For most of my career, I worked behind the scenes in businesses as a legal marketer. No billing target, no seat at the metaphorical table.
If you’re a woman in law, particularly in a non-fee earning or business services role, this might feel familiar.
LinkedIn helped me reconnect with a voice I did not realise I had gradually muted. For me, it became so much more than a networking platform. It became the place where I could build connection, improve my confidence and demonstrate my own version of leadership. It became a pathway to purpose in so many ways, and is one of the reasons I love the work I do so much now, in helping others unlock all it can offer.
In the spirit of International Women’s Day, I thought I would share a bit more about how LinkedIn became a space for me to reclaim the voice I lost, and build my visibility as a woman in law, a sector where authority often defaults to others.
Women in Law: The Invisible Roles That Hold the Profession Together
Yes, it’s true, the legal world runs on more than billable hours.
Behind every successful law firm are brilliant professionals working in business development, marketing, HR, finance, IT and other roles. Still all too often labelled as “non fee earners”, they shape direction and determine whether a firm grows or stagnates.
These roles are also, overwhelmingly, held by women. Women represent a significant majority of support staff in the UK legal sector, with recent data showing that 74% to 75% of “other staff” in law firms are women.
In a profession where status, seniority and authority have traditionally been tied to fee earning roles for the most part held by men, it can be easy to start feeling invisible.
Not because your work lacks value — it clearly does — but because the historical system wasn’t built to recognise it.
Why Women in Law Make Themselves Smaller — And How to Stop
Early in my career, I did what many women in professional services do: I listened and learned. Importantly, I supported. I watched how confidence was performed. I noticed who spoke up and who took up space.
Over time, I quietened my own voice due to a lack of time and space to test my ideas, share my stories and learn along the way.
I’ve seen so many women stay out of the limelight worried that they won’t be taken seriously. They avoid the risk of being seen as difficult, outspoken, or out of place.
For me and other women in law, that feeling of invisibility bred further invisibility. When you rarely see people like you on stage, on panels, quoted as experts, sharing their thoughts on social media, it is easy to assume that you just need more experience.
LinkedIn as a Rehearsal Space
LinkedIn had always been there, sitting in the background of my working life as a legal marketer. A place for announcements, job moves, and the occasional sharing of insights. I was present on the platform, but in the traditional corporate and performative way. I saved the more authentic version of me for other social media platforms.
When I set up my own legal marketing businesses, I started to treat it as a space for reflection. A place where I could articulate what I was observing and learning within the legal industry.
This of course felt uncomfortable. Saying what you think, in public, is not something the legal industry has historically applauded in women. But I kept on writing, facing my fears head on, even when I didn’t feel ready. Writing in public can really challenge your courage. It asks you to be specific with your words. To stand behind them, and to accept that not everyone will agree. Or even, like you!
LinkedIn also removes some of the barriers that exist in physical rooms. You are not being interrupted by others who think their voice matters more than yours. Nor are you fighting for airtime.
You are simply sharing. That mattered more than I realised at the time. Especially, in later years as I became less able to get into those physical spaces while raising children, one of whom has high care needs.
For me, LinkedIn became a kind of rehearsal space where I could test ideas, experiment with language, and begin to trust my own perspective and develop my own voice. I didn’t need to be an expert. I just needed to stop self-editing.
If this resonates, I’ve written more about building influence on LinkedIn with intention rather than just posting more — it’s a good companion read to this one.
And when I did, people started to engage. Men and women alike shared their own experiences and told me that my words reflected their own experiences that they had not always been able to articulate.
Community played a powerful role in my LinkedIn journey. When others see you, respond to you, and build on your ideas, and lift you up, confidence grows naturally. Each post made the next one easier and each empowering conversation strengthened my sense of purpose.
