Law Firms Need a Commercial Leader at Their Center to Grow

The role of the chief marketing and business development officer in law firms is becoming increasingly prominent as the owner of client experience. As firms become more intentional and sophisticated in satisfying and shaping the client journey, marketing and business development leaders can influence how firms attract and win work, deliver value, and grow relationships.

I predict that by 2030, leading firms will have a commercial leader positioned at the center of all revenue activity, responsible for driving profitability. This leader will bring clarity to decision-making, connect opportunities across practices, and strategically guide growth.

Their work will turn scattered initiatives into a unified approach to the market. Firms that prepare for this change today will be better positioned to build sustainable growth, deepen client relationships, and respond confidently to the demands of a competitive industry.

Transformation Is Underway

Many firms still heavily rely on manual processes. Business development professionals compile information from scattered sources, prepare materials under tight timelines, and respond to a constant flow of urgent requests. Under-staffing of business development functions amplifies these pressures and leaves little space for strategic thinking.

A more advanced model is emerging in which business development teams operate as strategic partners who guide revenue conversations, analyze opportunities, and support partners with insight rather than reactive, inbound-only assistance. This is evident as seen by the recent rise of chief growth officers and chief strategy officers in firms.

Chief marketing officers have also been moving into COO roles, something that would have been unheard of a decade ago. Both of these shifts indicate the increasing importance firms place on having a C-suite level leader at the center of their business development and overall growth trajectory.

Artificial intelligence and commoditized intelligence can act as catalysts by relieving teams of the routine work that once consumed their time and kept their roles less impactful. These technologies surface data, identify patterns, and categorize opportunities in ways that allow business development professionals to focus on higher value activities.

For example, rather than spending days building standard reports, integrating firm financial data with a relationship intelligence system with litigation alerts and trend monitoring would enable a business development leader to identify in a matter of minutes where a client is engaged in litigation in a geography or practice area where the firm could engage and grow a client account profitably.

Visibility Informs Growth

The lack of firm-wide visibility is a persistent barrier to sustainable growth. Partners make decisions without a clear picture of profitability, the financial impact of pricing choices, or how resources are allocated relative to opportunity. And business development teams often spend hours assembling reports yet struggle to produce a complete view of the client or the broader market.

Growth accelerates when there is insight across partners, clients, industries, and pricing. Something as simple as a “who knows whom?” tool within a customer relationship management system can help partners be more prepared for key meetings with clients and prospects.

A chief marketing and business development officer with a holistic view can understand which clients have been engaged recently, who consumes marketing, how to focus marketing and business development efforts to keep a new practice group growing, or where the firm may need to expand or focus practice or market-focused capabilities through lateral hiring. Tech-enabling this function and assesmbling seasoned, executive hands can take firms from epidosic, reactive response to informed execution.

Three Practical Steps

Several moves can help firms strengthen commercial capabilities and create momentum for long-term growth.

Invest in modern technologies. Free up business development professionals from routine activities that can be automated, such as database maintenance, experience tracking, and report preparation. This increases available time for coaching lawyers, building awareness and trust with internal networks, strengthening service delivery, and driving continuous value to clients.

Data quality is essential for effective use of automation and intelligence tools. A strong data foundation allows business development teams to generate insights that inform targeting, pricing, staffing, and client planning and creates a unified view of the firm’s commercial landscape.

Empower client and business development professionals. Build and empower agile, skilled teams that focus on client development, business development, pricing, profitability, cross-servicing, lateral integration, and holistic review of firm growth and client experience. Continue to invest and develop these teams so they keep pace with the firm’s growth evolution.

Firms must also give these leaders enough lead to develop or upgrade the firm’s infrastructure around growth. If a firm’s goal is to double revenue, for instance, they must trust their business development leadership to envision and then implement what will be necessary to achieve that growth.

Business development leaders should have a voice in business development frameworks, as well as compensation strategy, pricing, business plans, training, and coaching of lawyers. Many AmLaw ranked firms have mature marketing functions but have left room for more sophistication and oversight on the business development side.

Make business development a part of lawyers’ toolkits. Empowering the CMBDO also means firms are making an investment in their lawyers. A strong and empowered executive should lead a function that makes client and business development a strategic imperative, but also a daily activity and functional touchpoint for lawyers. To be successful in the sometimes neglected “sales” piece of their jobs, lawyers need to be enabled with the technology and a culture to go beyond the “monthly check-ins” to consistently demonstrating the connection between business development, professional development, and client service.

Embracing C-suite level leadership isn’t an either/or that usurps power from the attorneys. It can create a team-focused partnership where the business development professional serves as a coach and internal services provider to lawyers, working together to advance and accelerate growth and drive continuous value to clients and markets.

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

Lynn Tellefsen Stehle, a former AmLaw CMO, is a legal industry growth strategist at Nexl, where she designs and delivers attorney training and revenue acceleration programs.

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