New Year's Resolution: Building a Practice, a Career, and a Community

This is an in-person event at Jenkins Law Library, and is appropriate for new grads, solos and small-firm lawyers.

Many lawyers share the same New Year's goals: grow a sustainable practice, reduce screen-time, and reconnect with people and community. This session shows how to align those goals so that they reinforce one another. We focus on two complementary lanes:

• Professional organizations (bar sections, Inns of Court, clinics/legal aid, trade groups, alumni networks) that shorten the credibility distance, and
• Community organizations (running and fitness clubs, book clubs, neighborhood/civic/faith groups, arts/makerspaces) that build low-pressure trust and belonging.

You'll learn why loose ties reliably open doors and support mental health, how to start with consistency over intensity, and how to keep things ethical and human with plain-language conversations, easy coffee invites, and simple follow-ups. We'll also discuss clear boundaries such as not giving legal advice at events, NJ/PA advertising/solicitation basics, maintaining confidentiality in stories and when a chat becomes legal work.

The approach is intentionally non-prescriptive and non-transactional, we advocate for choosing spaces that you’d enjoy even if no work came of it, then let relationships compound. Attendees leave with a light menu of next steps and reflection prompts. Digital activity trails the human work with a quick LinkedIn connect or "thanks for the chat" note.

Provider:
Jenkins Law Library, an accredited provider under the Pennsylvania CLE Board's Rules, will serve as the CLE provider for this course. The course has been approved by the Pennsylvania Continuing Legal Education Board for 1.0 hour of CLE credit in substantive law, practice and procedure.

This program has been approved by the Board on Continuing Legal Education of the Supreme Court of New Jersey for 1.0 hour of total CLE credit.