The Mad Clientist

Every dysfunctional BD strategy starts with good intentions. Smart people create structure, accountability and controls. Then trust, momentum, compensation, politics and attorney behavior collide with the plan. What could possibly go wrong? Here are 4 real examples of how firms accidentally shut down business development with the best of intentions:…

Most lawyers don’t struggle with business development because they lack intelligence, experience, or relationships. They struggle because they lack confidence in what they’re doing will actually work. This uncertainty drives attorneys toward the lowest-common-denominator version of business development: Asking clients for meetings Inviting contacts to webinars “Checking in” Adding people…

Women associates report 17% lower job satisfaction than men – up from 13% in 2022. Things are getting worse and harder for the women. Our brand new BTI Associate Satisfaction A-Listers 2026 reveals 13 pervasive reasons – the top 5 include: 54% see lower commitment to help develop their career…

Associates don’t leave for comp – they leave for job experience failures and partner behavior. When these 7 break down – associates are out the door: Abundant and clear commitment to accelerate associates’ careers Meaningful and hyper-relevant training High-impact mentoring Clear career growth path within their firm Strong job satisfaction…

87% of firms are increasing BD budgets. But this hides the real story: Law firms are pouring money into business development. They are trying to fix a set of activities characterized by: Uneven performance across partners Partner dependency for execution Widely disparate, informal, partner-specific systems Firms are attacking the problem…

Law firms don’t lose RFPs because they’re unqualified. They lose because it never made sense to respond in the first place. Most RFPs are decided before they’re ever sent. The client already knows who they want. The rest of the field is there to justify a decision already made. Yet…

Law firms spent years trying to fix associate mentoring. Training programs. Shadowing. Formal initiatives. None moved the needle. Hybrid work did – without trying. More than 5,000 associate responses show mentoring didn’t just survive – it improved. 34% of associates report excellent mentoring in 2026 30% reported excellent mentoring in…

Culture kills business development faster than anything else. The best rainmakers know it instantly – and they don’t fix it. They leave – or stop playing by your rules. More than 1,000 attorneys describe their business development culture in one of 3 ways: Strategically supportive Functional Chaotic and unfocused The…

Every winning business development behavior begins with the same trigger: an attorney listening beyond the words. Most lawyers think they’re doing this. Clients disagree. This is the dividing line of business development. This Super Listening is the first – and most critical – of 6 business development activities clients use…