraterrell.com/podcast
