From toxic wastelands to well-oiled machines, the legal workplace is a diverse ecosystem.

Trust can be a rare commodity and cooperation a distant dream. But fear not, only 10.1% of law firms have descended into this abyss.

On the bright side, 12.1% of firms operate as well-oiled machines, where the attorneys are in sync, ideas flow freely, and client relationships thrive.

BTI research, based on more than 1,000 responses to our workplace and attorney satisfaction survey, reveals 4 distinct cultures:

The Toxic Workplace

Trust is scarce. Attorneys keep their distance. Partners work together only if they have to — the same goes for associates — they don’t trust each other to help with work or share stresses and experiences. Partners resent firm interference with their clients. Fortunately, only 10.1% of firms receive this distinction from their attorneys.

The Well-Oiled Machine

At the other end of the spectrum — 12.1% excel with seamless collaboration and information sharing. Partners are in synch — so associates feel in synch.

You find ongoing information sharing about client, legal, and workplace issues — all serving to build attorney knowledge bases they can use in client work and business development. Attorneys offer up thoughts and ideas routinely — it’s part of the DNA.

The Machine

The largest group at 47.5% leans towards working together — but often needs a catalyst to make it happen. These catalysts include transactional work, large litigation, a partner seeking another out, pitches, and large client defections.

This group of firms has the building blocks to become a well-oiled machine.

The Siloed

30.3% report uneven cooperation. There is little in the way of active sharing between practice groups. Some attorneys in this cohort report being envious of the groups with more sharing than their own.

The Well-Oiled Machines enjoy the highest workplace satisfaction. BTI research suggests they enjoy fundamentally stronger client relationships as well. This is a clear benefit of idea sharing finding its way to clients.

All firms can boost workplace culture and sharing of ideas by implementing at least one of the following strategies:

Anonymous Attorney Survey

Give attorneys a voice. And give leadership feedback. Learn what and why your attorneys really think about the firm. Uncover unseen strengths and weaknesses. This is one of the few tools proven to immediately boost even the best workplace culture upon delivery — and again when you present the results.

This survey adds enduring value when leadership takes action on the weaknesses and leverages the strengths. N.B. — if it is not anonymous you won’t get the insight.

Formal Idea Sharing Sessions

Promote better ideas and stronger bonds. The more discussion the better the bonds. We recommend:

Idea circles — smaller formal groups to exchange ideas on what they see and hear. Meet in short sessions of 30 minutes or less. Discuss one or two ideas. Rotate the people who bring questions or ideas for the group to discuss.

Informal idea sharing — send an email once a month to all attorneys asking for the top issues in the market, in law, or other meaty topics. Limit response to three bullet points and share the list with all attorneys.

Client-issue Discussion Forums

Create small groups to discuss one client. Discuss all aspects of the client — from legal issues to business development to news. Discuss how to solve problems, develop new business and services, and what everyone knows about a specific client.

These sessions always reveal new insights, build bonds within the forum, and provide potent discussion topics with clients.

Leadership Partner in Charge of Workplace Development

Put a respected and influential partner in charge of developing the workplace. While every attorney is responsible — this leadership partner is accountable. Give this effort a budget and goals.

Some of these practices were the hallmark of a good law firm back in the day — when law firms were small, and the partners fit in one conference room. Large firms can embrace what was and add new elements to leverage their size and collective skills and knowledgebase. This will be part of the next wave of critical success factors in successfully developing the next generation law firm.

Q4 is one of the best times of the year to develop business.

Clients zero in on their mission-critical tasks. Their focus is to get them done. This focus consumes any time for issuing RFPs or big pitches. Corporate counsel want to make it happen before year-end creating a perfect storm for business development with no competition.

Here are 9 hacks to take advantage of this once-a-year opportunity:

1. 1. Learn your client’s mission critical needs to complete this year — and help them make it happen. The only way to learn is by asking.
   2. Review your client’s goals for longstanding matters to see how they have changed.
   3. Ask what updates and information your client needs as year-end approaches. Be ready to offer insights and suggestions based on what other clients are seeking.
   4. Find out if competitors are engaging in spinoffs, acquisitions, restructurings, or are the subject of regulatory investigations — share the impact and ask if your client senses any risk on the horizon.
   5. Define what your client will absolutely need to accomplish in the 1st quarter of next year.
   6. Craft a list of top ideas about their workloads and matters — share it for comment and discussion.
   7. Ask what changes they expect in 2024.
   8. Talk about how they are using Generative AI and share your experience and plans.
   9. Offer up a workshop or CLE for the first half of next year — preferably tied to your client’s feedback from the questions above.

