The last 2 years broke records for CMO moves – reaching 31% last year and 28% the year before.

Markets were less volatile, presidential executive orders for law firms weren’t a thing, and few firm leaders worried about the economy. No more.

We just finished analyzing CMO turnover – how many moved, how many left the legal industry, and how many got promoted. The numbers look like this:

• 18% made a career move – down from 31% last year

• • 6% got promoted – down from 12% last year
  • 7% left law – down slightly from 8% last year
  • 5% became legal marketing consultants

Here’s Why Turnover Dropped:

• With 31% CMO turnover last year – many of these CMOs don’t want to make another move just yet
• CMOs who made the move last year are just starting to get their sea legs – they tell us it takes 2 years
• Law firm leaders are reluctant to make changes in the CMO role because of concerns over an economic slowdown
• More CMOs are feeling empowered and engaged – they don’t want to make a move

CMO turnover has finally cooled, giving law firms a rare window of stability.

A growing group of law firm marketing leaders is finding their footing, building stronger relationships with firm leadership, and leaning into strategies.

The question now: which firms will use this stability to their advantage – and which will let it slip away? The best firms won’t just ride this wave of stability – they’ll use it to surge ahead.

You can argue it’s a new problem – or a former isolated problem gone viral.

BTI’s new research with law firm partners and marketing leaders reveals a growing wave: partners going rogue on business development. No coordination. No alignment. No warning. Running solo. It’s now a strategic problem. It:

• Spreads through the partner ranks – diluting firmwide BD efforts
• Impacts the best opportunities as rogue partners operate outside the RFP process
• Undermines client confidence when they get different pitches or uncoordinated outreach

Rogue BD is real. The number of rogue partners borders on stunning: 1 in 4 partners are now operating outside the system. Here are the top 5 reasons why:

Can’t Navigate the Minefield of Client Relationship Access

“There is always a reason not to bring me into my partners’ client. Always. So, I stopped asking and started developing my own clients from scratch. The less the firm knows about it, the better off I am.”

 – 10-year partner at an Am Law 30 law firm.

These partners see abundant opportunity to expand relationships – but are blocked for 3 reasons:

• • Gatekeeping by billing partners
  • No credit for new business
  • Pressure to follow someone else’s BD playbook

Navigating the Client Access Free for All – No Centralized Client Relationship Management

Partners see a client with a need – and go for it. They see no designated point of contact through the firm and reach out directly. The more billing partners on a single client – the higher the chance of rogue business development. These partners have little, if any, visibility into other efforts to build business with the client.

These clients report receiving multiple pitches from firms – with different looks and messages. And different levels of understanding of client sensitivities and objectives.

It Works for Me

These partners have their own approach. They like it and it’s comfortable. They have little interest in changing it. They perceive any outside advice as a threat to their pursuits and process.

Impatience with Bureaucracy

Waiting for approvals, messaging, and coordination feels like red tape and delays – what these partners see as a time-sensitive opportunity. Rogue partners act on their own to move faster – even if it means bypassing key steps.

Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)

Potential opportunities pop and scream for attention. They think they will lose the opportunity – and pounce before looping in the team.

Here are 2 Big Catches

1. Virtually every single act of rogue business development is a prime opportunity. They happen outside the RFP process – where the best BD prospects lie.
2. More than ½ the partners going rogue are laterals – they may think they are doing the right thing – or doing what they do best.

Kill Them with Kindness to Win Them Over – Harness the Rogue Energy

It is hard to win the rogue business developers over with anything but kindness and care. But once a firm gains their trust they can become super rainmakers – and help develop more rainmakers. We recommend the following to harness the energy for good:

• Look for the places where rogue BD is likely to be happening
• Share all client outreach with all billing attorneys in near real time
• Offer a self-serve resource center to support the rogue activities
• Embrace rogue business developers
• Offer light touches of advice and support
• Study what successful rogue BD rainmakers do – leverage what they do – and find common ground

Firms able to harness rogue BD talent create harmony, amplify momentum, and turn soloists into an orchestra. Just what the market demands for success.

Every change impacting corporate counsel has a multiplier effect on client service. Each change makes it exponentially harder to deliver excellent client service. And – it has been a record year for change. These drive the 5 new behaviors separating the BTI Client Service All-Stars 2025 from everyone else.

The 5 new client service behaviors are:

Corporate counsel find themselves in the middle of more matters impacting business operations than ever. This means they’re impacting revenue and profit more than ever.

Their CEO’s expect real-time response and practical insights. Corporate counsel input is now a critical input to decisions about market disruption and regulatory volatility. There is no time to waste.

This changes the corporate counsel equations for excellent client service. It makes it harder – a lot harder – to deliver. But – 240 attorneys hit the client service bull’s eye.

