If you are going to be able to win your own client work you will need to build a strong enough personal brand to become a destination for work in your own right. Differentiating yourself from your peers and partners, internally and externally, is the challenge that every professional faces. What you can't do as a partner is rely on others to feed you work. In fact, most law firms expect that within 18 months new partners will be self-sufficient and be able to achieve their targets by finding all of their own work.

If you are reading this and thinking it doesn't affect you because you hope to inherit a partner's client portfolio, then think again. Your partners are not looking for someone to maintain the status quo with an inherited client portfolio. They want someone who will be proactive and grow this portfolio.

One way of solving this challenge is to become the advisor that clients want to work with, by growing a reputation as the Go-To Expert. Being recognised as the Go-To Expert makes it easier to come out of your partners' shadows and win your own work. If you do grow a strong brand in the marketplace as the Go-To Expert, you will be amazed how quickly the partners in your firm will sit up and take notice of what you are doing.