The Pulse

It was almost 30 years ago, in the early 1990s, that firms started to digitize their case management. Since then, technology has continued to advance, making running a law firm easier and more efficient for all departments, from legal to accounting to business development. Before we began digitizing data, case management, timekeeping, communicating with clients, and managing data were all done manually. This meant writing down information on hard copies, organizing those papers into file folders, and storing those folders in storage boxes or filing cabinets.

For today’s professional services firms, an effective business development strategy goes beyond client dinners and arbitrary marketing efforts. Firms must be armed with the tools and information they need to identify upcoming opportunities, anticipate client needs, and recognize client interests. Equipped with this information, firms can offer clients new and additional services and launch more targeted marketing, resulting in more leads and an increased ROI.

To say that the COVID-19 pandemic caused uncertainty and economic strife all over the world in 2020 would be an understatement. Law firms and the legal industry as a whole were not immune to these effects, seeing declines in revenue and staffing overall. That’s overall, but not all. To the surprise of many, though maybe not to these firms themselves, there was a significant number of firms that increased revenue over 20% in 2020, according to the High Growth Study 2021 conducted by the Hinge Institute.

Pipeline management has been steadily gaining traction in the professional services sector, and it bodes well for business development (BD) departments. To me, it’s a sign of a maturing business function, but also acceptance by firms’ senior executives that a more strategic and data-driven approach to commercial growth is needed.

Thanks to the pandemic, law firm marketing, sales, and business development (BD) efforts took a massive hit in 2020—much like other commercial functions. As the latest 2021 LexisNexis InterAction Marketing & Business Development Survey reveals, 66% of law firms found their BD and sales to be more difficult, requiring professionals to devise new strategies to win new business and retain existing clients. Interestingly, the firms that overcame challenges and found growth approached marketing differently versus the firms that found themselves in the status quo camp; i.e., those that achieved no business growth.

As part of Covid-19-led re-organisation, many law firms, including Linklaters and Clifford Chance are reducing or evaluating the PA, legal secretarial and support function in their organisations and how they can make the most of this valuable resource.

Some marketing and business development (BD) teams struggle to engage with the fee earners in their firms in a meaningful way.

With market conditions remaining challenging in the legal sector, considerable M&A activity is expected among law firms in the next few years.

Over the last few years, there has been an increase in law firms growing through mergers and acquisition of other firms. However, despite operating as a single brand, they have continued using their own separate versions of InterAction.

Far too often in large law firms, the business development (BD) and marketing functions are way too siloed and are even broken down into sub-functions such as email marketing, events, online marketing and so forth.

For law firms, how we bring in new business continues to change and evolve. While COVID-19 adds additional considerations and even challenges, it certainly wasn’t the catalyst for the changes that have been taking place in our industry’s business development processes.

In a year when most marketing plans had to completely change, it can be daunting to think about planning your business development strategies and activities for the upcoming year. COVID-19 altered the landscape for most industries, including the legal industry in 2020, and it’s not clear how long those effects will last.