Law firms can take 3 steps, starting today, to ensure they reach these opportunities before competitors.

Step 1: Find the Best Opportunities for Business in 2016

BTI’s Industry Opportunity Matrix (based on more than 300 interviews with General Counsel) identifies, by practice and industry, exactly where clients—and which ones—will be spending their legal dollars in 2016.  

Step 2: Focus Your Firm to Target Growth Areas

There are many strategies to grow a law firm, but only a handful can be executed with the speed and efficiency to make next year a growth year for your firm. Using the opportunity zone chart above, choose a strategy most aligned with your firm’s current relationships and capabilities:

• Focus first on client development plans on building lucrative relationships with the clients positioned to grow in 2016

A client development plan is a tool to help law firms zero in on the clients with the highest potential in terms of profit and access to work. By using the BTI Opportunity Matrix above, target your firm’s existing clients with the most “Hot Zones” (in green) to see outsized growth in 2016.

• Assemble industry SWAT teams to quickly move on this year’s opportunities

Most growth opportunities are based on industry trends. Firms don’t need to completely realign their structure to enjoy the benefits of an industry (rather than practice) focused approach. Assemble smaller industry-focused SWAT teams to provide a custom suite of practices (hint: use the above BTI Opportunity Matrix to group together the most in-demand services) to targeted clients and prospects.

• Increase your win rate in growth areas with targeted business development plans

The hardest part of developing business isn’t talking to clients about their business or being able to explain what services the firm offers, it’s how to start and steer the conversation. Use the BTI Opportunity Matrix to prepare yourself to discuss top needs and priorities—remove the guess work.

Step 3: Grow!

Firms who learn how to find growth in down markets will outperform all others. The hunt for the less obvious opportunities is on. You have to find them, and grab them before anyone else.

Every firm can improve its strategy by locating and assessing the growth opportunities and pressure points to guide your own efforts to grab the new dollars coming into the market. Fortunately for you BTI has just released the most comprehensive analysis of client growth and spending plans in BTI Business Development Opportunity Zones: How to Grow by Industry and Practice in 2016. BTI’s newest report provides step-by-step guides and tools for the 3 strategies above—plus 2 more—to exploit your best growth opportunities. Learn more.

JPD

The post Where to Find Your Best Opportunities for Business in 2016 appeared first on The BTI Consulting Group.

You can find opportunity in every market—up, down or flat—the only question is which of the many strategies will work. The legal market has reached the point where each market opportunity demands a different strategy. BTI’s new research, based on 330 interviews with corporate counsel, reveals corporate counsel have hit the reset button. New spending is now popping up as new priorities and new trends (the good and the bad) take hold.

1. To Grow Where No Legal Market Has Grown Before
   After shrinking in 2013, the US market for outside counsel services grows in 2014. And the good news continues: this is expected to last through 2015. Expect growth for all but 2 practice areas. Corporate counsel tell us they are planning to increase spending in 15 of 17 practice areas; sparking growth (admittedly some will grow imperceptibly) in 2015. The 2 noted exceptions: real estate and litigation will see declines. However, 8 practices are considered to offer above-average market growth and access to premium rates.

   Cybersecurity/Data Privacy emerges as a major market opportunity with spending on cybersecurity-related issues crossing the billion-dollar threshold. This quickly growing area promises 2 to 4 mega-cases each year and an abundance of large, complex matters.

   Strategy impact: The gateway for law firms looking to capture clients’ big-ticket spending is through smaller assignments focused on assessing risk and compliance. Be prepared to provide a side of counseling while you work for the larger matter.

2. The Localization of Global Work
   Global organizations continue to increase their US legal spending. Companies based outside the US are in growth mode providing a steady stream of transactions, labor and employment issues, regulatory conflicts, and strategic IP issues—all originating in the US legal market. More than 50% of the law firms serving these clients are outside the AmLaw 50.

   Strategy impact: Come armed to discuss the business implications (more so than the legal consequences) their organization can expect.

