Featured · Personal Brand
Buying marketing for your own book, not the firm's
An individual attorney hiring marketing help is doing something structurally different from a firm hiring an agency. The budget is often personal, the asset being built may or may not belong to the firm, and the arrangement has to survive a conversation with partners who did not commission it.
None of that makes it a bad idea — a personal book is the most portable asset an attorney has. But the questions are different, and the agencies pitching are usually answering the firm's version.
What is different about buying for yourself
Four differences change the whole arrangement, and none of them appears in a standard agency proposal.
Scale. This is a fraction of a firm-level budget, which rules out most retainers and points towards contractors or a defined project.
The asset question. Content published on the firm's website belongs to the firm; a personal profile, a speaking reputation and a referral network travel with you.
Firm permission. Anything using the firm's name, branding or matters needs sign-off, and discovering that late is the usual way these efforts stall.
Regulatory exposure sits with you personally. It is your name on the claim and your regulator's rules that apply, whoever wrote the copy.
So the sensible scope is usually narrow: your profile, your specialism, your relationships — the things that are yours in every sense.
That framing also settles the budget question. You are not buying a marketing programme; you are buying a small amount of help with a specific, portable asset.
It is worth having the conversation with the firm early rather than presenting it later. Most firms are pleased when a fee-earner builds a personal following; almost none like discovering it from a colleague.
Where these arrangements come unstuck
Predictable, and mostly avoidable by settling terms at the outset.
Buying a firm-shaped retainer at an individual's budget, which purchases a thin version of the wrong thing.
Building everything on the firm's site, so that moving practice means starting from nothing.
Publishing under the firm's name without approval, which turns a marketing question into a partnership one.
Hiring somebody with no legal-sector understanding, and then personally carrying the regulatory risk of what they wrote.
Paying for content nobody assigned to you, so you cannot take it when you leave.
And outsourcing the relationship-building, which is the one part that cannot be delegated and the main thing that produces work.
Scoping it sensibly
The useful engagements at this scale are small, specific and about the things that are portable.
Agree with the firm first what you may do under its name, and what is yours. Put the answer in writing, however informally.
Prefer a defined project to a retainer: a profile rewritten, a speaking plan, a year of a modest content cadence.
Buy help with production and polish, and keep the relationship work yourself — it is the part that produces the referrals.
Ensure anything written is assigned to you personally on payment, including drafts.
Build on platforms and profiles in your own name, and treat the firm's site as an addition rather than the foundation.
Have every claim checked against your regulator's rules, since the exposure is yours whoever drafted it.
Track where matters actually come from, and stop paying for whatever is not appearing in that list after a year.
And keep it small enough that you would continue paying for it out of your own pocket, because you probably are.
The attorneys who build the strongest personal practices tend to buy very little — some help with production, and a great deal of their own attention on a small number of relationships. That is not a limitation of the budget; it is the shape of the thing.
FAQs
How is buying marketing for yourself different from the firm buying it?
Smaller budget, different asset ownership, and the need for firm permission. Content on the firm's website belongs to the firm; a personal profile, a speaking reputation and a referral network travel with you — and the sensible scope is the portable half.
Do we need the firm's permission?
For anything using the firm's name, branding or matters, yes — and settling it early is the difference between an arrangement that works and one that stalls. Most firms welcome a fee-earner building a following; almost none like hearing about it from a colleague.
Should we buy a retainer?
Rarely at this scale. A firm-shaped retainer bought on an individual budget purchases a thin version of the wrong thing. A defined project — a profile rewritten, a speaking plan, a year of modest content — fits far better.
What should not be outsourced?
The relationship work. It is the part that actually produces referrals and the part that cannot be delegated. Buy help with production and polish; keep the conversations yourself.
Who carries the regulatory risk?
You do, personally, whoever wrote the copy. It is your name on the claim and your regulator's rules that apply, which is a good reason to have every claim checked rather than trusting that a supplier knew.
End Note
A personal book is the most portable thing an attorney owns, and it is built mostly out of attention rather than budget. The help worth buying is narrow: production, polish, and someone to keep you consistent.
Settle the permissions, keep the asset in your own name, have the claims checked, and do the relationship work yourself.
Key Takeaways
You are buying help with a portable asset, not a marketing programme.
Content on the firm's site belongs to the firm; your profile travels with you.
Settle what you may do under the firm's name in writing, early.
Buy production and polish; never outsource the relationships.
The regulatory exposure is yours whoever drafted the words.
