Proof Positive. It is getting harder to improve performance. Clients are being more selective in who they want to hire — and want evidence beyond the number of cases tried to verdict. Only 58 firms managed to move up market — down from 70 just 2 years ago.

The upmarket firms increased their status as clients’ first choice and preferred provider — as we delineate in 8 major litigation segments in the brand-new report BTI Litigation Outlook 2024.

These 58 firms are investing more to outpace clients’ rapidly changing needs. They talk to clients, provide early assessments, and help plan for what’s next. They share their knowledge and insight about new and novel claims they see. They shower their clients with knowledge and strategies.

Please join me in congratulating the following firms on the ability to move up as clients raise the bar:

Moving up market is a strategic performance metric. You are improving your market presence faster than clients are changing their expectations. The upmarket litigation firms are well positioned to capture growth in the 4th quarter and 2024.

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

BTI’s 3-year deep dive exploration into Law Firm LinkedIn pages and performance has unearthed a fascinating landscape of achievements and opportunities across law firms of varying sizes. The implications are profound, offering high-performing firms a gateway to inbound business and providing others with a chance to catch up — or leap ahead in the latest source of new business.

Our research reveals that strategically minded and disciplined firms consistently deliver performance levels 3x times better than their larger peers. The extent of this performance spectrum underscores the crucial role of investment, commitment, and strategy in shaping each firm’s destiny.

At the epicenter of LinkedIn success lies engagement — comments, likes, celebrations, and posts that captivate your followers. The ripple effect extends to their networks, courtesy of LinkedIn’s algorithm, making every engagement a building block for stronger bonds and meaningful relationships. This leads to inbound business.

Our latest report, The BTI Benchmarking Law Firm LinkedIn Performance 2023, Unleashing the Power of LinkedIn, is the culmination of our in-depth research. It’s your ticket to decoding the secrets behind top-tier LinkedIn performance. But that’s not all — it’s a blueprint for harnessing LinkedIn’s full potential to drive inbound business for your law firm.

Please join me in congratulating the following law firms for their exceptional leadership position in LinkedIn Active Engagement by Touchpoints across all 3 Am Law cohorts plus large international firms:

Only one source provides law firms with unique insights into exactly where they stand along key LinkedIn performance metrics including:

• LinkedIn Followers
• LinkedIn Followers per Partner
• Active Engagement Percentage Rates
• Engagement Touchpoints and Activities
• Engagement Touchpoints and Activities per Partner
• Monthly Posting Cadence
• Where you stand compared to law firms in your size cohort

The BTI Benchmarking Law Firm LinkedIn Performance 2023: Unleashing the Power of LinkedIn is your gateway to this invaluable data, the most successful strategies, and the secret sauce to securing attorney support and engagement with your firm’s online presence. Don’t just keep up — jump ahead of the curve!

Ready to transform your law firm’s LinkedIn game? Click here to grab your copy of the report and embark on a journey to LinkedIn success.

Stay ahead, stay engaged, and stay successful on LinkedIn!

1. 20% follower growth for law firms for the 2nd year in a row

One of the last cohorts to adopt LinkedIn, corporate counsel are now joining in droves.

2. Am Law 2nd 100 firms out engaging all others

This group shows more precision in producing compelling content to generate engagement, including legal issues and firm news.

3. Followings show little relationship to active engagement

Gaining followers is a form of engagement — but followers aren’t the final frontier —engagement reigns supreme. It’s about sparking discussions, igniting likes, shares, and reposts for creating enduring digital and analog relationships.

4. The Holy Grail for learning about law firms for corporate counsel (and laterals)

All the insights in one place – outside the stiff formality of a website — and much easier to digest. Readers gain a more insightful understanding of law firms through LinkedIn pages compared to traditional websites. This trend will lead to LinkedIn’s potential to outperform law firm websites in creating perception and creating inbound leads.

5. Partners rarely outwardly supportive

Few partners actively support firm posts and activities — missing a major source of substantial outreach.

6. Posting drives engagement

The more you post — even repurposed content — the more likely your firm will generate active engagement.

1. Solutions Instead of Scope

Skilled at anticipating needs, BTI Client Service All-Stars put together teams and resources to meet a multitude of client needs — without ever being asked. They offer these solutions as options to clients while laying out how these resources fit into client needs.

Clients tell us this approach streamlines outside counsel management and gets more work done — and they don’t have to listen to a pitch or read a proposal.

2. Simplifies

Clients love emailed recommendations they can forward to their bosses in the C-Suite and Business Units. These are short, clear, and contain minimal legalese. Clients are able to be responsive to their bosses and learn at the same time.

3. Practical

It’s all about immediate impact — clients are inundated with questions about the consequences of regulatory changes, workforce issues, trade issues, and a host of related topics. The BTI Client Service All-Stars avoid theory and stick to step-by-step actions with a focus on the here and now.

4. Situational Responsiveness

Any regulatory change — especially those impacting revenue, workforce, and technology — can result in a call from the C-Suite. Clients have short windows to respond — and BTI Client Service All-Stars find ways to meet the urgency — bringing in other firm resources whenever needed. These clients are confident the answers they need will arrive when needed.

