Law firms may seem to move in lockstep. Not so when it comes to growth strategies.

CMO mandates prove just how far apart firms really are.

These marketing leaders are running point on their firm’s growth bet. Each mandate is a signal about where the firm is today, and where it thinks it’s going.

And it’s anything but uniform. Some are clear winners.

BTI’s survey of more than 140 law firm marketing leaders unwraps these mandates. Here’s what these CMOs are charged with accomplishing:

• • 37%: Support individual attorneys in business development
  • 32%: Grow firm revenue
  • 16%: Develop new strategy for growth
  • 15%: Raise the firm’s profile to win higher-rate work

These aren’t job descriptions. These are strategic bets. And – there will be winners and losers.

4 Big Law Firm Marketing Bets

The Decentralized Bet

37% of CMOs are going to get the best out of their attorneys. These CMOs are charged with supporting individual partners with business development.

This means supporting a plethora of individual strategies, tactics, and approaches. CMOs will often try to guide the attorneys to the most successful strategies – but these are largely opt-in.

The attorney-centric approach offers the path of least resistance – and is often the legacy approach.

The challenges include:

• • • Exceptionally hard to scale
    • Multiple approaches (and messages) to the market
    • One-by-one approach to developing rainmakers

A group of these CMOs finds the multitude of requests, demands, styles, skill levels, and expectations exhilarating – almost addictive. They especially love the success stories. But others describe it as an unending, unrewarding treadmill.

The underlying assumption here: the successful attorneys will bring in enough business for all – or more.

The Firm as Enterprise Bet

32% of CMOs are tasked with growing revenue at the enterprise level. They are betting:

• • • Sustainable growth comes from superior systems – combined with superior people
    • Institutional knowledge outlasts individual partners
    • Collaboration beats individual achievement

These firms invest more in thought leadership, partner training, client feedback, industry-facing groups and new business development metrics such as shared business development credit.

It works – when leadership backs it, measures it, and protects it from being derailed by one-off exceptions and legacy habits. And funds it.

These CMOs are not ignoring individual attorneys. They provide individual support in  2 strategic contexts:

• • • Drawing on enterprise efforts to generate inbound leads
    • Leveraging a set of strategically selected tools backed by the firm

The enterprise bet offers partners a potential differentiator – and a uniform message to the market.

The Reinvention Bet

16% of CMOs are reinventing their firm’s BD model. Incremental change won’t unleash the outsized growth they want. Most of these CMOs are operating under mostly partner-centric models.

The reinventors are moving closer to the enterprise model with deep investments and structural change including:

• • • Industry facing go-to-market strategies
    • Strategic account teams
    • Firmwide training at scale
    • Dedicated client development executives to support relationship partners and clients

This amounts to transformational change. And – transformation demands unequivocal air cover from leadership.

The Premium Work Bet

15% of CMOs are tasked with moving into the rarified air of the super-premium work.

They are after the big, complex, new, novel and prestige assignments. These CMOs play a role in lateral success, along with the institutional support, to gain credibility in key market segments. This is prevalent in M&A, Private Equity and Litigation.

But laterals are only part of the equation. CMOs are adding brand building, thought leadership, and new support systems to meet the unrelenting demands of both the top laterals and clients.

Success demands 3 components:

• • • Crystal-clear, unflinching market-facing message
    • Super-premium rate partner behaviors
    • Funding and discipline – well more than a fiscal year

The High Stakes Trade Offs

Every bet brings its own risks and rewards. The risks in these bets include:

• • Strategy gets overruled by partner preference
  • Firms dabble in these strategies by offering limited funding
  • Leadership silence on the strategy

But – the rewards can be substantial, including:

• • Mouthwatering profits
  • Outsized growth
  • Enduring growth
  • Improved talent recruitment and retention
  • Rate-setting leadership
  • Attracting new clients

Avoid the Known Landmines

CMO mandates are easily muddied up by partner requests, special initiatives, marketing emergencies, pocket vetoes and budget freezes.

Successful CMOs view building the leadership backing and commitment they need as an ongoing, dedicated part of their role – and never, ever let it lapse.

Pick your bet. Fund it. Back it. Protect it. Execute it. Growth follows.

Legal complexity isn’t just a fact of life. Add volatility and unpredictable regulatory changes, and you get chaos.

It creates jolting changes in client needs and expectations – with no notice. This is no trend. It’s life as a corporate counsel.

