Marketing and Business Development Strategies for Early Career Lawyers

By Jennifer Irvine

After decades of working one-on-one with lawyers to help them build and grow their practices, I have observed early habits that often separate those who thrive from those who struggle. While there are many ways for an attorney to become well-known and develop a robust professional network, the most successful private practice attorneys establish consistent marketing and business development routines from day one.

The moment you enter private practice, you should be thinking strategically about your future. Which career paths do you want to keep available? If equity partnership in a law firm is on that list, understand that most firms require partners to generate significant business.

For most attorneys, the challenge is not identifying what needs to be done; it is learning to develop and implement business development strategies while maintaining 1,800 billable hours, a family, hobbies, and more. This balancing act is where careers are often made or broken and where early habits become a determining factor in long-term success.

Marketing vs. Business Development

As lawyers advance from junior associate to income partner and beyond, they must gradually shift from almost exclusively marketing-focused activities to business development. While people often use these terms interchangeably, they are different and have distinct purposes.

Marketing generally focuses on building your personal brand and reputation through “one-to-many” activities, such as writing client alerts, blog posts, and other thought-leadership content, speaking at events and conferences, and posting on social media. These efforts make it possible to reach many people at once.

Business development focuses on building relationships that lead to converting prospects into clients or generating new work from existing clients. This requires engaging in “one-to-one” activities, such as targeted lunches, pitch meetings, referral source development, and strategic networking. These efforts are aimed at connecting with one person or a small group at a time.

The most effective lawyers blend both approaches, adjusting their time allocation for each as they gain experience:

This shift comes naturally to some people and is more difficult for others. Fortunately, business development skills can be learned and practiced. However, it takes intentional commitment and consistent effort to get results.

Marketing Strategies For Junior Associates

Newly minted lawyers understandably focus on honing their legal skills and acumen, but there is more to building a thriving practice. Early in your career, you should start to build your network and think about ways to increase visibility not only for yourself, but also for your practice group and your firm within identifiable target markets. Here are several suggestions for where you may want to start:

Build your network

• Attend community and bar association events so that you may identify well-matched organizations and committees.
• Actively participate in local alumni gatherings or, if none exist in your area, consider launching one.
• Identify and pursue leadership opportunities in young professional groups.
• Connect with new contacts on LinkedIn and, if appropriate, add them to Outlook and the firm’s email list (e.g., invite HR professionals to subscribe to the firm’s employment law email list).
• Develop a 30-second elevator pitch so you always have an interesting answer to the question “What do you do?”—one that invites people to ask more about the work you do.
• If someone you know shares good news on social media, such as a positive case result or leadership appointment, send a direct message to congratulate them and invite them to lunch to celebrate.
• If the opportunity presents itself, ask others what legal problems they face and network them to your firm or other suitable help.

Networking becomes less daunting if you align it with something in which you are genuinely interested. To get started, view networking not as a chore or burden, but as an extension of what truly engages you. Whether you are passionate about preserving pollinators, addressing food insecurity in your community, or supporting local arts initiatives, these interests often lead to meaningful personal connections. Eventually, you will be able to demonstrate your professional capabilities to like-minded business leaders.

Networks can come from every aspect of your life. Some of the most successful attorneys I know have built robust networks via atypical environments, such as CrossFit communities, youth sports sidelines, wine clubs, book clubs, parent groups, volunteer organizations, and more.

Produce thought leadership

• Draft client alerts and blog posts for partner review.
• Amplify your firm’s social media presence by sharing and engaging with content.
• Support partners’ speaking engagements by showing up and offering to assist with future presentations.

When writing thought leadership, the first step is to understand who will read the materials so that you may tailor the content appropriately. If you are unclear of your target markets, seek guidance and support from the partners or the marketing and business development team. For example, HR professionals and CFOs hire employment lawyers. Accountants are often important referral sources for corporate lawyers. Estate planning and family law attorneys work closely with financial advisors. By crafting helpful content for the right audience, you earn credibility and visibility that you may build upon over time.

Early career business development activities

Although you are likely to focus primarily on marketing and honing your legal skills early in your career, developing client relationship skills sets you up for effective future business development. Consider these approaches:

Internal relationship building

Your early colleagues often become your most valuable referral sources as your careers progress together. In fact, nearly all successful partners see fellow firm members as vital to their business development strategies. Become one of those trusted people by using a mix of approaches with your more senior colleagues.