Use any of these tactics to maintain and initiate an ongoing dialogue for the remainder of the year and into 2024 — and forge deeper connections with your clients.

2 More Resources to Power Your Q4 Business Development

BTI Litigation Outlook 2024
You can tap into more than 22 business development hacks for the Litigation market in the just-released BTI Litigation Outlook 2024. You can use the BTI Litigation Outlook 2024 to map out exactly where the litigation spending is and isn’t — enabling you to target your business development efforts to the best and most robust opportunities.

Discover the details on all corporate counsel law firm preferences — by name — and learn who stands out in each of the key 8 litigation segments — and why.

BTI Benchmarking Law Firm LinkedIn Performance 2023
Generate more business with the BTI Benchmarking Law Firm LinkedIn Performance 2023. More than half of corporate counsel visit LinkedIn 2 to 3 times a day — make these visits work for you.

This new report is your gateway to the most successful LinkedIn engagement strategies and the secret sauce for creating the coveted inbound lead.

The 4th quarter reminds everyone that the deadline for year-end is just around the corner. There is nothing like a deadline to create urgency, the need for resources, and success. Be the first to reach out to your best clients.

Your LinkedIn firm site shows more insight and personality into your firm than any website can.

Law firm LinkedIn Pages are the new all-encompassing showcase for law firms – anyone can look and listen without risk – and get the snapshot they want.

Here’s why:

• Your posts, likes, and comments on your posts reveal deeper insights into the firm and its thinking
• Your activity level is a proxy for how engaging you are when you work with a new client or lateral
• It also shows what new ideas you might bring

This explains why corporate counsel visits to Law Firm LinkedIn pages outnumber visits to law firms’ websites by just over 2 to 1. The numbers look like this:

• 83% of clients visit LinkedIn as part of their work routine
  • more than half visit daily
• 37% of corporate counsel visit an average of 1 law firm website per week – almost all go directly to attorney bios – the remainder visit sporadically
  • 11% visit law firm websites only after visiting the LinkedIn page

Look for the gap to grow and favor LinkedIn law firm pages. It’s time for law firms to go all in.

LinkedIn law firm pages offer one-stop shopping for everything corporate counsel want to know:

• Legal developments
• Partner movement
• Firm news
• Marquee matters, cases, transactions they worked on – and what the reader can learn from it
• Follower comments on firm posts including:
  • The content of the comments – are they insightful and provocative
  • Who is making the comments – reflecting the company your firm keeps

And clients are starting to look on LinkedIn before going anywhere else for details such as:

• Rankings and accolades
• More detail and context around Pro Bono initiatives
• New offices
• Lateral group acquisitions
• Promotions outside the attorney ranks

Corporate counsel know stunningly little about their law firm – and their appetite to know is rapidly growing. They know the practice their partner delivers and then the specific knowledge base dries up. Clients know the generalities – but not enough specifics to hire them for a new practice.

LinkedIn law firm pages are the latest law firm battleground. As many law firms realize this as don’t – leaving enormous opportunities to boost engagement, lead flow, quality lateral interest, connection to the firm and so much more.

LinkedIn will do more to – and for – your brand than law firms realize.

BTI just finished a 3-year study on law firm LinkedIn performance – we meticulously gathered all the details about the Am Law 200 plus the large international firms. We compared and contrasted all of them along 6 key metrics. Then – we ranked the law firms by size cohort:

Am Law 30+
The 30 largest law firms in the Am Law 200 for 2022 plus 5 large international law firms

Am Law Mid One Hundred
The law firms ranked 31 to 100 in the Am Law 200 for 2022

Am Law 2^nd 100
The law firms ranked 101 to 200 in the Am Law 200 for 2022

The results reveal a wide spectrum of performance and investment. You can access a press-quarantined version or learn more here. I will be writing more about the results in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.

You can develop outstanding thought leadership without ever posting a thing. Write just for yourself. Don’t show it to anyone until you go through the following 9 steps to bring your thought leadership up to where you want it to be — attracting new and existing clients — and enjoying the process. I recommend the following 9 hacks:

Write a Haiku — every day for 30 days

Train yourself to write short, concise thoughts. Over time you will learn to connect your thoughts in new ways. You will learn to create short, thoughtful, and easy to read content. The more you practice, the more natural it will become. The haikus also become fun to write.

Don’t write without a subject line

Start with a premise. Drive to the premise. Take turns if you need to — and go back and change the subject line. Starting thought leadership of any type and size without a clear direction is likely to leave you wandering with your words.

Look for unique words to use

Use words you don’t see often. Your writing will look different from everyone else — a key element in getting noticed and read. AI bots can be helpful as can a thesaurus. Set a goal of 2 novel words per piece.

