Why So Many Lawyers Sound Exactly the Same Online
Founder, Lexlinc
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Lawyers see things that other people do not
Someone who has worked in trademarks for several years will notice patterns that somebody outside the practice would probably miss, while a disputes lawyer will recognise certain problems appearing repeatedly across completely unrelated matters.
Lawyers also have a much better sense of which parts of a new judgment are genuinely important, which observations are unusual and which developments are receiving far more attention than they deserve.
Those observations are valuable because they come from experience rather than from simply reading the latest legal update.
Yet when lawyers write publicly, they often move away from those observations and towards the safest possible summary of the subject, which means the most interesting part of their expertise disappears before the post is even published.
Professional language does not need to sound institutional
There is an understandable reason for this because lawyers are trained to be careful with language, to qualify statements where necessary and to avoid making conclusions that go further than the material supports.
That discipline is essential in legal work, but public-facing professional writing has a different purpose.
A LinkedIn post or article can still be accurate without reading like a legal submission, and a lawyer can explain that a particular part of a judgment is unusual, commercially important or likely to create difficulties without becoming careless or sensational.
In fact, writing in a more natural way often makes the expertise easier to recognise because the reader begins to understand what the lawyer actually notices and considers important.
Specific observations are usually more memorable than broad statements
A lawyer does not need an exaggerated personality or a deliberately controversial opinion to sound different online.
They usually need to become more specific.
Instead of saying that a decision is important for brand owners, it is more useful to explain which part of the decision brand owners may need to pay attention to and why.
Instead of saying that artificial intelligence is changing the legal profession, a lawyer could discuss one part of their own work that technology has already changed.
The difference is small, but it moves the content away from generic professional commentary and towards something that could only have come from that particular person.
Lawyers do not need to sound less professional
They simply need to sound more like themselves.
The most effective professional writing usually keeps the accuracy and restraint expected from a lawyer while allowing enough of the person's own experience and judgment to remain visible.
When qualifications, titles and firm descriptions begin looking similar across the profession, the way somebody thinks and communicates becomes one of the few things that can still make them memorable.
