Lawyers Neglect This Resource for Deepening Client Relationships

Marketing and business development teams have long assisted Big Law attorneys in their never-ending mandate to bring in new business. What receives far less attention is how marketing and business development departments, or MBD, can help deliver a higher level of client service, leading to revenue growth with clients already working with the firm.

Marketing teams and lawyers commonly struggle with communication and transparency. Some attorneys view MBD as the group that simply polishes credentials, designs brochures, manages events, or updates lawyers’ bios.

While those aspects matter, a marketing and business development team brought in early to a client relationship can be far more strategic. When there is collaboration between business development teams and the lawyers, marketing can provide insight and accountability that strengthen relationships and client service.

For attorneys in large firms, understanding how to leverage that capability is key.

Reframing MBD’s Role

Marketing isn’t about polish and gloss. It’s about intelligence and execution.

Most large legal marketing teams have access to client data, industry research, competitive intelligence, media insights, and relationship mapping tools. They see patterns across practices and offices. They can identify underleveraged relationships and trends before they are obvious in a single partner’s practice.

If a lawyer is targeting a new industry, MBD can analyze sector growth trends, track industry trends, and map where the firm already has footholds. If a lawyer is looking for creative ways to deepen a key client relationship, marketing can identify cross-practice gaps, flag competitor activity, and develop strategic ideas that would be meaningful for that contact. If the practice group is pursuing a major pitch, MBD can help position the firm around the client’s business priorities rather than a generic list of capabilities.

Embedding Client Strategy

Top-tier client service in Big Law increasingly depends on coordination and information flow both ways. Clients expect firms to anticipate needs, bring cross-disciplinary insight, and show a clear understanding of their business. Marketing teams are uniquely positioned to help orchestrate that coordination.

Consider structured client account planning. Instead of approaching internal meetings as a laundry list of updates by matters, during update meetings, the MBD team can help facilitate:

• Formal client team meetings that are focused on the client’s objectives instead of what the firm wants to sell
• Relationship mapping across in-house counsel and who in the firm is best positioned to help
• Tracking touchpoints and follow-ups that are thoughtful and impactful to the client versus just the firm
• Creating opportunity maps for identifying where gaps in offerings might be

When lawyers share candid insight about the client relationship and growth objectives, the MBD team can build a support plan. When lawyers engage freely with the MBD and share what they know about the client (both the good and bad), the company, and the weak spots, the MBD team can begin to think strategically and, more importantly, proactively.

Without transparency, even the most capable marketing team is guessing at what would be most effective for the client based on public data.

Driving Proactive Outreach

One of the clearest distinctions between reactive and proactive marketing and business development teams is how they manage outreach.

Marketing can help attorneys move beyond random contact by implementing routine relationship-deepening strategies such as:

• Curated client alerts tailored to specific industries, with a personalized note as to why they are sending it
• Collaborative speaking opportunities aligned with clients, targets, and prospects
• Executive roundtables based on previous conversations with institutional clients
• Introductions of clients similarly situated to each other
• Data-driven campaigns tied to regulatory or market developments
• Meaningful gift giving or curated events based on the lawyers’ relationships

These efforts are most effective when lawyers articulate clear priorities. When connecting with the MBD team, lawyers who can articulate who their top clients and targets are, where they are facing competitive pressure, and what their contacts like or dislike will help the MBD team focus their resources, and identify prospects that represent the highest potential.

Elevating Client Experience

At leading firms, marketing is increasingly central to the client experience. As firms consolidate and competition increases, lawyers who pull in all the resources and tools available will stand out.

Client-listening programs, satisfaction surveys, and structured feedback interviews are often coordinated by marketing teams. The insights gathered can reveal service gaps, competitive vulnerabilities, and untapped opportunities.

When lawyers treat marketing as a strategic partner in these conversations, the result is stronger alignment between client expectations and firm delivery.

Marketing can also help standardize best practices across offices, ensuring that client service is consistent and aligned with the firm’s brand promise. That level of coordination strengthens reputation and deepens trust.

A True Partnership

For Big Law attorneys, marketing and business development professionals are there to help win and retain business, but also to deepen relationships. Partnership requires engagement on both sides, though.

Lawyers must share strategic goals, revenue targets, competitive concerns, and relationship dynamics in and outside the firm. Marketing must listen, be present, offer potential opportunities and propose structured plans—and help teams with the execution. When that partnership is real, marketing becomes a force multiplier.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg Industry Group, Inc., the publisher of Bloomberg Law, Bloomberg Tax, and Bloomberg Government, or its owners.

Author Information

Megan Senese is co-founder and principal at stage, a women-owned business development and legal marketing firm.

Toni Wells is principal at Bespoke Marketing Partners.

Interested in writing? Review our author guidelines, and submit pitches to Insights@bloombergindustry.com.