If demand for legal services was steady and predictable, business development for lawyers would be simple. But most clients look for legal help when circumstances suddenly shift.
Top Takeaways
- Be present where your ideal clients are already paying attention. The key to successful business development for lawyers is positioning yourself within the client’s ecosystem long before they ever need you.
- Business development is a long game. Most of the people you meet and stay in touch with will not hire you anytime soon. That doesn’t mean your efforts are wasted. It simply reflects the nature of the legal demand.
- Show up consistently. The lawyers who excel at business development aren’t necessarily the best networkers or the best closers; they are the most consistent.
One of the hardest things about business development is that demand for legal services is highly variable and therefore unpredictable. Little may happen for long periods after a meaningful effort to generate new business. And then several opportunities emerge at once, seemingly out of nowhere.
That is one reason the common boom-and-bust approach to business development works so poorly. Many lawyers pursue work more aggressively when business is slow, but then let efforts fade when they get busy. The problem is that legal demand does not arrive on your schedule. And that is exactly why consistency matters so much.
Focus on Their Demand, Not Your Supply
The reason consistency is so important is simple: Lawyers and clients usually experience the market from very different vantage points. Lawyers tend to see business development from the supply side. They focus on what they offer: experience, credentials and practice areas. Those things may help a client choose you, but they rarely create the need in the first place.
From the client’s perspective, the decision to hire a lawyer usually begins with a problem, not a search for legal services. It’s a specific situation or challenge that makes them realize they need help. Until then, even your ideal client usually has no reason to consider hiring outside counsel.
From the lawyer’s perspective, this can feel random. For long stretches, clients have no active need for help. Then, suddenly, things change, and someone who wouldn’t take your call or reply to your email urgently needs your help.
That is when demand appears. Once you see that, you start to think about business development differently.
Show Up Before the Need Arises
If demand were steady and predictable, business development would be simple: promote your capabilities and wait. But most legal buying decisions happen when circumstances suddenly shift.
Most clients don’t start the process with an open search. They look first to those they already know and trust. And that’s why simply “getting your name out there” is not enough.
Being broadly visible is not the same as being well-positioned. Do the work to be known in the right places, among the right people, in ways that fit the situations that lead clients to hire lawyers.
I think of this as the ecosystem of attention of your ideal clients. You need to spend time there. You need your ideas to show up there, too.
For some lawyers, that ecosystem is organized around an industry. It includes the conferences, associations, publications, newsletters and conversations that shape how people in that sector think and operate. For others, it is more local or community-based. A trusts and estates lawyer needs to connect with the wealth advisors, accountants and business owners in a particular city. A startup lawyer has to stay close to founders and investors, and the circles in which they exchange information and ideas.
The point is not to be everywhere. It is to be present where your ideal clients are already paying attention. In that sense, it is better to be known well by a relatively small group of people who need what you provide than to be broadly known by a much larger group that is unlikely ever to hire you.
When demand is hard to predict, your presence plus your positioning matter most. You cannot always appear at the perfect moment. But you can make sure that when the moment comes, you are already known.
That is a very different objective from broad self-promotion. And it also highlights why patience is so important in business development.
Sustainable Business Development for Lawyers Is a Long Game
Most of your efforts will reach people who do not need you yet. Most of the people you meet, stay in touch with, write for, or share ideas with will not hire you anytime soon. That does not make the effort wasted. It simply reflects the nature of the market.
Business development is a long game. The way to play the game is to stay visible, credible and relevant over time.
Many lawyers struggle with this because they expect a tighter connection between effort and outcome than the process usually provides. They attend an event and hope it quickly leads to work. They publish an article and look for an immediate return. They reconnect with someone and assume that if nothing happens soon after, the opportunity is gone. Often, it is not gone. The conditions for action have simply not yet arrived.
You cannot force legal demand to appear. But you can ensure you are well-positioned to seize it when it does.
Lawyers Who Excel at Business Development Tend to Be the Most Consistent
They remain active in their ecosystems, build relationships, maintain pipelines, and stay close to the right people and conversations so they are remembered at important moments. (Read: “Solving the Business Development Outreach Dilemma: From Content to Client Touchpoint.”)
For lawyers, that is the real challenge. Not being known everywhere, but being known where it counts — consistently enough, and long enough, to be the person clients think of when the need becomes real.
So, how do you do that?
You stay present. You make regular, thoughtful touchpoints a habit — not just when you need something. You write and share ideas that resonate with your audience. You show up at the same events year after year. You invest in relationships before there’s any prospect of a return.
Related Reading on Attorney at Work
- Business Development and the Power of Small Gestures
- Build Your Legal Practice With Client-Centric Selling
- Solving the Business Development Outreach Dilemma: From Content to Client Touchpoint
- My Messy Process for Writing Long-Form Content
- This Is How You Build a Book of Business
- Scale: The Three-Step Formula to Grow a $1 Million+ Legal Practice
- Get Serious About Business Development and Start Taking Action (Even If It’s Imperfect)
One of a Kind: A Proven Path to a Profitable Law Practice
BY JAY HARRINGTON
In today’s legal market, developing a profitable and consistent book of business requires a strategic approach. If you’re open to new ideas and are interested in growing your practice, this book is a great resource to kickstart the next stage in your career.
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