How 4 Firms Accidentally Shut Down Business Development

Every dysfunctional BD strategy starts with good intentions. Smart people create structure, accountability and controls. Then trust, momentum, compensation, politics and attorney behavior collide with the plan. What could possibly go wrong?

Here are 4 real examples of how firms accidentally shut down business development with the best of intentions:

The Business Development Co-Pay

Every firm has business development waste.

One 600-lawyer firm decided waste had gone too far. Leadership instituted a co-pay system. Each partner was required to pay 25% of any out-of-pocket business or unbudgeted BD expense.

The logic: attorneys would pursue opportunities more carefully if their own money was at stake. It would eliminate low-probability pursuits and endless wild goose chases.

Business development activity nearly stopped – except for inbound opportunities and work already walking through the door. Rainmakers felt punished for choosing opportunities wisely. Other partners quietly disengaged.

9 months later the policy was gone – and the firm was fighting to retain rainmakers.

The BD Percentage Problem

An 800-lawyer firm decided BD spending should be proportional to business booked. The solution: reimburse attorneys for BD expenses based on the business booked. Each attorney would be reimbursed a percentage of the business they booked in the current fiscal year.

The policy immediately shifted focus toward protecting origination credit and killed fourth-quarter BD activity. No one wanted to wait a year to learn their allocation. Newer partners, looking to build books, backed off completely – assuming they had no chance of receiving funding.

The system never made it into year 2.

Take a Salesperson to Your Client

A law firm of close to 1,000 attorneys wanted to grow with its strategic clients. Leadership doubted current relationship partners could drive enough growth. They hired 4 dedicated sales reps. They reported to a leadership partner and had no contact with the sitting CMBDO – because the CMBDO thought this idea would ultimately hurt BD.

Each partner was required to bring a salesperson to their strategic clients to help develop business. Most partners exercised a pocket veto – and found reasons not to bring these salespeople to their clients.

2 salespeople left before 5 months. Another salesperson stayed for 9 months, and the 4^th stayed and moved into the Marketing/Business Development department – as the  CMBDO had left.

The firm tried to institutionalize selling without recognizing partners wanted no part of it.

Please Apply to Get Your BD Funded

One 1,100-lawyer firm wanted to support client growth. They loved the idea of investing in strategic accounts and selling multiple services to these clients – and were prepared to invest the funds to do it.

To access funding, all relationship partners first had to complete an 11-page application.

If approved – the strategic account committee could approve all, some or none of the request. Approval was entirely discretionary. No one from the marketing department was on the committee.

The few partners who applied ran about a 50% approval rate – with the remainder being declines. There were no partial fundings.

Partners quickly viewed the process as political, burdensome, and undermining. And the small number of funded plans couldn’t get the collaboration they needed to execute their plans. No one but the lead partner could see the benefit.

Four months later, enthusiasm disappeared – and so did the program. The firm has had no strategic account strategy since.

The Real Lessons

The biggest takeaways from these well-intentioned efforts teach law firms the following about business development efforts:

1. The easier a firm makes it to pursue business development, the more attorneys participate.
2. Most failed BD programs do not fail from lack of funding. They fail because lawyers experience the process as political, punitive, or exhausting.
3. Every additional approval layer quietly discourages the very behavior firms claim they want more of.
4. Partners tolerate inefficient systems far longer than systems that undermine autonomy, trust or judgment.
5. Law firms consistently underestimate how quickly bureaucracy kills business development momentum.

Most law firms don’t fail at business development because attorneys resist growth. They fail because the system quietly teaches attorneys to avoid it.