Q4 2025 Q&A
When did you decide to start to use LinkedIn to share posts and why?
I joined LinkedIn way back in 2008 but it’s really been in the last couple of years that I’ve been posting consistently.
Our CEO often says to me “it’s amazing how you’ve become an overnight success on LinkedIn after 15 years!”.
I’ve always had a strong business development focus and building a “personal brand” on LinkedIn felt like a natural follow on.
The ability to reach a national (even global) audience via the platform just seems like a no brainer to me for the purposes of winning work for Actons, but I’ve also made some great connections, even friends!
Why do you think your posts encourage your followers to comment and engage?
I come to LinkedIn very much with encouraging engagement and discussion in mind.
I’m keen to learn from my audience, and hearing what my client base considers important is key to me being a good advisor.
I’m happy to share my own views but I’ll nearly always pose questions in my posts in the hope that people will share their opinions, and we can all learn from it.
I suspect that’s why my comment count is often so high.
How do you keep thinking of new things to share about?
I probably have too many ideas!
A good friend of mine (who is very successful on LinkedIn) gave some excellent advice a while back to someone looking for inspiration for posts – she said “you’re alive aren’t you? Post about what you’re up to”.
I do think people who are actively doing interesting things “in real life” have the best content to share!
I’ve definitely moved to a place where I’m very often thinking “that would be a good idea for LinkedIn” or “I’ll snap a picture of that because it might be useful for LinkedIn”.
The notes section of my iPhone is full of potential ideas and I have a LinkedIn photo album in my photos!
My wife is probably a bit fed up of that!
I try and post a combination of content that is informative for my audience (predominantly HR professionals and employers), and posts that are amusing, ideally a combination of both.
That seems to hit the spot a lot of the time.
Have you had any breakthrough results through using the platform? Hires? Client wins? Introductions?
Yes!
In recent months I’ve had a 43-million-euro-turnover client win, an opportunity to be quoted in the Sunday Times, and we were told the fact that we’re regularly sharing what we’re up to as a firm on LinkedIn contributed to our recent Lawnet Law Firm of the Year win.
All from posting regularly and building a profile on the platform.
Thinking about it, we also have a new junior lawyer joining the team next month, who is moving because she wants to build her profile and felt she can do that with us.
I guess that’s a good sign!
Has the firm been supportive of what you’re doing and - assuming it has - what lessons could other law firms learn?
Very supportive.
I have the benefit of pretty much being able to post whatever I like!
We’ve actively encouraged our people to post on LinkedIn and given them permission to go for it!
There’s still lots to do, but we see it as a differentiator for our lawyers, given that so few people actually post on the platform (especially lawyers).
We’re seeing positive results from this already in terms of opportunities for the firm.
What would you say to firms that are hesitant about getting going on LinkedIn?
I think for lawyers there’s a tendency to overthink things, to focus on the risks, and generally just to be a bit too earnest.
My experience is that being yourself, sharing posts with value to your target audience, and being what I describe as “appropriately vulnerable” will set you apart.
I also think trusting your people to post appropriately and not burdening them with do’s and don’t’s in a social media policy helps too.
For any individual thinking about starting out posting more, or getting started, I’d strongly encourage it.
I think the way the world is rapidly becoming ever more “digital”, you’re at risk of becoming irrelevant if you don’t!
Do you get involved in training others on how to use the platform?
Yes, a group of us at Actons meet weekly to support each other with post ideas, celebrate successes, and discuss challenges.
We’ve had lots of feedback from contacts and clients that we’re WAY more visible as a result!
Who should we keep an eye out for in future? Do you have any future social media stars in the making?
I’m keen to give a few of the crew at Actons a shout-out on the basis that they’re definitely ones to watch this year.
Chris Murratt, Matt Coleman, Bindiya Patel and Heather Parker are all committed to posting great content and being consistently present on LinkedIn in 2026!
Which creators would other legal sector professionals be wise to follow?
I generally try and follow “non-legal” people on LinkedIn on the basis that most of us lawyers are still playing catch-up on how to do LinkedIn well (obvious exceptions like William Peake, Jon Gregson, etc).
I’d suggest following Claire Cathcart, Founder of ELEVATE Hub (50,000 followers!) and Dr Jo Burrell, both very active on the platform and sharing some great content relevant to the world of work.
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