The clients are life to any law firm; however, most of them-do “local attorneys near me“-do not have a systematic way to incentivize their lawyers in developing business and working with others to capture those ideal clients. Worse still, many firms’ policy and behavior actually discourage business development. In many firms, only the founders of the firm, some of the most senior partners, and perhaps a few select up-and-comers are the firm’s rainmakers, while everyone else works hard serving clients that someone else is bringing in. Indeed there are whole firms that grow up around one or two rainmakers.

That’s sustainable in the short term but falls apart the minute a key rainmaker jumps ship or a big client defects.

In fact, it is justified considering the outbreak and impact of the COVID-19 economic crisis that law firms seriously heeds other means of deploying talent to make themselves profitable.

Be Proactive About Business Development What really upsets many law firm leaders is that more of their lawyers aren’t involved in business development and blame those who do not develop much business for not doing so. But quite frankly, is it totally their fault? Certainly, law school did not teach their students anything about business development, and most law firms tell their lawyers to focus exclusively on doing legal work. Like It or Not, Your Firm Already Has a Business Development Culture

If you think that your firm does not have a business development culture, then you are wrong. Similar to any other elements of an organization’s culture, if you do not create one, then one will organically develop. And a culture that’s created by default rather than by design is unlikely to help you achieve the firm’s goals-be that attracting a consistent flow of ideal clients, retaining your top talent, developing and grooming future leaders, or securing the firm’s financial future. After all, who succeeds accidentally?