Butler Rubin Finds Business Development Success

Law.com has an interesting article today about how the Chicago-based law firm of Butler Rubin Saltarelli & Boyd achieved success in business development. After several YEARS of effort in trying to encourage individual attorney marketing, the firm finally decided to link attorney business development efforts directly to compensation.

Attorneys were awarded "points" with a significant monetary value for specific business building activities, including:

• Attorney credentialing through published articles, speeches, and industry leadership
• Attention to current clients for account growth
• New client development

Prior to the point system, attorneys would revert into the comfort zone of work to avoid business development activities (i.e., the "I don't have time to take a client to lunch because I need to finish this brief " rationalization). The new approach seems to be working.

A lesson here is that it takes time, clear direction, senior level commitment and the establishment of consequences to achieve a true behavioral change in favor of high level business development at a firm or practice group level.

Read the full story at:
http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sfb/lawArticleSFB.jsp?id=1187168521845

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