Law firms spend a lot of time and money trying to win new clients, but there’s also a tremendous amount of opportunity within the relationships they already have. Strengthening those relationships, expanding the work the firm does for existing clients and generating referrals can be some of the most valuable business development activities. Yet firms often miss these opportunities because lawyers, marketing and business development teams aren’t consistently sharing what they know about their clients.
Think about all the information your firm collects through client conversations, matters, events, newsletters and everyday interactions. A partner learns that a client is considering an acquisition. Another lawyer hears that the same company is expanding internationally. The marketing team knows that several of its executives have been attending webinars on regulatory developments. Your business development team may have identified additional services or valuable connections that could help the client.
But what happens to all of this information? Is it getting shared with the right people? Is anyone looking at the relationship as a whole and identifying where the firm could be doing more?
There are so many ways to build on the relationships you already have, whether that’s introducing clients to lawyers in other practices, connecting them with people who could help grow their businesses, sharing information that’s relevant to their priorities or finding new ways to stay in touch. The key is having a process that brings all of these insights together and turns them into specific actions.
Making the most of these opportunities starts with understanding the full client relationship, connecting the right people across your firm and following through on what you learn. Here’s how to make client engagement a more intentional part of your business development efforts and find opportunities that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Get a Complete Picture of Your Client Relationships
You may have a great relationship with a client’s general counsel, but how well do you know the rest of the organization? Are you connected to other members of the legal department, the CFO, the CEO or the executives responsible for different business units? And do those people know the full range of services your firm provides?
Start by looking at the relationship beyond the matters you’re currently handling. Identify the lawyers working with the client, the practice groups involved and the people at the client organization with whom you’ve developed relationships. Look at the work you’ve done over the past several years, including which practices have been involved, how the relationship has evolved and where there may be opportunities to provide additional support.
You’ll also want to understand how the client interacts with your firm outside of active matters. Which events have they attended? What articles or alerts have they expressed interest in? Have they met lawyers from other practices? When was the last time someone reached out to them outside of a matter-related conversation? These details can help you identify interests, relationship gaps and opportunities to reconnect.
A client engagement tracker can bring this information together in one place. Include current and historical matters, key contacts, relationship partners, recent meetings, event participation, relevant communications and potential opportunities. Work with your marketing and business development teams to gather information from your CRM, billing systems and other available sources so you’re building a more complete picture of the relationship.
Pay particular attention to where the firm has strong connections and where relationships may need more attention. For example, you might have worked with a company’s general counsel for years but have limited contact with the executives leading its acquisitions or international expansion. Or perhaps your corporate team has a strong relationship with a private equity sponsor, but the firm’s employment, tax and regulatory lawyers haven’t had an opportunity to introduce themselves.
Look at the work the client is sending to other firms, too, to the extent you can learn about it through conversations and publicly available information. Understanding why a client uses different firms can help you identify where your capabilities may be relevant and where there’s an opportunity to demonstrate your experience.
Make this a collaborative exercise. Ask the lawyers who work with the client to contribute what they know, and have your business development team help identify gaps, research the client’s business and organize the information. Assign someone responsibility for keeping the tracker current and incorporate it into regular client team meetings so the information leads to conversations and follow-up.
Once you have a clearer picture of the relationship, you can be much more intentional about who you want to get to know, which services may be relevant and what your team can do to strengthen the relationship over the next several months.
Turn Client Team Meetings Into Opportunities for Growth
One of the biggest missed opportunities in law firm business development is what happens during client team meetings. You have lawyers from different practices who know different people at the same client, a business development team with access to research and relationship intelligence and potentially millions of dollars in existing work. Yet everyone can leave the meeting without a clear plan for how to grow the relationship.
I’d approach these meetings differently. Before getting everyone together, have your business development team prepare a brief client profile that goes beyond revenue and current matters. Look at the client’s recent acquisitions, investments, leadership changes, business priorities and work the firm has handled over the past several years. Identify which practices are generating work, which have little or no involvement and where the client may be using other firms. Include upcoming events, recent client interactions and any introductions or opportunities that have already been discussed.