Don’t publish — practice for 20 days to 3 months before thinking about publishing

Get your sea legs first. Write for yourself. Don’t let it see the light of day. But just start writing. The more you write, the closer you get to developing your voice and rhythm. You also gain the benefit of developing a good inventory of thought leadership pieces.

Go back — review and improve

Wait 3 days to review your writing. Go back and look at it with fresh eyes. You will immediately see how and where to make small improvements — with substantial impact.

Challenge yourself to write in a unique style

Try unique styles on. How does it make you feel — how does it sound? You will inevitably like some of what you see and adopt it. This approach also has the benefit of helping you think about the subject matter in a new light.

Put it in an AI Bot — but don’t use let them rewrite

Ask your favorite AI Bot what they think of your piece. Ask them to make it better. Review the suggested changes which usually serve to dilute the piece — but you will find 1 or 2 amazing insights you can include.

Publish

Place your thought leadership on LinkedIn and repurpose it at least 7 times to catch a good audience. You may not feel ready, few authors do. You will learn more from posting — and posting again.

Rinse and repeat

Plan to use these hacks on a continuing basis. They work for novices and the most advanced thought leaders.

Thought leadership will only continue to gain more client mindshare as they look for answers and flock to LinkedIn — stay tuned for more on this. Start writing today or start tomorrow. Starting is the hardest step — and then making it a part of your routine is the 2nd hardest. Only then does it get just a tad easier. And then, the inbound leads start to flow.

Please send me your Haikus if you are so inclined.

My Haiku for today:
Give your words power
Invest time for the reward
The world wants your voice

Partners weren’t the only ones swapping firms. CMOs were just as active as the attorneys — maybe even more. Our new LinkedIn research about law firm CMOs reveals all the changes. We took a deep dive in each of the last three years to track how law firms and their CMOS are doing.

The Numbers Give Law Firms a Reason to Pause:

• • 28% of CMOs changed firms
  • Of this 28%, 1/3 were promotions and 2/3 were lateral moves
  • Another 18% left the legal world

The Biggest Reasons for the Changes:

• • Compensation
  • New challenges
  • Perceived a more welcoming environment
  • Unappreciated in current role
  • Leadership change at their existing firm

Lasting Implications for Law Firms:

• • A successful CMO will strive to execute their strategy — which can lead to significant improvements and drive new law firm behaviors
  • Keeping a good CMO will be challenging as comp continues to rise
  • More firms are investing in strategic marketing initiatives — they need talent to develop and execute successful marketing plans
  • The best CMOs need two years to get their sea legs — demanding patience and investment in the process from law firms
  • Law firm leaders will embrace their CMOs — giving them a voice and implicit authority to act —an amazing strategy for retaining talented individuals

More Than a Trend: Fundamental Industry Shift 

The number of law firms cutting marketing staff and budgets is roughly equal to the number increasing their commitment. The cutters are making big bets they can stand up against firms investing. It is harder than ever to acquire and keep clients.

Clients have had substantial turnover — and 1/3 don’t know who their relationship attorney is. These firms are at risk. Only 21% of clients report having meaningful dialogue with their primary law firms outside of required case-related communication. These are serious obstacles to overcome — and a skilled, savvy CMO is one of the essential tools to remove these barriers.

CMOs are now part of the strategic battleground for market success. Their market value is up — as is their value to law firms. CMOs will go where they are most respected — and more CMOs know this than law firms. Until this equation reverses, look for the turnover rates to remain high.

Almost half of all clients have generative AI fever. 46% are using it now and we expect nothing but growth in adoption. It may not be for case research — but it has plenty of other uses in the legal industry. Here are the top current uses for generative AI based on our hot off-the-press survey of more than 250 corporate counsel:

1. 1. Generating new ideas
   2. Trying to predict outcomes
   3. Critiquing attorney work product
   4. Correspondence and emails
   5. Doing deep dives on attorneys

Generating new ideas

Generative AI feeds clients’ intellectual curiosity and can make life easier. Corporate counsel are describing management, business, and organizational issues into generative AI — and asking for answers and ideas. While these clients may show hesitation when it comes to legal matters, they have reported receiving some valuable suggestions and insights.

Trying to predict outcomes 

Certainty and predictability are core client needs. They rarely wane. Asking generative AI chatbots about scenarios and outcomes offers perspective on defining outcomes. When predicting outcomes, clients want all the informed help they can get.

Critiquing attorney work product 

It almost started as a lark. Clients wanted to test generative AI so they copied/pasted a law firm’s work product (redacting names). These clients found interesting and helpful recommendations to improve the work product and gained insightful knowledge on relevant topics.