• Treat firm colleagues with the same attention, responsiveness, and service mindset as you would external clients.
• Have lunch with attorneys from other practice areas at least once per month. Ask about and show interest in their work, and practice your networking responses. When someone asks, “What’s new?” at an event, you should be able to answer in a way that starts a conversation.
• Ask partners about their business development strategies, and identify ways you can support their efforts.
• Get to know your firm’s service offerings well enough to naturally talk with prospects about how you and your colleagues help clients solve their problems and achieve their goals.

Learn how to ask partners for new work opportunities by asking questions that uncover the needs of both partners and clients. Analyze the subtle differences between those needs and determine where you may positively impact both. As Legal Marketing Association Hall-of-Famer Deb Scaringi of Scaringi Marketing notes, “If you can learn to ask partners for work, then you can apply those same tactics later when you are asking people in your external network for work.”

Practicing your skills with internal clients prepares you for asking external clients and prospects for business later. Practice telling partners, “I want to build my skills in this area. Would you please consider me for the next assignment?” Later, you may use a similar approach with your targets, “I’m building my practice and would love the chance to help with your next deal or legal issue.”

Do not hesitate to engage with your internal marketing and business development team; they are one of your most valuable resources. Schedule regular check-ins, ask questions, and take advantage of training opportunities. These professionals are thrilled to help and support motivated lawyers, and building relationships with them early often leads to great opportunities and mentorship.

Client service excellence

Exceptional client service is not just about meeting or exceeding expectations; it is about creating advocates who will follow and support you throughout your career, and who may even become referral sources.

• Deliver efficient, timely, and accurate responses to requests from both internal and external clients.
• Become skilled at writing time entries that clearly show the value you delivered, making it easy for partners and clients to understand your contributions.
• Invest time to understand each client’s business, industry, and strategic challenges.
• Develop personal connections with clients by learning about their interests, family, and what matters most to them.

Developing good habits early will serve you throughout your career

At this point, you may be wondering how to effectively leverage your burgeoning network. Experienced attorneys who excel at business development have a systematic approach where they routinely analyze their top clients, prospects, and referral sources. They regularly review their most important contacts for ways to deepen professional relationships.

For example, with a 15-minute daily routine, an advanced business developer will use the time to ask their assistant to schedule a meeting to introduce a client to a potential investor, book lunch to introduce a referral source to another partner at the firm, or invite a prospective client to join them at an event or conference.

The strategy is not complicated, but it requires consistency and intentionality. If you deliberately build a network and create a daily habit throughout your career, you will be ready to successfully shift from marketing activities to business development.

Craig Brown of Gladstone Growth Strategies, LLC, a business development coach for lawyers, emphasizes the importance of starting early: “If you have a list of people and you are reviewing it regularly, then that is half the battle. It is never too early to start this 15-minute daily habit. Building this practice early in your career creates the routine and increases the chances that you will maintain it even during your busiest periods.”

For those interested in understanding the psychology behind habit formation, The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg is a great resource. I frequently recommend that small groups of lawyers read and discuss how to apply these concepts to business development.

Give your career a foundation to grow upon

It is important to recognize that relationship-building is not an optional add-on to your legal practice. It is essential to career success. Many lawyers are not social butterflies, so remember that professional relationships do not require endless rubber chicken dinners and cocktail parties. Instead, they are built on trust, reliability, and competence.

When you consistently deliver quality work on time, ask insightful questions, and demonstrate genuine care for and interest in your clients’ goals and challenges, you are building the foundation for lasting and productive professional relationships. Ultimately, clients want attorneys who can solve problems efficiently while showing sincere interest in their success, careers, and organizations.

If equity partnership is part of your vision for the future, you must develop exceptional legal and client service skills, a strong personal brand and reputation, and a robust network of people who are invested in your personal success. If you maintain sustainable habits throughout your career, relationship-building will become more natural, and you will set yourself up to thrive in private practice.

The best time to start is now. Take that first step: schedule a 15-minute meeting with yourself today.

Jennifer Irvine is Director of Marketing and Business Development at Bowditch & Dewey. She is a Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Excellence in the Law award recipient.