Use that information to have a much more substantive conversation. For example, if your firm handles fund formation for a private equity sponsor but hasn’t worked on any of its acquisitions, that’s worth exploring. Find out which firms are handling the M&A work, whether your lawyers have relationships with the deal team and what it would take to get an opportunity to demonstrate your capabilities. If you’re handling acquisitions but very little portfolio company work, look at the sponsor’s portfolio, identify businesses that could benefit from your firm’s services and determine who has the relationships needed to make introductions.
You can take this further by looking at individual companies within a client’s portfolio or business. Perhaps the firm represented a sponsor on a platform acquisition, but the company has since completed several add-ons using other counsel. Maybe a portfolio company is expanding internationally, hiring a new executive team or preparing for an exit. These developments give the client team specific opportunities to discuss and pursue.
The relationship mapping is just as important. Identify who your lawyers know at the client, who controls different categories of legal work and where the firm has limited connections. A strong relationship with one partner at a private equity sponsor doesn’t necessarily translate into relationships with the other deal professionals, operating partners or portfolio company executives. Discuss which contacts could help open doors and whether anyone across the firm already has connections that could be useful.
I’d also dedicate part of every meeting to identifying ways to help the client beyond legal work. Could the firm introduce the sponsor to an executive with relevant industry experience? Does someone know an investment banker who could help with a potential transaction? Is there an upcoming conference where the client could meet other people in the firm’s network? These opportunities are worth discussing alongside potential new matters.
The business development team can then turn the discussion into a short list of specific opportunities. For each one, identify the potential work or relationship to pursue, the people involved, the lawyer responsible for outreach and the next step. If the team identifies an opportunity to pursue portfolio company employment work, for example, the action might be for the relationship partner to introduce an employment partner to the sponsor’s operating team. If the opportunity involves a potential acquisition, someone may need to research the target and arrange a conversation with the relevant deal professional.
Between meetings, the business development team can coordinate the introductions, prepare relevant materials, research prospects and follow up with lawyers on outstanding actions. At the next meeting, review what actually happened, what the team learned and whether any opportunities have progressed.
The real value of these meetings comes from having the right information in front of the right people and using it to pursue opportunities that are specific to the client. A conversation about a sponsor’s portfolio, a gap in the firm’s relationships or an upcoming transaction is much more useful when it ends with a clear plan for who will do what next.
Find Cross-Selling Opportunities by Understanding What Your Clients Actually Need
Cross-selling is one of those things every law firm talks about, but it’s often approached as an exercise in identifying which practice groups aren’t getting enough work from a particular client. That may be useful information internally, but it doesn’t tell you whether the client needs those services, who makes the decisions or what would make them consider giving your firm an opportunity.
I’d start by looking at the work the client is already doing with your firm and understanding what’s happening in its business. Review the matters you’ve handled over the past few years, identify which practices are involved and look for patterns. Are you advising on acquisitions but not the financing? Are you handling transactions but none of the employment, tax or regulatory work that follows? Are you representing the parent company while its subsidiaries or portfolio companies use other firms?
Take a private equity sponsor as an example. Your M&A team may have a strong relationship with the deal professionals, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re getting the financing work, advising on management equity arrangements or handling legal matters for the portfolio companies. Work with the relationship partner to understand how the sponsor selects counsel for these different needs. Does the sponsor make those decisions centrally? Do portfolio company general counsel hire their own lawyers? Are certain firms already embedded in the relationship? Knowing how the work is allocated will help you determine where an introduction could actually lead somewhere.
You can also look at what happens after a transaction closes. If your firm advised on the acquisition of a healthcare services business, what are the company’s plans for the next 12 to 18 months? Is it pursuing add-on acquisitions, entering new states, hiring executives, negotiating new commercial arrangements or preparing for a refinancing? Each development may create a need for lawyers with different experience. Your business development team can research the company, identify relevant capabilities and work with the relationship partner to determine which conversations make sense.
The same approach applies to corporate clients. If a company is expanding into Europe, find out which markets it’s entering and what that expansion involves. Establishing an office, acquiring a business and launching a product can raise very different legal issues. A conversation about the company’s plans may reveal opportunities involving employment, privacy, regulatory compliance, intellectual property or cross-border transactions. The introduction becomes much more relevant when the lawyer understands the specific business initiative and can speak to the issues the client is likely to encounter.
