This article was originally published
in our LinkedIn Newsletter “RainMasters Unfiltered“
Let me know if this sounds familiar: It’s Monday morning, and you just scheduled a couple of hours of business development time in your calendar for this week. You are feeling good about it.
But then, on Tuesday, a client asked for an urgent call. On Wednesday, a draft arrived later than expected, and your associate needed direction. On Thursday, a routine issue became a fire drill.
By Friday afternoon, the week had disappeared. The two hours marked “BD” on your calendar had been moved three times and then quietly deleted. You promise yourself that next week will be different.
You are not alone! This comes up all the time in our BD coaching work with lawyers. And usually, the problem isn’t that they don’t care about business development or don’t understand its importance. The problem is that they are trying to fit BD into their weeks in a way that works beautifully on Monday morning and falls apart the moment client work becomes unpredictable.
If that keeps happening, the answer isn’t simply to become more disciplined about protecting your calendar. You need a business development approach that can survive a real lawyer’s week. Here are a few practical ways to make that happen.
1. A calendar block is not yet a plan
Lawyers are often advised to “put BD time on the calendar and treat it like a client meeting.” This makes sense, but it does not fully account for how legal practice operates.
If a client has a genuine emergency, you will move the BD block!
The larger problem is that the block itself is usually empty. When the time arrives, you still have to spend time thinking about what to do: whom to contact, what to say, or which opportunity to advance. Those decisions consume the first 20 minutes. Then an email arrives, and the block disappears.
“Business development” is not a usable calendar entry. It is a category of work.
Compare it with:
- Call Jordan Lee about the leadership transition at Acme.
- Send Priya the article we discussed at the conference.
- Ask Michael whether he is comfortable introducing me to the new CFO.=
- Review the Company A pitch follow-up and identify the unresolved concern.
- Meet with Mary, the tax partner, about the expansion issue the client mentioned.
Those entries are small enough to begin and specific enough to complete.
2. Build a minimum viable BD week
Many lawyers create a BD plan for their ideal week: It’s that magical week without a rushed transaction closing, emergency filing, client crisis, or unexpected travel.
That plan rarely survives contact with the reality of practicing law.
A more durable approach is to define the minimum level of business development needed to keep important relationships and opportunities moving forward, even during a difficult week.
For example:
- One Relationship Nurture action: Contact one person whose relationship matters to your practice. Not ten people, but just one person.
- One Pipeline action: Move one existing possibility forward. Clarify a need, schedule a next conversation, involve a colleague, follow up on an open question, or decide that the opportunity is not sufficiently qualified to pursue.
- One Visibility action: Do something that strengthens your brand and makes you more visible to the right people: connect internally with a partner from another practice group, capture an article idea, or prepare for an industry event.
Three actions will not constitute an entire growth strategy. But completing them every week creates more momentum than conducting an elaborate burst of activity once every three months.
The minimum is also not the ceiling. When the week allows more time, do more. Its purpose is to prevent a demanding week from becoming a zero-BD week.
3. Decide before the week begins
The system works only if the actions are chosen in advance.
At the end of each week—or before Monday begins—write down the three actions for the coming week. Each should include a person, a verb, and a clear outcome.
Not:
- Follow up with prospects.
- Work on visibility.
- Explore cross-selling.
Instead:
- Email Andrea to schedule the conversation we discussed after the panel.
- Draft the first 200 words of the article on the new enforcement trend.
- Ask the employment partner whether the client’s expansion may create a workforce-planning issue.
The reason this is critical is that the first list still requires you to make a series of decisions before any work can start. The second list can be executed in the available 15-minute window between calls.
4. Measure progress, not just activity
A partner can attend five events, send 20 emails, and remain no closer to meaningful work. Another may have one conversation that reveals a client’s emerging concern and creates a credible next step.
At the end of the week, ask:
- Did I learn something material about a client or contact?
- Did a relationship become stronger or more current?
- Did an opportunity move to a defined next step?
- Did someone gain a clearer understanding of my value?
- Did I create access to a person or conversation I did not have before?
- Did more people find out about me and my expertise?
Those are early indicators of progress. Revenue matters, of course, but it appears too late to guide weekly behavior on its own.
What firm leaders should notice
Law firm leaders sometimes interpret inconsistent BD as a motivation problem. BD professionals may find themselves repeatedly reminding partners to update plans, enter activities, or follow up.
But reminders do not correct a system in which business development remains vague, oversized, and structurally easy to displace. What lawyers often need is help converting strategy into small, concrete actions. They also need a realistic standard for what consistency looks like during demanding periods. A system that works only when client work is quiet is not a system designed for private practice.
