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Legalweek. ILTACON. American Bar Association (ABA) section seminars. Sector-specific conferences. 

These eclectic events share two things in common: potential clients in attendance and invaluable speaking opportunities to reach them.

Leaders and professionals should consider joining the legal speaking circuit to amp up their profile and build their clientele. After all, speaking engagements are more than just additional CV bullets; they demonstrate authority and expertise to prospects.

However, lawyers and business leaders cannot expect panel invites based on reputation alone (unless they are U.S. Supreme Court justices or Fortune 500 CEOs). The average professional plebian can avoid the submission slush pile by approaching conference season like litigators: building a robust case with strong evidence of prior engagements and accomplishments.

Fortunately, a competitive submission does not need to feature a laundry list of prior speaking engagements — or any at all! What matters more is whether a speaker candidate made an effort to establish their expertise. Establishing third-party credibility through article writing, podcast appearances, smaller speaking engagements and more can give organizers the confidence and social proof they need to gamble on accomplished professionals with valuable insights.