Pay attention to who makes the decisions, too. A general counsel may control outside counsel selection for litigation while the head of corporate development has considerable influence over M&A counsel. Employment matters may be managed by an in-house specialist, and portfolio company work may be decided independently. Map these relationships and identify where your firm needs to develop additional contacts. Sometimes the next step is an introduction to another lawyer. Other times, it’s getting to know a different person within the client’s organization.
Think carefully about how you make those introductions. Sending a client a list of practice groups or arranging a meeting with five partners to explain everything the firm does can feel like a sales presentation. A more natural approach is to connect the introduction to something the client has already mentioned. If the general counsel tells you the company is having difficulty managing employment issues across several states, you might say that a colleague has been helping other companies navigate similar challenges and offer to introduce them. Give the colleague enough background to make the conversation useful from the outset.
There’s also value in involving lawyers from other practices before an immediate need arises. Invite a colleague to a client event where the topic is relevant to their experience, include them in a planning discussion when appropriate or ask them to contribute to a tailored update on an issue affecting the client’s industry. These interactions give clients an opportunity to get to know additional members of your team and see how their experience relates to the business.
Your business development team can help make this process much more systematic. Build a list of specific opportunities by client, including the potential need, the relevant practice, the decision maker, the existing relationship and the proposed next step. Track whether an introduction was made, what you learned and whether there’s a reason to follow up. If the client already has a longstanding relationship with another firm, document that as well. Understanding the existing arrangement can help you identify an appropriate opportunity to demonstrate your capabilities without repeatedly pursuing work the client has no intention of moving.
Over time, this gives you a clearer picture of where the firm has room to grow within each relationship and what it will take to earn additional work. The strongest cross-selling efforts come from lawyers who understand their clients’ businesses, recognize when a colleague can help and make introductions that are relevant to what the client is trying to accomplish.
Pay Attention to Every Client Interaction and Connect the Dots
Think about all the ways your clients interact with your firm. They’re speaking with lawyers, attending events, receiving newsletters, reading articles, participating in webinars and meeting colleagues from different practices. Each interaction tells you something about their interests, priorities and relationship with your firm, but how much of that information is actually being shared with the people responsible for developing the client?
Imagine that a private equity client attends your firm’s healthcare conference, registers for a webinar on regulatory developments and downloads an article about healthcare services investments. Meanwhile, the relationship partner is having conversations with the client about potential acquisitions. When you bring that information together, you have a much better understanding of what the client may be focused on and where there could be opportunities to help.
The problem is that this information often sits in different places. Marketing knows which events the client attended, business development has information about potential opportunities and individual lawyers know what’s happening in their conversations. Without a process for sharing these insights, valuable opportunities can easily be missed.
Start by making better use of your CRM and existing marketing systems. Track which clients attend events, receive relevant communications and express interest in particular topics. Encourage lawyers to record important conversations, new contacts and developments in the client’s business. Business development teams can bring this information together and share relevant insights with relationship partners during client team meetings.
Look for patterns that might warrant a follow-up. If several people from the same client attend a webinar, find out whether there’s an issue their company is exploring. If a client consistently participates in events focused on a particular industry, consider whether an introduction to another lawyer or industry professional would be useful. If someone expresses interest in a topic during a meeting, make sure the appropriate team members know so they can follow up with relevant information.
Be thoughtful about how you interpret digital engagement. Someone opening an email or registering for an event doesn’t automatically mean there’s a business opportunity. Use that information as a starting point for a conversation, especially when it connects to something you already know about the client’s business.
You can make this part of your regular client team meetings by reviewing recent interactions and identifying anything that deserves attention. Ask the marketing and business development teams to share relevant event participation, content engagement and outreach activity alongside updates from the lawyers working with the client. Then identify who will follow up and what they’ll do.
Your firm already has access to a tremendous amount of information about its clients. Making sure the right people have that information and know what to do with it can help you identify opportunities earlier, coordinate outreach more effectively and make every interaction with the client more meaningful.