It’s an evolutionary leap in business and law. It’s irreversible, transformative, and already upending client demands and client-facing interactions. Nothing is as it was. There are currently 5 big consequences:

Legal Risk and Business Strategy Are Now the Same Beast

CEOs face challenges where legal and business issues are fully fused. No handoffs. No silos. Just one complex, fast-moving front.

CEOs want answers – now, not later. They demand real-time, strategic, practical advice. No theory. No fluff. They will pass on the legal memos. They want synthesis – fast, ready to act on strategic insight.

Corporate counsel – and law firms – are the support crew.

In-House Counsel Are Caught in the Squeeze

They’re managing compressed timelines, rising risk, and relentless pressure from above. They need law firms to deliver – fast, smart, and ahead of the curve. And always changing.

Top Firms Are Thriving on the Chaos

The best firms aren’t just advisors – they’re embedded in client decision-making and navigating the chaos by:

• Injecting insight into client issues in real time
• Translating complexity into immediate action
• Making client counsel look brilliant in front of the CEO

They don’t ask permission to charge premium rates. They earn them. Their superior value is clear and obvious.

Sticking to an Older Model? That’s Why Client Satisfaction Just Hit a 25-Year Low

Top-performing firms are adapting in real time. Others are still holding onto legacy models – waiting to be asked and losing out. Chaos can be a powerful force for positive change.

If you haven’t embraced the chaos, you haven’t adapted – there isn’t much time left.

Responsiveness Is Becoming Ice Age Behavior

• We’ve entered the era of anticipatory counsel.
• Top performing firms don’t wait – they deliver insight before clients ever ask
• The reactive model is no longer enough

Turning Chaos Into Harmony

Client service used to feed business development. Now, they’ve fused – driven by CEO impatience, blurred boundaries, and sky-high expectations. Top firms didn’t pivot. They jumped into managing the chaos. And their rates prove it.

BTI’s Client Service Trailblazers

Clients single out only 55 trailblazing firms best at turning chaos into solutions for clients and new business for themselves. Learn what they do and who they are. These new client service demands are confounding most law firms – but not these 55 firms who are best at delivering on all 5 right now.

The BTI Client Trailblazers are at the leading edge of client service – with 27 of The BTI Client Service 30 included. These firms are poised to leapfrog client service performance – and enjoy the business development benefits as a result.

These new client service trailblazing demands are:

• Act with lightning speed
• Include clients early in strategy
• Field the absolute best team
• Make it easy to work with their firms on every front
• Deliver ultra-practical, actionable recommendations

Congratulations to the 55 firms delivering on these 5 trailblazing demands as the chaos unfolds:

It’s every attorney’s dream.

Tackle complex, high-stakes issues. Help clients unleash success. Solve the thorniest problems.

These are all staring clients in the face as you read this.

Political volatility injects risk into every client deal and dispute. Client business models are transforming. GenAI is disrupting workflows. Large, midsize, and small clients are all reshaping their businesses in real time.

Every client’s goal is changing along with these factors.

And – every change in goals brings an equally profound change in what clients want/need and expect from outside counsel.

Our new research – based on insights from 350+ corporate counsel – reveals a whole new set of law firm behaviors clients want to see from you. These 10 behaviors are redefining what it means to deliver elite client service – and earn the elite rates to go with it:

Executive Orders. On-again, off-again regulations. 180-degree turns in enforcement. CEO demands. It’s chaotic out there.

Only 2 things bring order: problem-solving and exceptional delivery. Otherwise known as elite client service.

Think of these firms as the relief valve giving corporate counsel precious breathing room and thinking time.

Clients point to the 260 law firms figuring this out. Just over 1 in 3 – proving these firms are differentiated – and a rare breed in the client’s mind.

Join me in taking a closer look at the standout performers in the just-released BTI Client Service A-Team 2025 – the BTI Client Service 30.

DLA Piper Grabs the Number One Spot for the First Time

After moving up the ranks for 5 years, DLA is now number 1. It drives its elite performance through:

• Embracing dedicated client relationship managers to support partners and clients
• Offering clients innovative ideas – and including them in the process early
• Driving client centric dialogue among the attorneys
• Leading with robust industry groups backed by meaningful thought leadership
• Embracing client feedback at scale – and using the feedback to drive improvement

9 Firms Climbing Through Ever-Changing Client Demands to Debut on and Return to the BTI Client Service 30

We welcome the first-timers and returning firms who improved client service against a changing set of client demands and expectations.