5. Bringing the Best

Pandemic era capacity constraints and law firm ghosting left clients concerned about who is performing their work. Not true with the BTI Client Service All-Stars in charge — each one takes the time to explain who and why an attorney is working on their matters — and ensures clients learn all this before the invoice arrives.

1. Serial Needs = Serial Leads

Rainmakers are skilled in finding and attracting clients with ongoing higher-value needs. They know developing clients with a continuing lead flow generates substantially more business than those with episodic needs.

Strong relationships with these marquee clients is a primary reason why Kirkland and Ropes & Gray are so successful in Private Equity — one of the ultimate client groups with serial needs.

These clients aren’t always the largest — any size company can have ongoing needs — the trick is to focus on the continuing nature of the work. You likely have a few of these clients in your current client base.

You can also research the velocity of new litigation, M&A, and regulatory issue at each client. Industry spending patterns also give you insight. Financial Services are the top legal spenders with ongoing needs — followed by big Pharma, Tech, Telecom Health Care, and Food.

2. Never Fill the Silence

Every high-quality business development meeting has a moment of silence. You just got through sharing an idea or approach and your client may have debated some of the points. And then comes the silence.

It is not the awkward staring at you from across the table silence — it’s the client thinking through the discussion silence. There is nothing awkward about it. Rainmakers have trained themselves to resist the urge to fill the silence. You want your client to process your ideas in real time. It shows they are engaged and have learned something.

Filling the silence stops client processing in its tracks and cuts off their engagement. Most clients will continue the dialogue after they have finished processing — or you can read the non-verbal cues to know when to ask the all-important question: What do you think?

3. Always There — Even When They Are Not

Rich, meaningful voice communication — during and in between matters — are the unsung heroes of making yourself feel present to your clients. One deep conversation creates a connection lasting from months to years. These conversations also give license to engage in informal email communications — including check-ins, sharing news, offering thoughts on new developments, and maybe a few personal items.

Your presence in a client’s life is core to developing a stream of business from a single client. The attorneys who are client-life adjacent to clients get the RFPs. The attorneys with presence get the phone calls and queries for help — and don’t go out for bid.

Rainmakers will tell you a smaller number of clients where you are deeply present end up generating a flow of inbound leads from client referrals — almost as good as a client with serial needs.

1. Deadlines

They are everywhere and unavoidable. Deadlines are part of the fabric of legal practice and are the top issue keeping 23.4% of associates up at night. Associates point to simultaneous, manufactured, and moving deadlines — all of which serve as a source of insomnia.

2. Career Growth

It could be a partnership or lateral move — but 19.6% of associates lose sleep over their career trajectory. These associates see the path to partnership getting longer and slower — and want growth. They are looking ahead in their careers and express concern over making sure it goes right for them — and they want to feel like they have control.

3. Doing a Great Job

At 17.2%, rivaling career growth, these associates see nothing but high expectations and want to meet them. Their work reflects themselves — and a ticket to advancement. They also see a range of expectations across the partners for whom they work — and worry about how to do an excellent job for all.

4. Billable Hours

It is in their faces. It drives bonuses. And the cost of failure is high. It keeps 14% of associates up at night as they may not see exactly where the billable hours will come from.

5. Work/Life Balance

With a tilt more towards work than life — 11.3% of associates are looking for a better balance.

6. Economy/Recession

Only 4.7% of law firm associates are losing sleep over the economy. Most are busy and see the demand for their talent — and remain confident they will land on their feet.

• • Overall success. At 26%, these leaders are looking past the recession. They want to keep the right strategic and operating initiatives going — and make the changes to drive success. Law firm strategy is a living, breathing organism — the law firm leaders are keenly watching for adjustments needed as a result of the uncertain world.
  • At 22%, law firm leaders are banking on retaining and attracting talent to drive success. These leaders are focused on bringing in rainmakers, filling gaps in key practices, and bolstering the bench in targeted growth areas. The hunt for talent is the most strategic it’s ever been. Look for law firms to find better ways to retain and recruit the right talent for their goals.
  • Recession at 12% is the 3^rd largest source of law firm leaders’ insomnia. The primary worry here is when, how deep, and then how to adjust. They are watching early indicators like new assignments, BD activity, and billed hour trends.
  • 9% are concerned most about cyberattacks. These pose existential threats. And as one law firm leader put things; “All you have to do is send a sophisticated looking but malicious email with partner comp in the subject line you have a potential disaster on your hands.”
  • Merging the firm and succession planning come in at 5% each.

The recession lurks but it’s not a top concern. So many have lived through at least one and have a good sense of what to do. In addition, these leaders feel they have already prepared the firm for a recession — it’s baked into the strategy.

One of the big takeaways is the strong focus on strategy, which is reflected deeply in the 1^st and 2^nd concerns — overall success. These law firm leaders are looking ahead — as are those focusing on talent. The near-term impact of a recession is but one stop on the journey.

Look for more lateral movement, more strategic movement, and more focus on metrics and inputs as these leaders adjust their strategies. Talent will have a major impact on success — for firms of every size. Look for strategy and talent to become even more of a centerpiece than it ever was.