Make Your Content More Relevant to the Clients You Want to Reach
Think about how many emails your clients receive every day. Now think about how many of those emails come from law firms sending client alerts, newsletters, webinar invitations and articles. Your firm is competing for attention in an already crowded inbox, and sending every client everything you publish can make it harder for the information that really matters to stand out.
Your firm is probably producing a tremendous amount of valuable content, but are you getting it in front of the right people? A healthcare private equity client may be interested in developments affecting healthcare services investments, reimbursement, regulatory approvals and portfolio company operations. An executive at a manufacturing company may be focused on supply chain issues, tariffs and employment matters. Both clients could benefit from your firm’s insights, but their interests and priorities are very different.
Start by taking a closer look at what you know about each client. Review their business, the matters your firm handles, the events they’ve attended and the topics they’ve expressed interest in during conversations. Work with relationship partners to identify the issues that are most relevant to their clients and use that information to develop more targeted distribution lists. Your CRM can help organize clients by industry, practice needs and business interests so that you’re sharing content with the people most likely to find it useful.
There’s also a big opportunity for lawyers to make content distribution more personal. If a client recently mentioned concerns about a regulatory development, send them a relevant article with a short note explaining why you thought of them. If you know a client is considering an acquisition, share an insight that could help them think through an issue they’re facing. You can even use an article as a reason to reconnect with someone you haven’t spoken with recently, particularly when the topic relates to their business.
Pay attention to how clients engage with your content, too. If someone consistently attends your healthcare webinars or reads articles about a particular issue, that may be worth discussing with the relationship partner. Marketing and business development teams can help identify these patterns and suggest opportunities for follow-up. Engagement data can provide useful clues, but a conversation with the client will help you understand what they’re actually interested in.
You can also get clients involved in shaping your content. Ask them what issues they’re following, which topics they’d like to hear more about and whether they prefer short alerts, in-depth articles, webinars or smaller discussions. Consider inviting clients to participate in panels, contribute perspectives to industry discussions or suggest topics for future programs. These conversations can generate valuable content ideas while giving you another opportunity to strengthen the relationship.
Take a look at the content your firm has published over the past few months and identify five clients who could benefit from something you’ve already created. Work with their relationship partners to select the most relevant pieces and develop a personal approach to sharing them. You may find that an article sitting on your website is exactly what someone needs to read right now.
The next time your firm publishes an article or announces a webinar, spend a little more time thinking about which clients would benefit from it and how you can use it to start or continue a conversation. That extra effort can turn a routine marketing communication into a meaningful client touchpoint and create opportunities for additional work.
Use Events to Strengthen Relationships Before and After the Program
Events are an important part of law firm marketing and business development, but their value depends heavily on what happens before and after the event.
Start by reviewing which clients have attended the firm’s programs in the past and the topics that attracted their interest. This information can help you develop future programming and identify opportunities for more personalized invitations.
If a client regularly attends events focused on private equity, healthcare or regulatory developments, consider inviting them to programs that address those interests. You might also ask whether they’d like to participate as a speaker or contribute to a discussion.
Look for opportunities to introduce clients to other attendees who may be useful connections. A client attending an industry conference might benefit from meeting another executive, an investor or a professional with complementary expertise.
After the event, review attendance and identify opportunities for follow-up. Did a client ask a question during the program? Did they express interest in a particular topic? Did they meet someone from another practice group?
Use that information to guide outreach. A lawyer might send a relevant article, arrange a follow-up conversation or introduce the client to a colleague who can provide additional insight.
Track these interactions so the client team understands what happened and can continue the conversation. A well-planned event strategy connects programming to relationship development and creates opportunities that extend beyond the event itself.
Find Ways to Help Clients Beyond Their Legal Needs
Think about the last time someone made an introduction that led to a great opportunity for you. Maybe they connected you with a potential client, introduced you to someone who helped advance your career or put you in touch with a person who could solve a problem. You probably remember that introduction and the person who made it. Your clients are no different, and lawyers are in a particularly good position to make these kinds of connections.
Consider the people you know through your work, professional organizations, alumni networks and industry involvement. Your network likely includes executives, investors, bankers, accountants, consultants and other professionals who could be valuable connections for your clients. The opportunity is to understand what your clients are trying to accomplish and think about who in your network might be able to help them get there.
