When Justin Nasseri, co-founder of the Toronto litigation boutique Ross Nasseri LLP, was near the end of his first year as an undergraduate student at the University of Alberta, he took a job at a luxury men’s retailer in Edmonton specializing in casual wear, formal wear, accessories and footwear. The store, he noticed, had two types of employees: young part-timers who hustled on the sales floor and old lifers who built longstanding client relationships.
The staff was paid mainly on commission. For the most part, the young part-timers did okay, working on weekends and making one-off sales to whomever came through the door. But the old-timers made serious money by cultivating clients who trusted them, took their recommendations seriously and turned into repeat customers. “I said to myself, I want to do what those guys do,” recalls Nasseri.
He began building his own roster of clients, mostly by striking up conversations with people in the store and trying his best to create rapport. Soon he was tracking clients’ preferences, emailing them on birthdays and taking them to Oilers games with the small development budget his managers eventually gave him. “By fourth year, I was working entirely by appointment,” says Nasseri. “Clients came in each hour on the hour, and I’d have everything they needed lined up according to their size and preferences.” He’s certain he made more money than any of his young peers.
He also learned a lesson that’s been key to his success as a lawyer: old-school networking works. The very concept of networking—the boozy dinners, the interminable rounds of golf—can seem like a fusty anachronism, a vestige of the Mad Men era. Clients are busy enough, aren’t they? When they retain legal counsel, they’re surely looking for competent service, not a new best friend. If you’re a lawyer hoping to build up a book of business, isn’t it sufficient to just be good at your job? It would seem that, in many corners of the profession, the answer to that question is still a resounding no. The best lawyers know how to schmooze.
Why? Because even if you’re a stellar advocate, you’re not the only game in town. “Every Bay Street firm claims to offer great services and innovative strategies,” says James Edney, a partner at Blaney McMurtry LLP, a full-service Toronto firm with more than 120 lawyers. “That stuff is basically table stakes.” In a crowded marketplace where top-notch lawyers compete with other top-notch lawyers, networking gives you an edge.
Edney practices family law exclusively for high-net-worth individuals, and he networks mainly with people who can refer work to him: fellow lawyers, former clients and elite financial advisors. Do these people recommend Edney primarily because he’s good at his job? Of course. But it can’t hurt that they also like him. If you knew someone in the midst of a messy divorce proceeding, you’d likely prefer to send that person to a friend than a mere hired gun. Edney devotes most of his networking hours to time-intensive activities, like multi-course dinners, ski trips or 18 holes on the golf course. “I’m hunting for whales, not minnows,” he says. “I can afford to spend a day with someone if they’re in a position to send a $1-million file my way.”
Another reason to network, beyond building up a robust referral network, is to establish trust with current clients. In her work as a tax lawyer who tends to deal with high-net-worth clients, Samantha Prasad, a partner at the Big Law stalwart Cassels, often finds herself asking highly personal questions: What’s in your marriage contract? Is this a second or third marriage? Do you have children from a previous relationship? What about stepchildren? Or adopted children? These queries are important—particularly if you’ve retained Prasad to craft a personalized tax plan or help you set up a family trust—but they can come across as intrusive. Some clients struggle to open up right away.
Networking can help. Prasad tailors her social activities to the interests of her clients. That might mean supporting them at a charity event, inviting them to a nice lunch, playing a round of golf or attending a Leafs or Raptors game—all of which allow ample time for casual conversation. “For me to advise clients properly, I must know sensitive things about their lives,” she says. “If those things come up organically while socializing, then I’ve done my job well. If they don’t, I must feel comfortable asking about them anyway.” Lawyers, in short, aren’t just robots who dispense legal advice; they’re confidantes, warm-blooded people whom you entrust with your biggest secrets and fears. It’s impossible, Prasad maintains, to build up that sort of rapport over Zoom or a quick afternoon coffee. (Prasad also networks, like Edney does, with people who might refer work to her, like accountants or wealth managers.)
Here’s one more reason to network: people aren’t entirely rational, and they often make choices based on what’s top of mind. If you know 10 excellent lawyers in a given practice area, which one are you most likely to recommend? Probably the one you dined with three weeks ago. Or the one who sent you a thoughtful birthday gift. “People won’t choose to refer you if they think you’re a charlatan,” says Nasseri. “But does fondness or gratitude reinforce that choice? You’d be crazy if you said it doesn’t.”
In the four years since Nasseri founded his firm in 2021—where he practices corporate commercial litigation, estate litigation and regulatory defence—Nasseri has built it up from an eight-person shop with four support staff to an office with 20 lawyers, eight support staff and two students. He achieved much of that rapid growth via traditional networking.
He does it all—the lunches, the dinners, the hot-ticket sporting events. He networks not only with fellow lawyers and former clients but also with business leaders who might need his services in the future. Recently, Nasseri saw that a senior member of the legal team at a major beverage company, responsible for making decisions about legal services for the corporation, had read and “liked” one of his posts on LinkedIn. He took a chance and asked the guy for a lunch meet-up.
In the middle of a meal at Miku, an upscale sushi restaurant in Toronto’s financial district, Nasseri made his pitch. “I offer a bespoke service,” he told the lawyer. “It’s high quality. The value can’t be beat. I know that most companies prefer to retain big firms, but I’d like you to keep my boutique firm in mind.” Then he added: “In the meantime, let’s go to a game. Do you prefer the Jays, Raps or Leafs?”
Nasseri acknowledges that moonshots like this one—a pricey meal with a lawyer you barely know—are dicey in terms of return on investment. You can’t afford to do them all the time. And there’s no way to know in advance whether a given relationship will pan out. But, he adds, if you have the chance to develop a connection with an important person in the business world, you should at least try.
For young lawyers who are shy about networking, Nasseri recommends starting off slowly. “Take the low-hanging fruit,” he says. “If there are people you’re drawn to or whom you feel organically connected to, extend an invitation to lunch. There’s no big secret to it: talk about your life, ask about theirs and build rapport.” No matter how the first attempt goes, he adds, keep doing it: “The repetitions will build confidence, and the whole thing will start to feel more natural.”
As for the beverage-industry lawyer: Nasseri had that sushi lunch with him back in June. Two weeks later, the guy sent a file his way.
Illustration by Melanie Lambrick.