3. Litigation’s Glory Days Are Gone

3 years of litigation spending declines and another on the way for 2015. Corporate counsel are committed to reducing their litigation spending—and dockets. Resolution rates (settlements) are soaring. Work is starting to move in-house while organizations cut the number of bet-the-company matters. 

Strategy impact: To capture volume in the face of declining spending (and be positioned to win the major bet-the-company work when it arises), think about the litigation market in terms of early triage, smart staffing, and creative fee structures.

Reset markets—those with shifting patterns—offer advantages to law firms with more market-centric approaches. Firms with their finger on the pulse of the market have already started to change their strategies. Other firms will hit their own reset button and try to leap frog competitors.  

Click below for more highlights from the brand new Legal Spending Outlook 2015.

The post To Boldly Grow Where No Legal Market Has Grown Before appeared first on The BTI Consulting Group.

US spending by global companies is soaring—and 75% of their US law firm hires are outside the Am Law 50.

Global company spending now accounts for 40% of US corporate legal spending, up from 30% in 2010. We find global companies are more active in developing markets, building sales channels, and creating and filling product pipelines while investing in infrastructure and talent. The global companies operating in the US have become a market unto themselves.

Global companies are propping up the US corporate legal market, as corporate legal spending by the Global 500 borders on a boom by today’s standards. US spending by global companies is growing at a compound annual growth rate of 7.2%, while non-global companies’ US legal spending is shrinking at a rate of 2.7%.

Global companies show vigorous interest in working with every size and manner of law firm. While the largest litigation and M&A will find its way to global law firms—the rest is up for grabs.

Thinking Global, Hiring Local

Global companies show an especially strong interest in using both mid-sized as well as larger firms in Litigation, Employment, IP, IP Litigation, Regulatory, Corporate and small- and mid-sized M&A. Again, large M&A and cross-border transactions will remain the province of large and global firms.

The law firms successfully targeting US spending by global companies are focusing their pitches to discuss the more unique aspects  of global companies, including:

• Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
• Antitrust
• Transfer pricing
• Labor-related issues
• Regulatory issues

The pitches are tailored and customized for each client—and almost all come from firms who got their start in an advisory role.

Global firms are most impressed by what you know about them and their US operations.

Learn how to take advantage of this growth area and more in BTI Premium Practices Forecast 2014: Survey of Corporate Legal Spending.

The post US Legal Spending Soars: Growth at 7% appeared first on The BTI Consulting Group.

Under the streets of London, a veritable maze of closed-door rooms became the hub of Britain’s military planning during World War II. While the earth shook above them, Churchill’s top officials waged war, gathering intelligence and clandestinely directing thousands of tactical maneuvers. The war room buzzed.

Similarly, behind closed doors and amidst a seemingly endless stream of disappointing economic prognostication, corporate leadership are plotting their own course for a better, brighter 2013. Savvy, cash-rich organizations, increasingly comfortable with (or perhaps entirely impatient of) global uncertainty are making plans. Downtrodden markets present the perfect opportunity for smart and surreptitious strategizing. External turmoil be damned, there is a new future in store for next year’s legal market: one which will leave the unprepared reeling from the exhaustion of trying to keep up.

The 7 Things You Need to Know for 2013

1. GCs move into position on the front lines of company strategy
2. Stealth strategic planning lifts prospects for M&A, Corporate and Securities
3. Political and financial instability sustains Regulatory momentum
4. Persistent economic challenges spark more Bankruptcy and Restructuring
5. Litigation “Resolution Revolution” tempers outside counsel spending
6. Investments in internal legal department drives more strategic use of outside counsel
7. Value overtakes cost control as clients’ top goal for 2013

Learn more about mission-critical trends impacting clients in BTI Premium Practices Forecast 2013: The Survey of Legal Spending.

The post In the War Room appeared first on The BTI Consulting Group.