From LinkedIn Visibility to Real-World Opportunities for Women in Law
The Speaking Confidence Gap
You’ve probably heard the stat that women only apply for jobs when they meet 100% of the criteria, while men apply at 60%. It turns out the original source was an overheard comment in a corridor at Hewlett Packard — not a formal study. But the behaviour it describes is very real. LinkedIn’s own data shows women apply to 20% fewer jobs than men, and are 16% less likely to apply after viewing a role.
I’d argue exactly the same pattern plays out with public speaking. For years, I was reluctant to grab that mic. I waited until I felt ready, and nearly always didn’t.
How Daily Writing Builds Confidence: The Neuroplasticity Connection
Writing on LinkedIn changed that — not overnight, but gradually. Eileen Gu, Olympic champion, talks about approaching her own brain the way she approaches her craft, always tinkering, always asking how she can be better tomorrow than she was today. That’s what daily writing on LinkedIn did for me. It crystallised my thinking. It made me specific about what I actually believed. And slowly, the gap between what I was willing to say in writing and what I was willing to say out loud began to close.
People Buy From People They Know
Visibility on LinkedIn isn’t about proving you’re more qualified than others. It’s about letting people get to know how you think. And in the legal industry, people work with people they know, like and trust, not just the most credentialed person in the room.
Women in Law: The Visibility Data Gap
This personal experience sits within a wider, well documented pattern. In other words, it’s more structural than personal.
Women remain underrepresented in the spaces where authority is publicly established. While there has been progress, the numbers still tell a clear story about visibility and representation in law and professional services.
The Numbers at Senior Level
The Solicitors Regulation Authority’s annual diversity data reports, The Law Society Annual Statistics Reports and “Women in Law” research briefings consistently show that women make up just over 50% of practising solicitors in England and Wales.
But representation drops significantly at senior levels. Women account for around just a third of partners overall, and the percentage is lower still in equity partner roles. Senior leadership positions in law firms, including managing partner and board level roles also remain disproportionately male.
Who Gets the Speaking Slots
Speaking panels, industry events, senior leadership roles, and online thought leadership are overrepresented by male voices. When fewer women are visible, fewer are invited. When fewer are invited, the perception of who holds expertise remains narrow. And in turn, more women shrink into invisibility, questioning their own voice.
Platforms like LinkedIn offer a way for us to disrupt this pattern. They allow women to build authority directly with their peers, clients, and industry networks. And once again, the power of community and allyship plays an important role in creating momentum and motivation.
How to Build Your Visibility on LinkedIn as a Woman in Law
This International Women’s Day, I would simply encourage you to begin on LinkedIn.
Start Before You Feel Ready
Start small: you do not need a perfect message or a fully formed plan, and you certainly do not need to feel entirely ready or even unafraid.
Start by sharing what you are seeing in your role, what you are learning, what you believe could be better. Use LinkedIn as a space to think out loud, to connect with intention, and to make your contribution and perspective visible. If you’d like structured support to get there, my LinkedIn training for lawyers and law firms is designed exactly for that.
Support Other Women When They Do the Same
And when other women do the same? Support them, engage with their posts and add to their thinking. Lift them up like you’d wish for yourself. Create space for their voices to travel further.
And if you want to make sure your LinkedIn activity is working as hard as possible in 2026, my guide to thriving in a 360Brew LinkedIn world gives you ten practical actions to get started.
One Post Can Open the Door
I want you to remember that your perspective carries weight, even if you have grown used to underestimating it. And you may find, as I did, that one thoughtful post, shared before you felt completely ready, can quietly open the door from online contribution to real-world influence.
If you’re ready to be more purposefully visible on the digital stage that is LinkedIn, I would love to see you on March 13th, 12.30 – 13.20 GMT at Take the Mic: Visibility, Value and Voice for Women in Law.
This is a free online event for women in law and male allies, designed to help you show up with confidence, own your expertise, and get heard in the spaces that matter.
And if you are reading all this after the event, get in touch anyway — this conversation doesn’t stop in March.