Growth depends on what lawyers do consistently.
Most lawyers know the fundamentals of business development
Stay close to clients. Follow up.
Ask good questions. Build relationships.
Introduce colleagues. Look for ways to help.
The challenge is making those behaviors part of how lawyers work, especially when client demands take priority and experience, confidence, and motivation vary across the firm.
PipelinePlus helps firms make business development more practical and consistent, giving lawyers the skills, habits, and support to build stronger relationships and create new opportunities.
Business development has to work in practice
People are more likely to build new habits when expectations are clear, the next steps are practical, and they have the skills, confidence, and support to follow through.
That support looks different from firm to firm. It may mean clearer priorities from leadership, practical coaching, opportunities to learn from peers, better tools, or simple ways to stay accountable.
The starting point matters too. Rather than trying to change everything at once, firms can focus on the behaviors or opportunities where they are most likely to make headway.
Firm
Layer
Growth happens when firms make action easier
The strategy, expectations, incentives, leadership messages, and conditions that make change possible.
The knowledge, confidence, judgment, and practical behaviors individual lawyers need to apply.
Lawyer
Layer
Reinforcement Layer
We look at business development and client growth across three connected layers.
The system tools, habits, coaching, and accountability that keep progress from fading.
Every firm has a different starting point
A firm may come to us looking for BD training, coaching, stronger client teams, support for laterals, or a better way to help lawyers follow through on their plans.
We begin by understanding what is happening within the firm and what it wants to accomplish. From there, we identify a focused place to begin and the support that will help lawyers put the work into practice.
That may draw from strategic advisory, peer learning, coaching and training, technology, or a combination designed around the firm.
We regularly turn to the PipelinePlus team as a trusted partner in our business development efforts. The Short List is more than a book. It's a practical methodology that has helped shape how we approach client development and relationship building. Their presentations are consistently engaging, insightful, and actionable, leaving our lawyers energized and equipped with ideas they can put into practice immediately.
- Julia Bennett, CMO at Davis Wright Tremaine
Business development has to fit the way people work
Law firms are partnership-driven organizations. Consensus is rarely automatic, and even strong ideas can stall when leaders, lawyers, and business professionals are not aligned. We make the work easier to understand and easier to act on by focusing on a few things that matter:
Where the best opportunities for growth are
The actions most likely to move those opportunities forward
Translate strategy into lawyer-level behaviors
Clear, practical expectations for follow-through
Support that helps people build confidence without overwhelming them
Create shared language between firm leadership, business professionals, and lawyers
Our approach is practical by design, we help firms take the first few steps with confidence because we have already thought through how those steps connect to the larger journey.
Where firms often start
Improve lawyer follow through on BD plans
Strengthen key client relationships
Develop emerging rainmakers
Launch or improve client teams
Create more consistent BD habits across a practice, office, or cohort
Support laterals, new partners, or rising leaders
Put client feedback into action
Turn training into measurable action
Make BD more approachable for lawyers who do not see themselves as natural business developers
Move Forward With Clarity
BD and client growth do not have to depend on guesswork, charisma, or disconnected initiatives.
Take the next step.