If the tug-of-war of litigation is getting you down, you’re not alone. This year, spending cuts, fee caps, resolution mandates and other aggressive tactics are bringing down not just litigation dollars, but the entire legal market. With a projected growth rate of -1.6% (yes, that is negative), the market for outside counsel services in litigation is putting a damper on the outlook for 2012, dragging the overall legal market into negative territory with a projected downsizing of 0.3%.

In a virtually unprecedented display of buying power, corporate counsel are reining in litigation costs through a deft combination of fee negotiations, rate pressure, early case settlement, aggressive resolution tactics, ramped up technology use and select outsourcing to non-law firm third parties. What’s a litigator to do?

Strategies to overcome the downward pressure on litigation vary from the tried-and-true (target complex litigation) to the innovative (proactively work with clients to analyze and reduce their litigation portfolio). A few proven approaches excerpted from the recently released BTI Premium Practices Forecast 2012:

1.     Go for the growth: IP litigation, antitrust and employment-related cases buck the trend, with projected growth rates ranging from 3.5% to 8.6% for 2012

2.     Speak resolution: Clients anticipate resolution rates for litigation of 36.9% in 2011 and most plan to continue their aggressive tact in the year to come. Initiate a dialogue and offer creative solutions to position your firm to win new business.

3.     Be transparent: Corporate counsel are fast placing an increasing value on the ability of a law firm to provide a window into budget, staffing and case progress. Adopt a policy of offering this information at the onset of every case, and at regular intervals throughout the course of the matter.

Get more recommendations and proven strategies in BTI’s Premium Practices Forecast 2012: The Survey of Corporate Legal Spending.

The post Litigation Got You Down? appeared first on The BTI Consulting Group.

Many of us spend our Sunday afternoons at this time of year marveling at the deft tactical maneuvers and well-timed evasions of our favorite receivers and running backs. Running head on into a fray of beefy opponents intent on squashing any efforts at forward progress, these players display agility and practiced skill. They leap over fallen teammates, duck beneath barreling chests and swerve around hulking obstacles.

“Leap. Duck. Swerve.” is BTI’s new mantra for the 2012 legal market. 

BTI’s newest research with more than 240 of the world’s top-spending corporate clients unveils a veritable obstacle course of pitfalls and hurdles in the market ahead. BTI’s Premium Practices Forecast 2012 predicts tremendous variance in legal spending growth for 2012, with individual practices sinking by up to 13.2% while others comparatively soar at 4.2%.

Rarely does the legal market forecast ring with such discord. The net result of the divergence in practice-specific spending expectations moves BTI’s projection for the 2012 legal market into slight, though decidedly negative, territory at -0.3% ­ the biggest downer coming from a slump in general litigation spending.

Law firm progress and growth in the coming year will be reserved for those firms who leap, duck and swerve. Swift action, bold moves and new directions will tackle corporate clients’ shifting needs – and establish the game plan for success. What maneuvers do you have in store for 2012? It’s your move.

The post Leap. Duck. Swerve. appeared first on The BTI Consulting Group.

Gateway Practices are a law firm’s exclusive invitation into an elite club. They not only provide intimate insights into a client’s most sensitive, high-value needs, but also offer priority access to new business opportunities in other areas (such as high-rate, high-growth opportunities). Gateway Practices are, in essence, the equivalent of a hidden shortcut to the king’s treasures.

BTI Premium Practices Forecast 2011, based on input from more than 250 corporate counsel, predicts there are 4 Gateway Practices for 2011. These are:

• Bet-the-Company Litigation
• Investigations
• Bankruptcy
• IP Litigation

Opportunities in Gateway Practices, however, are not abundantly available. In terms of market size, they are smaller than most other practice areas. Fewer companies have existing matters—for example, just 24.2% of companies have an active bet-the-company litigation at any given time—and the growth prospects for Gateway Practices, most of which are negative, mean competition is intense.

