#Networked: How 20 Women Lawyers Overcame the Confines of COVID-19 Social Distancing to Create Connections, Cultivate Community, & Build Businesses in the Midst of a Global Pandemic
“Woke up feeling like I just might run for president / Even if there ain’t no precedent, switching up the messaging / I’m about to add a little estrogen.” — Lizzo
This week, in honor of International Women’s Day, I had the opportunity to reconnect with Anjie Vichayanonda, Founder of Leg Up Legal, whose mission is to disrupt and revitalize the legal industry pipeline by providing meaningful mentorship to everyone.
We covered a wide range of topics, from her latest co-authored book to dealing with COVID-19 one year later. Every time I connect with Vichayanonda, it is always meaningful — as she shares both strategic and tactical advice for our audience to act upon.
Without further ado, here is a (lightly edited and condensed) write-up of our conversation:
Renwei Chung (RC): You recently published a book titled #Networked: How 20 Women Lawyers Overcame the Confines of COVID-19 Social Distancing to Create Connections, Cultivate Community, & Build Businesses in the Midst of a Global Pandemic. Can you provide a brief overview for our ATL audience?
Anjie Vichayanonda (AV): Yes, I had the honor of being a co-author of #Networked alongside 19 amazing women lawyers. We all met on LinkedIn and joined a group DM with 30 other women at the beginning of the pandemic. Our group is diverse in age, ethnicity, and geography. I found myself chatting with all of these ladies in our group DM almost hourly at the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020.
It was fascinating for me to hear the stories of how the pandemic was impacting our daily lives, our law practice, and our businesses. We found solace and support in each other and realized that we were building something really special so 20 of us got together and wrote #Networked, which is a collection of our stories about the early days of the pandemic.
RC: Did any of you know each other outside of LinkedIn?
AV: No, as far as I know, before joining our group DM, none of our members knew each other offline. That’s part of what made this whole experience so impactful for me because I realized that you can really build strong connections through LinkedIn. To get to know each of the women in our group more closely, I had one-on-one Zoom calls with many of them, interacted with them on group Zoom events, followed their posts and content, and participated in the group chat every day.
I now feel closer to many of the women in our group than I do to many of the colleagues and friends from professional circles offline. I’ve laughed with them and cried with them. We’ve celebrated birthdays and professional successes. Many of us have supported each other by collaborating on podcasts, events, and by referring new business to each other. I’m just so surprised about the whole experience because I’ve never been one to have a close-knit group of girl friends, and I found my sisterhood during a pandemic in the oddest of places — LinkedIn.
RC: Several of my mentees have recently inquired about networking after law school. Do you have any tips?
AV: My first tip is don’t wait until after law school! Especially during these times of social distancing, you should be growing your network and finding support right now. My advice is to start reaching out to attorneys for informational interviews. Identify attorneys who you want to connect with through LinkedIn, professional organizations, alumni connections, or bar associations. Invite them to do a 30-minute informational interview on Zoom (and use a scheduling tool like Calendly or Appoint.ly to make scheduling easy for them).
During the informational interview, build rapport with the attorney by asking them questions about their journey instead of just asking about their work responsibilities. Ask them questions like what led you to pursue law school? What was your law school experience like? How did you find jobs during law school and how did you pick which practice areas to pursue? These questions will help you get to know the attorney’s motivations and understand their interests. Ask the attorney for advice and use that advice as an opportunity to follow-up afterwards. Ask them what organizations you can join that are focused in their practice area, or ask them if there are upcoming CLEs or events you can attend to learn more about their practice area.
Then, when you take that advice, write back to the attorney and let them know the result. Keep a spreadsheet or a Notion file of your contacts to keep track of when you last spoke to each contact. Use calendar reminders to help you remember to follow-up with your contacts. For follow-ups, you can send updates of your milestones and successes, ask for more advice, offer to connect your contacts to other people, share relevant articles or events, or praise your contact for a recent accomplishment.
