Getting down to business

You are a partner or senior manager in a large law firm. You are concerned that the firm’s business development (BD) activities are not as effective as they might be. When times are quiet, the firm engages in a few marketing initiatives, but as soon as it is busy again, those activities tend to stop. Colleagues say they are too busy to prioritise non-fee-earning work. And, anyway, many partners are uncomfortable with overt sales activities, preferring to be judged by the quality of their work.

There are a few ‘rainmakers’ who bring in plenty of work, but what would happen if they left, perhaps enticed by the prospect of more money at a firm with an ‘eat what you kill’ attitude?

You realise that there are, or should be, opportunities to cross-sell the services of other parts of the firm. The partners all say they are in favour of this, but it doesn’t seem to happen as much as it should.

You realise you need a more consistent approach to BD that involves the whole firm. But what should you do? Hire a BD manager? The firm tried that years ago and it didn’t work. The manager lacked authority and failed to persuade the partners to change their ways. Eventually, she was made redundant.

This book provides answers to these and other BD questions. The multi-authored work is edited by Deborah Farone, who has worked as chief marketing officer at two major US law firms and now runs a BD consultancy. The authors have a range of perspectives relevant to law firm marketing, including strategy, media, recruitment and business school academia.

The commentary has a strong US flavour. I suspect the authors are most familiar working with large US commercial law firms. In that context, their prescriptions are persuasive. But much of the discussion could be adapted to the needs of mid-sized English law firms across different practice areas. Some of the themes that resonated with this reviewer include:

• How to develop a firm’s brand so it says something more meaningful than ‘we have deep expertise, industry focus and a responsive, commercially-focussed approach’.
• The importance of firm-wide training and communication in relation to BD.
• How to get buy-in for the BD strategy from sceptical partners.
• The use of data to support BD strategy.
• The human element: developing an atmosphere of trust and psychological safety within the firm that will support BD activities.

Tackling all these themes would require a significant investment of time and money in BD strategies. It may be easier for larger firms to justify and get partner buy-in for that investment.

Mark Anderson is chairman of Anderson Law LLP, Oxford