They earned the coveted nomination for delivering the best-of-the-best client service.

The Only Purely Organic Ranking

No submissions. No nominations. No suggestions. No payments. Only clients.

Every BTI Client Service All-Star is nominated by corporate counsel. We asked them to pinpoint these individuals by name – these are The BTI Client Service All-Stars.

This exclusive research – this report, and the online directory – serve as the gold standard to uncover the best. Used by corporate counsel and law firms alike – it remains the pinnacle of client service performance.

Clients single out 240 All-Stars firms from 134 firms.

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:

Law firms continue to try to up their marketing game. At the same time — CMOs are trying to escalate their careers. This can be a match made in heaven — or a disaster. It also drives demand for top CMOs and turnover in first-chair marketers.

We canvassed more than 300 law firms. We tracked law firm CMO movement through LinkedIn and our own research. Here’s what we found:

• 31% of law firm CMOs made a career move — up from 28% last year
• 12% of these were promoted into the CMO slot at their current firm — up from 5% last year
• 10% (of the 31%) were recruited from another firm — up slightly from 7% last year
• Another 8% of law firm CMOs left the world of law — it was 7% last year

To Change or Not to Change

More than twice as many law firms promoted an internal person into the CMO role compared to last year. They see the value in people who understand the culture and know the partners and the firm’s strategic plan. These firms typically like their current approach and want to amp it up.

Almost the same number of firms brought in a new CMO — they want a fresh perspective and/or want to make changes to the role.

Biggest Reasons for CMOs to Move to a Firm

• Chance to make an impact
• More opportunity
• Leadership change at their existing firm
• A new dynamic leader at the destination firm

What About Comp?

Compensation no longer makes the top of the reasons for a change in firms. CMOs tell me salaries matter but making an impact matters more.

CMOs are doing more due diligence on the firms trying to recruit them. They are looking deeply at:

• Leadership attitude toward Marketing and Business Development
• Partner EQ and courtesies extended during the interview process
• Paying more careful attention to the questions asked during the interview process

More Decliners

CMOs are turning down more inquiries and offers than ever. The top reasons for remaining at their current firm include:

• See themselves as part of the leadership team
• Believe they are making an impact
• Are openly appreciated by a measurable number of leadership partners

Law firms and CMOs are getting pickier and want more. Most are becoming more strategic. Every CMO owes it to themselves to assess their current situation with cold, steely eyes. Law firms owe it to themselves to take the same look at the role and their attitude toward Marketing and Business Development.

Law firms can also benefit from shaping the CMO role from the reasons CMOs change firms above.

The most successful firms are putting more distance between themselves and the other firms. CMOs want to be part of the more successful firms. Perform due diligence on your current firm and any potential firm — especially if the CMOs ability to make an impact and be part of leadership matter more than compensation.

In the high-stakes world of law firm marketing, hindsight is 20/20.

We asked over 150 seasoned law firm Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) what advice they’d give their younger selves or to a newly minted CMO. Their responses paint a vivid picture of the challenges and triumphs in our unique corner of the world.

These insights offer a roadmap for success for both aspiring and current legal marketing professionals. Here are the key lessons these veterans wish they had known from day one. The messages are pretty compelling:

1. 1. Don’t take it personally — everyone questions new ideas

The questioners are not attacking you, they are trying to get their head around your ideas. Their approach may be hard and gruff, and they may not believe — but it comes with the territory.

1. 2. Persistence — don’t give up the ship

People won’t really understand what you are saying until they hear it 7 times. This means the initial resistance and indifference are part of the process. These are your first 2 or 3 of 7 points of communication. Very few ideas get off the ground without at least 7 clear messaging events to the right audience(s).

1. 3. Adapt — learn from all the feedback you get

Rejection, resistance, and lack of enthusiasm all tell you the message or approach you propose may not be on target. Change your approach to play to the issues and concerns you hear.

1. 4. Don’t make the job bigger than you

Don’t care more about the job than the firm. There will always be a few law firms who fundamentally don’t respect or care about the marketing and business development function. These law firm marketing leaders would have told a new CMO to jump ship and go to a place where marketing and business development are part of the firm.

1. 5. Really get to know the attorneys

Attorneys have their priorities and preferences. Law firm leaders recommend taking the time to understand these people and their personalities. You are there to make the firm and the attorneys more successful. Your knowledge of the attorney’s personas and how they conduct business helps you develop your roadmap — and helps you make sure you get to know the partners most likely to make you successful.

1. 6. Learn the art of saying no

CMOs are asked to do all manner of things — some relevant and strategic — others are unrelated to anything meaningful. Successful CMOs advise developing your own informal filters to decide when to say no — and then saying no. They also learn a thoughtful diplomatic decline earns you respect and paves the way for more strategic requests.