For example, a private equity sponsor looking to expand its portfolio might appreciate an introduction to an experienced executive who could serve as a CEO or board member. A client considering an acquisition could benefit from meeting an investment banker with relevant industry expertise. A growing company might welcome an introduction to a potential strategic partner, while an executive who recently joined a new organization may appreciate connections that help them establish themselves in their role.
Your firm’s broader network can be particularly valuable here. Think about the relationships your colleagues have across different practices, offices and industry groups. Someone on your corporate team may know an investor who would be a great connection for a healthcare client. A colleague in another office may have a relationship with an executive who could help a portfolio company expand internationally. These opportunities are easy to miss when lawyers focus exclusively on their own contacts and matters.
Business development teams can help connect these dots by bringing together information about clients, prospects and relationships across the firm. During client team meetings, spend a few minutes discussing what the client is working on beyond its legal matters and whether anyone at the firm knows someone who could be helpful. Capture potential introductions, identify who has the strongest relationship and coordinate the outreach. Of course, make sure both parties are comfortable with the introduction before connecting them.
You can also look for opportunities to bring clients together. Consider hosting a small dinner for executives facing similar business challenges, introducing clients with complementary businesses or inviting a client to participate in a panel where they’ll meet other industry leaders. These activities give clients opportunities to develop their own relationships while strengthening their connection to your firm.
Make this part of your regular approach to client development. When you hear that a client is hiring, expanding, entering a new market or exploring an investment, think about the people and resources you can connect them with. Keep track of the introductions you’ve made and follow up to see whether they were useful.
A thoughtful introduction can create an opportunity that lasts for years. When you consistently pay attention to your clients’ broader business goals and use your relationships to help them accomplish those goals, you give them more reasons to stay connected to you and your firm.
Ask Clients What They Think and Use Their Feedback to Strengthen the Relationship
When was the last time you asked a client how things were going outside of a matter update? Lawyers spend so much time focused on delivering excellent work that they can miss opportunities to understand how clients feel about the overall relationship, what could be improved and what else is happening in their businesses.
Make client feedback a regular part of your relationship-building efforts. This can include formal client interviews, annual relationship reviews or conversations over lunch or coffee. You can also bring in someone from your business development team to conduct interviews, which may encourage clients to share feedback they wouldn’t necessarily give directly to their relationship partner.
Go beyond asking whether they’re happy with the firm’s work. Find out how they prefer to communicate, whether they’re getting the right level of attention and what would make working with your team easier. Ask about their business priorities, the challenges they’re anticipating and the areas where they may need additional support. You may discover that a client wants more proactive updates, would appreciate introductions to other lawyers or is considering an initiative that creates an opportunity for the firm to help.
Pay particular attention to the things clients mention in passing. A comment about an upcoming acquisition, a new executive joining the company or a challenge with another service provider could lead to a valuable follow-up conversation. Capture these insights and share them with the appropriate members of the client team so that opportunities aren’t lost after the meeting ends.
And when a client raises a concern, make sure something happens. If they’re frustrated by inconsistent communication, agree on a better approach and put it into practice. If they want more information about developments affecting their industry, work with your marketing and business development colleagues to provide relevant updates. Follow up afterward to make sure the changes are working.
Don’t limit these conversations to your largest clients or wait until there’s a problem. Reach out to clients you’ve recently completed a matter for, relationships you want to develop and contacts you haven’t heard from in a while. These discussions can reveal opportunities to improve the client experience, introduce additional services and reconnect with people who may have new needs.
One of the most valuable things you can do for a client is ask what would make their experience with your firm even better, listen carefully to the answer and then do something about it. Clients remember when you take their feedback seriously, especially when they see that you’ve made changes because of something they shared.
Turn What You Know About Your Clients Into New Opportunities
Think about how much valuable information your lawyers have about clients that never makes it beyond an individual conversation or email. One partner hears that a client is considering an acquisition. Another learns that the same company is expanding internationally. Someone in the marketing department notices that several people from the client attended a webinar on employment issues. Each piece of information is useful on its own, but imagine what could happen if the right people at the firm connected those dots.