Correspondence and emails 

Clients are inundated with emails and correspondence. They find generative AI chatbots helpful in writing routine and straightforward correspondence, adding time to their day — a highly valued benefit.

Doing deep dives on attorneys 

Clients want to know more about the attorneys they deal with. They especially want to know more about attorneys they are considering for hire. But it’s not just outside counsel. Corporate counsel ask about opposing counsel, in-house counsel for the other side, regulatory agency histories — and they also ask about the people and places where they are considering new jobs.

These top uses offer two big lessons for outside counsel:

1. 1. Clients’ intellectual curiosity is one of the most enjoyable aspects of their job. They can get it from AI but they can also get it from outside counsel. It won’t be the same — it will be better because it is a 2-way street.
   2. Prepare yourself for what clients will see. Better to know what the chatbot will say than not. Tell your client you ran it through generative AI and share the results. You will find it especially important to know what the chatbots say about you and your firm. Perform the query before your client tells you what they found.

Clients want their attorneys to be ahead of the game. Your clients will be impressed with your added outreach and due diligence. And like your clients — we all may learn a few new things to help us out.

Clients are using a new calculus to decide whether to follow their partner to a new firm. Clients have spent the last three years watching:

• • Partners change firms
  • Corporate counsel changing companies
  • Experiencing the extremes of client service on both ends of the spectrum
  • A string of retirements

The combination of the partner movement, clients inheriting new partners, and the general swirl of attorneys bring the idea of working with new partners and firms more into the mainstream than ever before.

We asked corporate counsel if they would follow their primary attorney to another firm both pre- and post-covid. The difference in the numbers is a game-changer.

Our just completed survey reveals 44% of clients would follow their primary law firm’s partner to a new firm. Compared to pre-pandemic levels of 12 to 15% — this number has nearly tripled.

But even this 44% has a few concerns:

• • It has to make sense to your client
  • Conflicts
  • New law firm branding
  • Ease of transition or onboarding
  • Nature of the work
  • How they learned about the move

Almost every client indicated personal communication was a central part of the equation. Clients who learn about lateral moves from the news or through announcements could have their minds changed.

These practices saw the largest increases in the number of clients who are likely to follow their partner:

M&A: more than 30% of M&A clients are open to following their partners — up from 12% pre-pandemic. Most of these clients have been in their role for two years or less.

Litigation: the flow of litigation makes it easy for clients to move new cases to their partner at a new law firm.

Labor and Employment: the plethora of new regulations and industry-specific needs drives clients to stick with partners who understand them.

While the number of clients following partners has tripled — it is still less than half. Laterals are not a slam dunk — yet. Here are my recommendations for success:

• • Develop a transition plan for each client you want to bring to the new law firm
  • Provide partner and BD support to ensure the transition plan is successful
  • Use business professionals to take care of administrative procedures to onboard new clients
  • Develop a clear and concise onboarding process
  • Ensure that the clients you want to come with you get a personal call before the news gets out
  • Extend a leadership greeting to the most important clients
  • Design specific integration plans to bring new partners into the firm to be able to service clients

Don’t mistake the lull in lateral movement as a decline. Expect more and higher profile lateral movement. It will happen sooner than you think, now would be a great time to figure out how to keep your partners.

Momentum is only starting to build.

Expect 15% to 20% of law firm leaders to step down over the next 2 years. It may be the most overlooked trend to hit the legal community.

Based on the survey my longtime friend and collaborator, internationally recognized law firm consultant Patrick McKenna, and I conducted with more than 250 law firm leaders. Here is how many are happy and how many are not:

The best aspects of the role suggest these leaders are working with highly engaged partners. They see tangible evidence of the results of their efforts.

The leaders believe they are pushing the firms along with less help from the partners than they expected — or want. There is less engagement. But the role is still rewarding.

No law firm leader would ever let their low job satisfaction get in the way of doing the right thing. And those who know they plan to step down may even find it easier to make the tough decisions partners may not like.

One common denominator across all 3 groups — law firm leaders are not well understood. It is hard to appreciate all the duties and responsibilities until you are on the inside looking out. It’s a stressor to some and an energy source for others — but they all feel it.

These law firm leaders’ roles change over time. This helps explain why the less-than-happy group is more tenured than the rest. It isn’t what it used to be.

The leadership role is a good analogy for the legal market and law firms — it isn’t what it used to be. It will change, throw curve balls, and present the unexpected. Some will love the market and change the trajectory of the market through innovation and bold strategic moves.

We are only at the beginning in terms of market changes. Embrace and love it for as long as you can — it could be a wild ride. Stay tuned.