Why being interested in business development is vital for every candidate

Business development is as much a part of being a lawyer as giving legal advice. Without the ability to attract clients and win work, even the most specialist legal expertise won’t be much use. And with clients demanding more value for money in their legal services, competition for work is greater than ever. Academic ability, analytical skills and creative problem solving are all frequently mentioned among the key attributes every lawyer needs, but developing your own or your firm’s business requires a very different type of skill.

Being good at business development requires many of the same skills as being a good salesperson. It is defined as “the activity of pursuing strategic opportunities for a particular business or organisation, for example, by cultivating partnerships or other commercial relationships, or identifying new markets for its products or services.” For a law firm, that means building new client relationships and maintaining old ones. 

Networking is a crucial part of business development and strong client relationships involve building a rapport. That, combined with an excellent service and being easy to work with, will hopefully ensure that when a contact needs legal advice, it is your firm that they think of first.

It is also one of the two central aspects of commercial awareness – if the first is being aware of your client’s business needs and advising accordingly, then the second is understanding that a law firm works as a business itself.

BD activities include pitching to potential clients for a particular piece of work. While this is likely to be led by a firm’s partners, associates and trainees will be involved with preparing and researching the pitch, and may be encouraged to attend.

Effective business development also needs good relationships and teamwork between  colleagues, so that the departments in a firm can refer clients to each other for different pieces of work. Cross-selling within a firm is one of the best ways to build a business and to ensure you become the go-to trusted adviser for all of a client’s legal needs.

Most firms that we speak to get their trainees involved in business development early on, encouraging them to attend and even host client events, as well as take part in junior professional networking events. Writing articles, presenting papers or speeches, or helping manage the firm’s social media are other ways to get involved.

You can learn more about a whole range of individual firms’ business development activities  in LawCareers.Net’s Meet the Lawyer section, and gain insights into what this side of the job involves in more detail.

Louisa Steele, an associate at Farrer & Co, told LCN: “The firm encourages business development at all levels. This can be by simply having a coffee or lunch with contacts, clients and intermediaries. It can also be in relation to wider practice development by writing articles for internal or external publication, presenting at seminars or attending networking events. The firm has a client-centric approach to business development based on five principal client types, or ‘pillars’. If you have an idea for a business development initiative, the relevant sub-sector heads are extremely supportive.”

Meanwhile Luke Stewart, a trainee at Stevens & Bolton, said: “The firm is really good at getting trainees involved in business development activities from an early stage. For example, I’m on the committee of the Guilford Junior Professionals Group, which the firm set up in 2015 to enable young professionals in the area to meet up and grow their networks. I have also helped to write articles for the firm’s website.”

There is much more information from lawyers at all levels here on LawCareers.Net, so why not get reading and bring yourself up to speed on this key aspect of the career path?

Josh Richman is the senior editorial manager at LawCareers.Net.