This is where business development teams can make a real difference. Look across your client relationships and identify common themes, emerging needs and opportunities that individual lawyers may not see. If several private equity clients are asking about the same regulatory development, that could lead to a targeted client briefing. If a portfolio company is expanding into a new market, there may be an opportunity to introduce colleagues with relevant experience. If a client has strong relationships with your corporate team but limited exposure to other practices, consider which introductions could genuinely benefit them.
Use these insights to build client plans that are specific enough to drive action. Identify the people you want to get to know better, the work you’d like to pursue and the opportunities to bring additional lawyers into the relationship. Include upcoming events, relevant content, potential introductions and specific outreach activities. Make sure someone is responsible for each action and that the team follows through.
This information can also make lawyers’ individual business plans much more meaningful. Instead of setting a general goal to generate more work from existing clients, identify five priority relationships and develop a plan for each one. What additional work could the firm help with? Who else needs to be involved? What conversations need to happen? What can you do in the next 30, 60 and 90 days to move those relationships forward?
Revisit these plans regularly because your clients’ businesses are constantly changing. New executives arrive, companies make acquisitions, priorities shift and new challenges emerge. Staying close to these developments gives you opportunities to reach out with something relevant, make a timely introduction or offer help before a client even thinks to ask.
The opportunity is to turn everything your firm already knows about its clients into stronger relationships, better collaboration across practices and more business. That starts with getting the right people talking to one another and making sure the ideas that come out of those conversations actually happen.
Make Client Engagement an Ongoing Priority
A client engagement strategy works when the information the firm collects leads to meaningful action. A CRM, tracker or client plan can help organize the process, but the relationships themselves develop through consistent communication, collaboration and follow-through.
Start with a manageable group of priority clients and build a process that your lawyers and business development teams can maintain. Gather the relevant information, hold regular client team meetings, identify opportunities and assign responsibility for follow-up. As the process develops, use what you learn to improve the approach and expand it to additional clients.
Your existing clients are one of your firm’s greatest sources of growth, but there’s so much more you can do with those relationships. Pay attention to what they’re working on, connect the dots across your firm and find ways to help that go beyond the matters on your desk. A thoughtful introduction, a timely conversation or an idea that helps a client solve a problem can open the door to new opportunities while making an existing relationship even stronger.
Create a 90-Day Client Engagement Plan
Choose five clients you’d like to develop stronger relationships with over the next 90 days. For each client, work through the following questions with the relationship partner and business development team.
- Assess the current relationship. Identify the work you’re doing for the client, the lawyers involved, your key contacts and the strength of those relationships. Consider which departments, decision makers and business units you haven’t connected with yet.
- Understand what’s happening in their business. Review recent news, company announcements, transactions, leadership changes and industry developments. Identify three business priorities or challenges that may create opportunities for your firm to help.
- Identify opportunities. Consider additional legal services the client may need, colleagues who could provide relevant expertise, introductions that could benefit the client and upcoming events or content that align with their interests.
- Develop three specific actions. Choose three things your team can accomplish over the next 90 days. These might include scheduling a client meeting, introducing a colleague from another practice or connecting the client with someone in your network.
- Assign responsibility and follow up. Identify who will lead each action, establish a deadline and schedule a follow-up meeting to review progress.
Start with five priority clients and complete the following worksheet for each one.
Part 1: Client Relationship Overview
| Category | Information to capture |
|---|---|
| Client | |
| Relationship partner | |
| Key client contacts | |
| Current work | |
| Client business priorities | |
| Potential opportunities | |
| Relationship gaps |
Part 2: Your 90-Day Action Plan
| Action | Specific next step | Responsible person | Deadline |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | |||
| 2 | |||
| 3 |
Next review date: __________________
Use this chart during your client team meetings to identify three specific actions, assign responsibility and establish deadlines. Revisit it every 30 days to review progress, update opportunities and determine the next steps for strengthening the relationship.
Stay in Touch! Connect with me on LinkedIn, Threads, YouTube, Instagram, sign up for my email list and follow my blog. Obtain a copy of my LinkedIn Secrets guide. Sign up for my LinkedIn Mastermind.