We are all aware just how important first impressions are. When trying to win a new client or meeting a fellow practitioner for the first time most of us are consciously on our best behaviour. We pick the 'nice' dress that morning, the good jacket and use the ‘good’ perfume. What you may not know is that everything the other person thinks they need to know about you they will derive from the first seven seconds of your meeting. Seven seconds!

Let’s just think about this for a minute…everything you have ever done in your life has led you to that point in time. The way you handle yourself in that particular moment is made up of a million other tiny moments from your past that have taught you how to act, how to speak, how to conduct yourself and yet you could stuff it all up in just seven seconds!

I have met with hundreds of new clients over the past 10 years. Crossed paths with many lawyers and barristers, law clerks and receptionists, conveyancers and paralegals and I have learnt a thing or two about selling oneself to other professionals. The most important thing I have learnt is this...no one is interested in the person you are pretending to be in that moment. They want to know YOU. Your individuality is the most unique tool you have and yet many of us try and make ourselves fit the mould, a square peg in a round hole.

What’s more, people can tell if you are faking, so give up the act. Just walk in with your head held high and be you. Tell them about your life, show them who you are. You want people to walk away from meeting you wanting more so maintain your professionalism but be real.

When you meet someone for the first time, people expect to meet the professional, no one expects to meet ‘the person’. This is what will win you that new client, what will leave your mark on your fellow colleagues and what will set you apart from the rest. Just be unashamedly you. Make your seven seconds count.

“I am not scared to be seen, I make no apologies, this is me”. – The Greatest Showman

Written by the Director of The Locum Lawyer Co.

Ever since I was a little girl I was always going to be a lawyer. I was of course going to "change the world, make it a better place". My dad always used to say, 'knowledge is power Adelle'. "If you are going to change the world you best know what you are talking about first". I was never one of those naturally smart people. I had to work hard for my grades but I loved to learn!

After years of being an employee solicitor, having been subjected to the shaping and moulding that goes on by mentors more senior than yourself, I began to feel that I had chosen the wrong career. That I couldn't be who they wanted me to be, and I couldn't practice the way the traditional model encourages. My experience was also that many clients felt that the male solicitors in the office inherently knew what they were talking about whereas I was required to prove myself time and time again. I once met with a new client in a waiting room I was greeted with "oh I don't want to see you. I am here to see a man". My response was, 'sorry, today I AM the man'.

I made a conscious decision some years ago now to make 'feeling like a mis-fit' in the legal industry an acceptable career option. I took the path less travelled, the one I designed for myself and started a legal practice of my own in a small rural town where females did not enjoy the top positions, particularly in law firms. I had a 'pretty' office that didn't intimidate. I dressed professionally but differently, no traditional suits for me thank you! With the help of a social media marketer, I created a campaign around the concept 'Lawyers with Heart' because that is who I am. I care about my clients, I care about the outcomes of their legal matters, I care about the impact that the Family Law decision will have on their daily lives. I take my work home with me and have sleepless nights because of it and I am proud. I am proud because maybe that is who I am.

Maybe some more conservative lawyers view the way I practice as performing my job 'like a girl'. I am empathetic, I give gifts to special Family Law clients (candles with motivational wording to encourage them to keep going). When did it become an insult to perform an activity 'like a girl' anyway? To do something 'like a girl'? I see it as me performing my tasks as Adelle, the woman that I am, and it is only since I have performed my job as myself that I have seen success and happiness in my career.

I am so privileged to know many other like minded practitioners who have done as I have and paved the way for themselves, as 'legal disruptors' as it has been coined. It is the industry that needs the revamp. You do not need to conform to what is one of the oldest and most conservative of professions. Make your own way.