hang on (one's) coattails

To benefit from one's success, especially in a sponging or freeloading manner; to use one's success as a means to achieve your own. Everyone knows you've been hanging on the governor's coattails for the last two years, but once her term ends you'll be on your own. Jonathan hung on the famous professor's coattails to get some recognition for his own work from several esteemed academic journals. She was surrounded during the height of her fame by people who were eager to hang on her coattails. But when she lost everything, all those hangers-on deserted her.