Most networking advice recommends approaching conversations with a clear objective, a prepared elevator pitch and a defined outcome in mind. I took a different approach. I set a goal but did not follow a strict agenda.

During the 2024-2025 academic year, as a global professional master of laws student at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, I challenged myself to speak with 75 U of T Law alumni before graduation, coinciding with the faculty’s 75th anniversary. As an internationally trained lawyer adapting to a new legal market, I found the symmetry fitting. I did not anticipate how much these 75 conversations would teach me about the profession and myself.

Why the number mattered

Setting a specific goal turns networking into a consistent practice, rather than a one-time event. Many lawyers network only when they need something. Committing to 75 conversations in one year required me to develop a habit and step outside my comfort zone. I met with individuals whose careers differed greatly from mine, in unfamiliar practice areas, and learned to identify meaningful questions.

This discipline changed both how I listened and what I was willing to share.

With 75 conversations instead of five, you move beyond performance. You stop rehearsing your story and begin sharing it authentically. You learn which parts resonate, which require clarification, and how to make your background understandable to others.

The setup

I am Brazilian. I clerked at the Roraima State Court of Appeals, externed at the Arizona Supreme Court, and arrived in Toronto with a decade of experience that employers found difficult to interpret on a resumé. Like many internationally trained lawyers, I faced the challenge of making a nonlinear legal career understandable in a new system.

The standard advice for people in my position is to start over: obtain new credentials, take licensing exams and be patient. But patience without, direction can resemble paralysis. What is truly needed is guidance from those who have navigated similar paths.

I began requesting conversations, not coffee meetings with hidden agendas or informational interviews seeking referrals. I asked people to share their stories and approached each meeting with genuine curiosity. In return, they shared their experiences with me.

What 75 conversations actually taught me

The first thing I noticed was how often people began by discussing their failures, not their achievements—the parts of their stories that precede their LinkedIn profiles. Partners at national firms described challenging articling years. In-house counsel at global companies recalled positions they did not secure. A former Supreme Court justice advised me to follow my heart and mind fearlessly, advice that resonates only when you understand the sacrifices behind it.

The second observation was a recurring theme: Nearly everyone I spoke with emphasized, in their own words, that your career path does not need to mirror others.

This may sound like a platitude, but it is not, especially for a foreign-trained lawyer preparing for the bar in a new jurisdiction. The alumni I spoke with consistently affirmed that an unconventional path is not a liability; it is an asset.

The hidden curriculum

Educational research describes the hidden curriculum as the unwritten rules, tacit knowledge and invisible norms that influence success within institutions. Law schools teach doctrine but often do not address how the profession truly operates: how people are hired, how reputations are built and how careers adapt to change.

These 75 conversations became practical research into that hidden curriculum. What emerged was not a single formula but a valuable pattern: senior lawyers granting junior colleagues, including myself, permission to be authentic. We were encouraged to present our complete resumés, stop apologizing for unconventional paths, and instead explain what we learned from them.

One fellow LLM graduate who now runs his own firm in Canada said that your unique background is not a barrier; it is a strength. A colleague who restarted her law career twice in different countries shared that these restarts were the most meaningful part of her journey. Another advised simply: Be proud of your unusual path.

I heard this repeatedly from individuals with the experience to support their advice.

What this means for lawyers navigating between systems

For internationally trained lawyers, the challenge extends beyond credentialing to translation. While technical skills transfer, the ability to articulate the value of your experience in the language of a new legal culture does not transfer automatically.

Genuine networking, which focuses on listening, rather than pitching, enables this translation. Each conversation taught me how legal careers are perceived in the United States and Canada: what signals credibility, what prompts questions and how to address those questions proactively.

This lesson is not typically covered in law school orientation. It requires deliberate, patient and repeated engagement with those who have faced similar challenges. It involves asking difficult questions and sharing your own story as evidence, not as a sales pitch but as meaningful data.

The line I keep coming back to

Seventy-five conversations showed me that lawyers who succeed long term do not erase their unconventional histories. Instead, they learn to articulate the value of those experiences.

For internationally trained lawyers and for anyone whose career path is unconventional, this is not just motivation; it is a strategic approach. You are not behind; you are working with a different set of coordinates. The goal is not to erase differences but to make them understandable.

Do not hide your past. Translate it.

Claudio Klaus is a Brazilian-trained lawyer, a global professional master of laws graduate of the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, and host of Studying Law Around the World, a podcast with 130-plus episodes across 19 countries, accredited by the Law Society of Ontario and the Law Society of British Columbia. He is preparing to be called to the Ontario bar and is conducting academic research on internationally trained lawyers from the Global South. The Law 75 booklet, featuring all 75 conversations, was published by U of T Law.

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