Law’s unsung heroes?

As the legal market grows more demanding, business development professionals have a crucial role in supporting growth and client engagement. Katherine Abraham explores the key opportunities they can harness and the challenges they face

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business development (BD) teams in law firms are experiencing a nuanced shift, with the business element of their role taking precedence. Their new world requires more sophistication, with a data-driven approach involving lawyers at every level to craft commercial success.

Their role is to connect market trends, client needs and strategic ambitions. Whether it’s targeted market strategies, staying ahead of client demands, or identifying a new revenue stream, BD professionals work to enhance their firms’ competitive edge and forge stronger relationships. Ultimately, this fuels long-term growth and resilience.

According to Sahil Wason, senior associate general manager at JSA in Mumbai, the BD team is “instrumental in shaping the growth trajectory of a law firm through proactive client engagement, strategic market analysis, and fostering interdepartmental collaboration, which leads to a sustainable increase in revenue.

“It plays a multi-faceted role by identifying new opportunities, fostering client relationships, and driving revenue growth through strategic initiatives, which helps with the overall growth of a law firm.”

Preetika Sihag, the senior manager responsible for business development at Anagram Partners in Mumbai, says BD teams play “a pivotal role in driving the growth strategy of a firm – be it enhancing the firm’s visibility, facilitating partnerships that open doors to new markets, or client retention through tailored pitches and proposals.

“It’s not just about identifying new business opportunities, but about aligning those opportunities with the firm’s vision and practice strengths.”

Functions and transactions

Keshav Zarapkar, who heads BD at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas in Mumbai, describes the role as “working closely with the management and also practice teams, to develop market strategies and implement business developments plans, which have a direct and positive impact on revenues”.

Zarapkar says the primary focus areas include key client account management, market research and opportunity spotting, client-specific need analysis, practice-specific roadshows, market positioning and in-house counsel movement.

Tissya Mandal, senior strategy manager at Khaitan & Co in Mumbai, says BD professionals conduct research “to learn about market and business trends, client news and competitor behaviour”. This helps to “identify potential work mandates and prompt practice heads within the firm for pitches to targets and existing clients”.

BD must be a business-enabling process that embraces speed and transparency as an integral part of every law firm’s daily operations, fostering efficiency, trust and continual improvement across all functions.

Divya Anand, growth director at Blue Ocean IMC, identifies intentional planning and consistent communication as vital to business development. “One of the best practices is to establish regular cross-functional meetings to facilitate understanding of each team’s goals, challenges and achievements,” she says. “By doing so … teams can align their strategies.”

BD-partner synergy

Internal intelligence is also a lubricant that BD teams offer for the smooth running of a company, helping lawyer teams interact with senior levels such as partners.

Reuben Chacko, a partner at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas in Bengaluru, shares his experience. “I’ve won several large mandates on account of the market intel provided to me by our BD team and the timely assistance in the preparation of pitch decks, and even in providing relevant information pertaining to the founders, promoters and senior management of the company,” he says.

“Sometimes even trivia with respect to the promoters or founders, CEO, CFO, helps in personalising the conversation during pitch meetings, and it makes a world of a difference when you personalise conversations.”

Wason agrees. “In my previous role as a senior manager of business development at Trilegal, I worked closely with many of our partners and the lawyer teams to identify new business opportunities that increased revenue,” he says.

Anagram’s Sihag says BD teams help partners understand lawyers’ areas of expertise and the evolving needs of potential clients. “By analysing market trends, ongoing and anticipated deals, insightful conversations at industry events, and sector-specific developments, BD professionals can pinpoint areas where the firm can add value,” she says. “It’s not just about identifying new business opportunities, but about aligning those opportunities with the firm’s vision and practice strengths.”

Aman Abbas, founder and CEO of Commwiser in Delhi, says that while “partners are busy in fee-earning activities, the responsibility of the BD team is to keep track of the market and regulatory landscape to be able to identify opportunities.

“Usually, they work with practice area leads to discuss their research and agree on the BD approach. To support the team partners, they create collateral, identify potential clients, and create opportunities to engage with these clients.”

Vikram Shroff, partner at AZB & Partners in Mumbai, says his new firm’s BD team backed him to the hilt to attend the IBA Annual Conference 2024 in Mexico, as he co-chaired the IBA’s Employment & Industrial Relations Law Committee.

“I was pleasantly surprised; [they helped] schedule my panels, meetings, events, lunches and, most importantly, the social events and parties,” he says. “[The team] put together a most helpful and comprehensive schedule containing vital information, along with profiles of the firms and lawyers, while simultaneously co-ordinating with the IBA and various international law firms.”

Harnessing growth

Shubham Malhotra, founder of LawStrings Management in Delhi and a former BD manager at Ahlawat & Associates, says BD and branding are distinct but related concepts.

“A BD professional should plan a personal branding strategy of the individual lawyer overseeing a specific practice area, while building any outbound or inbound marketing strategy,” he says.

“A BD professional also advises a partner in showcasing his expertise and thought leadership by publishing articles on relevant third-party platforms and regularly posting on LinkedIn about the recent legal development in a particular practice area.”

Abbas, previously the director of client and market development at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co, broadens the discussion. “The role of the BD team spans from understanding the growth levers of the market to how to tap the inner potential, which includes expanding the existing client relationships to harness growth,” he says.

“Tactically, BD teams are responsible for research, work closely with the management and partners to equip them with market data including client and sector information, do the internal and external data mining, and drive thought leadership through submissions, PR and social media efforts.”

Actionable insights

Khaitan’s Mandal says her experience indicates that BD teams are not created equal. “A strong BD team usually includes experts from non-legal work experience,” he says. “A BD team member hired from a dynamic industry background always brings additional value, network and knowledge, which may be very beneficial for the law firm.”

BD teams should be involved in strategising from the onset of their firms’ interactions with clients. Blue Ocean’s Anand recommends lawyers and BD professionals collaborate on service offerings through joint client pitches or strategy sessions.

“Encouraging an open feedback loop where lawyers can provide insights on client needs enables BD teams to craft tailored approaches,” he says.

A BD team has a role in managing client feedback to produce actionable insights, according to CAM’s Zarapkar. “Client feedback forms a crucial part in determining the effectiveness and impact of business strategies,” he says. “Annual client feedback uncovers insights on the effectiveness of market strategies, analysis of lawyer-client relationships, and feedback on thought leadership initiatives and commercial proposals.”

Zarapkar says anonymous surveys based on curated questionnaires can generate data, which is “a goldmine which the BD teams … can share … with the internal legal teams to refine and further sharpen their client-facing strategies”.

Anand offers a personal experience. “One example that I witnessed working with a law firm was utilising client feedback about their billing practices, which led to the implementation of more transparent pricing structures that ultimately improved client retention,” she says.