RC: What recommendations do you have for law students and young attorneys for dealing with this pandemic era?
AV: Be more intentional about maintaining relationships. Most humans crave connectivity and belonging so it is important for your well-being to stay connected to others. Invite a classmate or colleague to do a standing Zoom lunch every other week. Find events that you can attend and actively participate during the event.
It’s really easy to attend virtual events and shut your camera off and try to multitask during the event, but you’re not going to get to know anyone that way and you’re not going to take away much value. So, when you attend a virtual event, make sure you at least introduce yourself in the chat box or jump on camera to ask questions and engage with people at the event if possible.
RC: What have you learned about yourself and others over the past year or so?
AV: I’ve learned that one of my superpowers is connecting people and teaching them how to build relationships. Everyone talks about networking as if it is a natural skill, but there’s a lot of awkwardness in building professional relationships. And almost everyone feels intimidated by networking at first, especially if you don’t have a lot of professional experience.
I’ve learned that many people have anxiety about reaching out to other professionals for mentorship or guidance, and even if they build up the courage to reach out once, it is hard for them to find ways to keep up the connection.
RC: I enjoyed our recent Zoom Meetup, what prompted you to start this series?
AV: I started our weekly Zoom Meetups to build a community of prelaw students, current law students, and lawyers who could support each other during these times of social distancing, and give our community information and resources that would help them excel in their careers. Every week, we invite guest speakers, including lawyers, law school admissions professionals, prelaw advisors, career coaches, and more, to share some wisdom with our community.
We always reserve time at the end of each meetup for an open Q&A so that participants can interact with the speaker and each other. To create a dedicated networking opportunity, we also host a biweekly virtual happy hour on Zoom for all prelaw students, current law students, and lawyers. During the happy hours, we split everyone into one-on-one breakout rooms so they can have higher quality interactions, and then we come back together as a group to share information that we learned in the breakout rooms.
RC: In our conversation, many of the same themes have popped up: “finding your tribe,” “getting connected,” and “being intentional about your career.” What tools do you specifically leverage to accomplish these goals?
AV: Luckily, we have so many tools now to help us maintain our relationships and stay connected. I started creating content on social media and hosting virtual events last year to help law students and lawyers stay connected and have networking opportunities.
My content started creating value for my connections so they shared that content across LinkedIn and my network grew very quickly. When you share content on social media, it helps to keep you top of mind among your professional connections. If you don’t have the time to reach out to each of your contacts regularly, social media can be a great tool to reach a lot of your network at once. Specifically, I post on LinkedIn at least three to five times a week, and use a post scheduling tool so that I don’t have to login every day to post. I also post about our events on Instagram and Facebook.
I use LinkedIn and Zoom to connect with new people and invite them to meet with me so I can learn more about them and find ways we can collaborate. LinkedIn will help you expand your network, and video meetings will help you deepen your connection.
My co-authors from #Networked all use a group DM on LinkedIn to stay connected and chat everyday. I speak to a lot of lawyers who simply don’t think LinkedIn is worth the effort or that they don’t have time to use social media professionally, but it’s those same lawyers who tell me that they feel isolated and detached from their community and colleagues. Whether we like it or not, our personal and professional lives have started to move more online during the COVID-19 pandemic and people have started building real communities of support online. So, if you’re feeling disengaged, you may want to consider amping up your social media game.
RC: Thank you for your time today, is there anything else you’d like to share with the ATL audience?
AV: If you are interested in getting a raw and candid perspective of how other lawyers, specifically women lawyers, have juggled their work and personal lives during the pandemic and found ways to connect with others, check out #Networked. It’s available on Amazon here:
And if you’d like to connect with me and the other ladies of #Networked, come find me on LinkedIn.
On behalf of everyone here at Above the Law, I would like to thank Anjie Vichayanonda for taking the time to share her story with our audience. We look forward to following her successes and wish her continued achievements in her career.