Like DLA Piper – these firms have been able to move up in the ranks to crack The BTI Client Service 30. These firms are:

• Aggressive users of client feedback
• Providing tools and resources to boost performance
• Invest in industry groups
• Seek attorney input on how to improve
• Talk about client service as a part of the firm dialogue

A hearty congratulations to the newest members of  BTI Client Service 30:

It’s all organic.

Clients — more than 300 of them — identify the law firms best at client service — along the 17 dimensions they say are the most crucial drivers. These legal decision makers single out a firm, rank them, and explain why — with no prompts or suggestions.

Corporate counsel point to 207 law firms out of the 650 competing for the business at mid- and large-size companies. Only 1 law firm in 3 manages to standout out for superior client service.

The absolute Best of the Best in client service performs 9 to 15 times better than the typical law firm. They are crushing it. These firms are BTI Client Service 30.

Client Service Leaders 23 Years in a Row

Only 2 law firms manage to navigate the wild changes in client expectations, economics, and world events over a span of more than 23 years. No amount of luck drives this long-running performance — it’s the institutional ability to read and anticipate clients’ ever-changing needs, keep, and use them to their advantage.

Please congratulate the following 2 firms for this rarified performance:

• Jones Day
• Morgan Lewis

Only 4 Law Firms Earn a Place on The BTI Client Service 30 for 10 Years in a Row

Only 4 law firms are able to use the changes in client service expectations to drive elite performance for 10 years in a row. This skill will become more valuable — and rewarding — as time goes on. Please congratulate the following 4 firms for being ranked among the client service elite for 10 years running:

• Jones Day
• McGuireWoods
• Morgan Lewis
• Skadden

Newcomers and Returnees to The BTI Client Service 30 for 2024

We welcome the first timers and returning firms who improved client service against a changing set of client demands and expectations:

• Baker McKenzie
• Dentons
• Foley & Lardner
• McDermott Will & Emery
• Perkins Coie
• Troutman Pepper
• Wilson Sonsini

Firms achieving new highs on the BTI Client Service 30:

• Sheppard Mullin
• Ropes & Gray
• Jones Walker
• Sheppard Mullin
• Perkins Coie
• Wilson Sonsini

The BTI Client Service 30

These firms are investing heavily in client service. They know the payback dwarfs the investment — whatever the economy and market say — they are all in. And, they are breaking ground with new approaches, strategies, and tactics in boosting client service.

Rates are soaring. At least for some firms. Not all are giants.

Still, other firms continue to suffer a rate pounding as clients look to extract another pound of flesh.

In the new Law Firm Leaders Burning Issues survey of more than 250 law firms conducted with my longtime friend and collaborator, internationally recognized law firm consultant Patrick J. McKenna, we dissect how these law firm leaders are experiencing rate pressure.

The results reveal a split between the rate savvy and the rate pressured — and a new source of advantage. Overall we found:

43% of law firm leaders are getting beat up for rates in a meaningful way — it hurts. Notable reasons why include:

• Rely more heavily on RFPs for new business
• Fewer institutional support systems for delivering superior client service
• Modest use of pricing professionals and tools
• Little if any formal client feedback
• Minimal partner support for rate negotiations
• Low use of client teams

57% are busy raising their rates — and clients are paying. Key strategies include:

• Growing use of and embrace of dedicated business development executives
• Conduct formal client feedback
• Hitting more new and compelling client needs
• More aggressive business development culture
• Using Alternative Fee Agreements
• Higher client service scores in The BTI Client Service A-Team
• Refer out lower rate work to a select group of preferred firms
• More robust industry teams

Rates prowess is only one of a number of client-facing skills offering a leg up. Clients want to walk away feeling like they are getting extraordinary value and insight — you can accomplish this through client-facing skills or lower rates. Ironically — client-facing skills show substantially more value — the discount has its limits in offering value. We’ll be discussing client-facing skills more in the coming weeks, so keep an eye out for those.

I recommend spending the time to train partners in rate discussions — and protect rates by developing a roster of trusted law firms to whom you can refer the rate-sensitive work. In addition, the more you talk to your clients about non-rate-related issues — the easier your discussions around rates will be. Client dialogue provides the insight to enable you to deliver substantially more value — and get more of the plum business.

The rate-savvy law firms know this — and work harder to build it every day. The rate-pressured firms can start the discussion at any time — changing the value (and rate) equation.