The only way to win new business in a shrinking practice area is to (1) take work from a competitor, or (2) be first in line for new opportunities. Three best practices to position your firm to capture—and keep—this high-powered, top-rate work are:

1. Be the driving force behind new thinking in how to use legal strategy for business advantage
2. Take a bullet for your client
   Commitment to help is the single most powerful differentiator when hiring for Gateway Practices
3. Host regular online or live events which anticipate major risk factors in Gateway Practices

Learn more at www.btipremiumpractices.com



The post Gateway Practices Promise Premium Rates for 2011 – and More appeared first on The BTI Consulting Group.

BTI’s Law Firm Leader Confidence Index rose to 52.85 in third-quarter 2010 – a decidedly positive change from the previous quarter’s rating of 45.83.

The most notable change between second- and third-quarter is the conversion of the BTI Law Firm Leader Confidence Index from a slightly negative outlook to a subtly optimistic one (with 50 being the mid-line indicator for flat, or no, industry growth). This directional change is significant. From the perspective of law firm leaders, the legal industry has turned a corner. Clients agree. The just-released BTI Premium Practices Forecast 2011 shows signs of life in the previously withering market for outside counsel services. Specifically, corporate counsel anticipate spending increases in a number of core practice areas, including M&A, Labor and Class Actions. BTI’s analysis predicts overall market growth of .6% for year-end 2010 and 1.2% for 2011.

Let your voice be heard! Join the latest BTI Law Firm Leader Confidence Index survey now.

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About The BTI Law Firm Leader Confidence Index

Between April and September 2010, more than 250 practice leaders and senior partners gauged confidence in today’s legal market as part of BTI’s first annual Study of Law Firm Practice Leaders. BTI independently identified and selected law firm leaders using a combination of criteria that included:

• Practice Chairs/Heads
• Members of firm management
• Client-selected standouts from BTI’s independent research
• The BTI Client Service All-Stars – individual attorneys nominated by clients as delivering superior client service in BTI’s annual study of corporate counsel

The post Law Firm Leaders Turn Optimistic – Expectations Climb appeared first on The BTI Consulting Group.

All signs point to stabilization of the legal market.

After some disappointing setbacks, the legal market is poised to grow in 2011. This directional shift joins anticipated spending increases in such strongholds as M&A, Class Actions and Labor and Employment. It signals the return of better times.

Yet the expected rise in client spending is modest. At 1.2%, it falls far short of law firms’ projected rate increases (which range from 5% to 8%, on average). This leaves law firms with only one choice: to grow at the expense of competitors.

Welcome to a Predator’s Paradise. The hunt is on.

You can discover all the details in the brand new BTI Premium Practices Forecast 2011: Survey of Corporate Legal Spending. Just released, this research with more than 240 corporate counsel delineates client budgets, opportunities and predictions for the coming year.

Learn more at www.btipremiumpractices.com



The post Client Spending to Grow 1.2% in 2011 – New BTI Research appeared first on The BTI Consulting Group.

Practice area trends of 2010 and 2011 have been anything but expected. Contrary to historical ebbs and flows, such as litigation spikes in downturns, today’s legal market is bucking the trend. In everything from corporate work to bet-the-company litigation, periods of growth and decline are sporadic, short-lived and, at times, unanticipated.

Envision the age-old arcade favorite, Whac-A-Mole. You stand poised with an oversized foam Q-tip in one hand, anticipating the brief, surprise appearance of a furry brown head. Upon seeing the little critter you aggressively pounce with all of your might, as if the power of your swing will lead you to victory.

No matter how much strength you bring to bear, however, you may miss the mark. The winning strike demands not heft but a keen eye, disciplined stroke and quick action—much like the attributes of a skilled predator. So too does the 2011 legal market.

Hone your Whac-A-Mole skills to win more business in today’s competitive market by:

1. Performing a firm-wide analysis of client feedback with your top clients
2. Devising client-specific tools to distinguish your firm (e.g., IP litigation portfolio analysis, checklist of risks to beware of when hiring C-level executives, etc.)
3. Using annual in-person client meetings to anticipate changes in client needs
4. Ordering BTI’s Premium Practices Forecast 2011 (yes, a blatant plug)

Happy hitting!

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