Magic circle trainees shun LinkedIn – except at Clifford Chance

Trainees at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Slaughter and May are among the least likely to use LinkedIn, according to data provided to The Lawyer.

Research conducted by TBD Marketing has ranked leading law firms according to how often its trainees use their LinkedIn profiles to write posts ranging from quick career milestones updates to long personal reflections about working in the legal industry.

The Lawyer’s Partnerless newsletter has frequently reported social media’s growing role in the training and development of the next generation of lawyers. Associates from firms like RPC and Goodwin have put programmes in place to use online networking sites to connect with potential clients, while recruitment partners from another national law firm are understood to be mulling how much scrutiny they should be judging prospective junior hires with.

While the debate on best practices continues among the ones calling the shots, the latest data unveils a trend that suggests mid-tier trainees are more likely to shout about their achievements, experiences and even insecurities online while trainees from the top firms are opting out of the conversation.

Magic circle junior are keeping quiet

Three of the UK elite were found at the bottom of the list, Slaughter and May ranking last with only 2.4 per cent of its 333 trainees on LinkedIn having shared a post or repost over the last month.

Freshfields trainees edged Slaughters’ out by a slight margin seeing activity from 2.95 per cent of its cohort on the networking platform. Allen & Overy Shearman sits third from the bottom with posts from 5.18 per cent of trainees (the data was compiled before A&O’s merger with Shearman & Sterling went live last week).

Only a few spots above, Linklaters sits in 25th place with 7.3 per cent of trainees active online. The magic circle firm finds itself alongside US elite rivals Baker McKenzie and White & Case.

Commenting on the findings, Simon Marshall of TBD Marketing said: “You wouldn’t do anything at these firms if you didn’t think it was going to get you promoted; you would prefer not to accidentally step out of line.”

“Offline, that’s where [the magic circle] have consistently won over the past 30 years; through the strength of their relationships and their front of mind recall. So it’s just question of transitioning that to the online arena, but not just through the corporate accounts.”

The Lawyer has contacted all aforementioned magic circle firms about social media usage guidelines for employees. Only Slaughters has confirmed that while such rules exist for associates and partners, none are currently in place for trainees.

One firm bucks the trend

It’s hard not to notice Clifford Chance missing from the bottom ranks. Indeed, trainees from the Canary Wharf-based legal giant finds the in the top third of the list rank eighth and sitting among the likes of Ashurst, DLA Piper, CMS, and Osborne Clarke.

12.1 per cent of Clifford Chance’s trainees are recorded to be staying engaged on LinkedIn. So what makes different them their magic circle competitors? Marshall suggests content shared on the firm’s corporate accounts influence the behaviour of its juniors, saying: “From what I’ve seen, Clifford Chance’s media team uses its account to behave socially – writing to people just to say ‘congratulations’ or ‘happy birthday’. If you work in an environment where people are publicly talking about great news, you’ll think ‘Well great, I can use this platform, the partners have got my back.’”

Mid-tier trainees are dominating your feed

It turns out the firms competing for mid-level transactions and clients are also the ones with juniors fighting for visibility online. Irwin Mitchell trainees sit comfortably atop the list with 28 per cent of its cohort keeping their feeds fresh with updates. Mills & Reeve took second place with recent posts from 24 per cent of its trainees.

Thematically, Irwin Mitchell trainees in the last few weeks have been shouting about progression through their training contracts by detailing their experiences in previous seats and including paragraphs dedicated to thanking partners and associates they will have worked with.

Over training contract application season, one trainee shared a long reflection on her experience entering the legal industry: “At university, I had convinced myself that I was not the type of person that law firms would be looking for, so when I made my first application to Irwin Mitchell, I spent hours agonising over every word I wrote on the form,” she began before ending the five-paragraph long post with a link to the firm’s application portal.

Beyond tone and frequency of the content, delving into these profiles also shows pattern of Irwin Mitchell trainees abiding by guidelines set by LinkedIn user coaches for gaining traction on the platform: Use emojis, use hashtags, write enough lines to make a reader click ‘see more’ and – most crucially – post a picture.

Irwin Mitchell’s head of talent acquisition Mark Gilbertson explained the delicate balance of having its juniors use make the most of LinkedIn as a personal training and BD tool while needing to navigate the minefields any lawyer needs to consider with from a client and reputational perspective:

“We have a social media manager in-house and we help our trainees to develop the social media skills they need with dedicated training from day one and encourage them to use tools such as LinkedIn in the most appropriate way for their roles. Our trainees are posting about important social issues, encouraging new entrants to the profession, as well as highlighting important legal cases and precedents.”

Adding to his observation on the findings, Marshall said: “The firms at the top have a bit of a B2C client base about them – personal law, personal injury, private wealth – and I don’t think there’s any coincidence that a greater per centage of their people post as a result of that.”