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:

Say goodbye to protracted rate negotiations.

You can also skip the mandatory rate cuts, RFPs, elaborate reporting protocols, stringent oversight, and micromanagement — all of which are the typical reaction to cost control. The days of draconian cost management are over for now.

“I have complete confidence the cost will be right when I know they (outside counsel) are doing the right thing. It’s about their approach and total cost — not rates.” Deputy General Counsel, Innovative High-Tech Company

The ultimate control mechanism lies in something far more nebulous. 87% of corporate counsel tell us trust in outside counsel’s approach and communication equals the best cost control. This is over and above trust in the legal work — it’s about doing excellent work for the right value.

This trust is hard earned — through behavior. These behaviors include:

• • Very early assessments
  • Budgets offered at matter inception
  • Full team introductions at matter start
  • Getting feedback on the budget on both dollars and timing
  • Advising clients of budget changes in near real-time
  • Relationship partners have full authority to commit the firm to rates and fees
  • Explaining any unusual invoices to clients before sending
  • Obtaining meaningful post-matter feedback

Please join me in congratulating the following 67 firms who have earned the coveted trust for cost control:

Best of the Best

Alston & Bird
Carpenter Lipps
Jones Day
Kirkland & Ellis
McGuireWoods

Leaders

Bartlit Beck
DLA Piper
Foley & Lardner
Greenberg Traurig
K&L Gates

Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney
Carlton Fields
Fox Rothschild
Gibson Dunn
GrayRobinson
Hinshaw & Culbertson
Hunton Andrews Kurth
Jackson Lewis
Latham & Watkins

Arnold & Porter
Baker Botts
Baker Donelson
BakerHostetler
Carmody Torrance Sandak & Hennessey
Cohen Ziffer Frenchman & McKenna
Constangy
Covington
Davis+Gilbert
Dentons
Desmarais
Dinsmore
Eversheds Sutherland
Faegre Drinker
Fish & Richardson
Foley Hoag
Hartline Barger
Hogan Lovells

Every year, we ask more than 300 corporate counsel about the law firms they recommend to a peer — no name, prompts, or suggestions provided. It’s all organic. The results:

• Only 35% recommend their primary law firms to a peer — down from 69.1% a mere 4 years ago. This rivals an 18-year low.

Delivering Yesterday’s Client Service

One big contributor to the drop in client service is corporate counsel’s new expectations. Law firms targeting yesterday’s expectations are at a clear disadvantage. These new expectations include:

• Including clients early in strategy and approach
• Being trusted enough to be relied on for cost control
• Higher client service standards for their primary law firms
• Being easy to work with
• Fielding the absolute best team

All these new components make clients’ lives easier and get them to their goals. We discuss these expectations and the law firms best at each here, here, and here. But, that’s not all.

7 Reasons Why Clients Don’t Recommend Their Primary Law Firm

Our research shows corporate counsel point to 7 reasons for not recommending their primary law firm:

1. Little interest in understanding corporate counsel’s goals. Almost all the new goals are focused on advising management on transforming their business — and using it as a career booster.
2. Hard to work with. The legal prowess may be there, but the administrative obstacles are enough to ruin the most elegant of strategies. Clients point to:

• Time and effort to start a new matter
• Renegotiating rates for every matter
• Negotiating conflict waivers
• Delays between conflict clearance mobilization

3. Getting the B Team. Clients don’t know who is performing the work, some see a flurry of names on the bills. These experiences make clients think there is little thought into who is doing the work.
4. Reluctance to provide an early assessment in litigation.
5. Learning new deal strategies and structures their primary firm used from a 3^rd
6. Ghosted when their relationship partners leave the firm.
7. Don’t share ideas and strategies about current issues and problems.

Corporate counsel are busy managing their own journey while relying more on outside counsel than at any other point in the last 23 years. BTI research reveals that 67% of corporate counsel are busy helping pave their company’s path for transformational change. They want advice and advanced thinking — and excellent client service depends on law firms meeting today’s and tomorrow’s expectations.

These firms are making a bet.

They are betting investments in client service in a perceived fragile market will deliver immediate and lasting value — both strategic and financial.

Only 64 law firms managed to improve client service performance in 2024 — according to corporate counsel. This equates to just shy of 10% of all law firms. And client service still remains the biggest differentiator among law firms.

One key driver — corporate counsel have new roles and responsibilities. They don’t announce their new goals — they simply change their behavior. Only the firms with keen institutional eyes and ears pick up on these new objectives. These 64 firms are amping up on both counts.

Please join me in congratulating the most improved law firms in client service performance for 2024:

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.