A BTI flash survey of almost 700 attorneys reveals decidedly different law firm business development cultures. Underappreciated and maligned by some — worshipped by others — business development is creating the next strategic and cultural divide.

We asked these attorneys to describe their business development culture — the results look like this:

46% indicate their business development culture is strategic, focused, well-resourced, and a priority within the firm.

The strategists talk about their firm boasting:

• • Account-based management
  • Client teams with budgets
  • Industry sectors with accountable leaders
  • Ongoing training
  • Strong partner support
  • Offer tools and guides
  • Redesigned origination credit systems
  • BD metrics in their strategic plans

54% suggest their BD culture is inconsistent at best and ranges to apathy and indifference.

Firms with inconsistent BD talk more about:

• • Inconsistent interest and enthusiasm
  • Partners selecting their own strategies and approaches
  • Partners avoiding business development
  • Attorneys preferring to be service partners
  • Individuals hoping to inherit clients from retiring partners
  • No collaboration between attorneys

The inconsistent firms can change the culture within their firm by:

• • Making BD part of the firm dialogue
  • Celebrating wins
  • Training the willing and interested
  • Offering tools and guides for all attorneys
  • Training associates to start the BD conversation and awareness early
  • Offering CLE with training
  • Training in skills before BD process

Business development is only going to get harder — we discuss here. And then even harder again. The firms investing and building now will enjoy a significant advantage over the others.

Firms building business development into their culture will gain more of the clients who pay premium rates — and are most likely to develop a long-term relationship with their outside law firms.

Clients are becoming more frustrated and burnt out on RFPs and pitches. This brings business development skills into the spotlight as clients become even more selective.

No amount of lateral partner recruiting will overcome a fundamental BD deficiency — and most of the top laterals prefer firms with strategic business development. This is not a coincidence.

There is only one group with more interest in lateral partners than law firm leaders — the partners themselves. Everything about law firms is changing. Partner moves are transitioning from phenomena to mainstream — and then will hit bubble territory.

The deafeningly loud alarm bell for the upcoming tsunami is buried in Google searches for how to make a lateral partner move. We checked Google Trends for searches for:

• • “How do I make a lateral move as a law firm partner” (in blue)
  • “How do I change law firms as a partner” (in red)

Both hit 5-year highs after spiking 3 times since 12/31/23 signaling surges in a single quarter.

Law firms will want to keep most of the partners who are exploring how to jump ship. We recommend the following to try to stem the tide before it swells up:

• • Form a “partners keep team” to measure retention and retention risk — and develop the tactics to retain and improve engagement. Invite key partners who enjoy universal respect to be part of the team
  • Identify the partners you have to keep and want to keep
  • Give the partners a bigger voice through stay interviews and discussions
  • Develop opportunity maps for partners to help articulate their path in the firm
  • Offer substantially more training in soft skills — especially business development and communication
  • Share origination credits among pitch teams
  • Craft a strategic lateral integration process
  • Hire full-time wellness coaches
  • Give keeping partners the same priority as recruiting partners
  • Celebrate and nurture early-stage rising stars
  • Gauge partner understanding of opportunities and expectations outside of billable hour targets
  • Conduct an anonymous partner satisfaction survey

The partner exodus isn’t just about losing revenue generators. It’s about keeping your firm’s culture and institutional memory. Those prioritizing retention with the same zeal as lateral hiring will enjoy a new source of advantage — retention provides uniformity to clients and stability to the firm — well worth adding to your list of strategic priorities.