Business development is important for all lawyers since it can lead to promotion opportunities for associates and can be essential to generating revenue for self-employed attorneys. Generally, lawyers work on business development efforts during slow periods, when they have more time to devote to marketing, blogging, advertising, and other such efforts. However, lawyers should always be spending substantial time on business development because lawyers can rarely predict a slowdown and should try to have new matters in waiting for those fallow periods.
When I was an associate at a Biglaw shop, most of the attorneys in my office worked on one multimillion-dollar matter for years. This portfolio of work generated tens of millions of dollars of revenue per year for our office, and few people believed that the work would dry up anytime soon. Since we were so busy with that work, many associates in the office got promoted to partner on the basis of their track record on that one matter, and attorneys and staff all received bonuses since the firm was flush with cash from it.
I later came to find out that during the handful of years the law firm had this lucrative portfolio of work, few of the partners devoted substantial amounts of time to business development. The partners thought it was in their best interest to bill as many hours of possible to generate revenue in the short term rather than develop new business. I can somewhat understand this logic, and it might have been difficult for our office to handle new work when there was a huge matter we all worked on that required substantial time and energy.
Somewhat suddenly, the lucrative matter all but dried up, and many people at the office were left without substantial work to perform. The firm pivoted toward developing new business, and everyone including partners, associates, and staff started working on pitches and searching for different business development opportunities. The efforts paid off to a small extent, and we were able to originate some modest new business.
However, for the most part, the contacts partners made over the years had gone cold while the entire office worked on the one lucrative matter for a substantial period. The firm had difficulty developing new business since partners needed to spend substantial time and resources cultivating client contacts and networking. As a result, the financial hardships for the firm resulted in several rounds of layoffs. Some of this might have been avoided if the law firm had not rested on its laurels and devoted more time and resources to business development.
For many lawyers, business development takes a backseat to performing work for clients. In my own practice, when I am busy with client work, I often forget to publish blog articles, attend networking events, or complete other business development tasks that I typically execute in order to shake the branches and develop business for my own firm. However, I try to remember the example of the Biglaw shop at which I worked earlier in my career.
Since lawsuits can resolve and transactional matters can wrap at any time, it might be very hard to predict whether an attorney will be slow or busy in the near future. Although business development efforts can take time away from billing hours in the short term, it can have substantial long-term benefits for the financial health of a practice. As a result, lawyers should always be devoting significant time and energy to it even if they are satisfied with the amount of work they have in the present.
Jordan Rothman is a partner of The Rothman Law Firm, a full-service New York and New Jersey law firm. He is also the founder of Student Debt Diaries, a website discussing how he paid off his student loans. You can reach Jordan through email at jordan@rothman.law.
