Fresh Approaches to Drive Business Development and Strategy with Data
6 real and practical examples of how Business Development & Strategy teams in law firms have been using Pirical Legal Professionals (PLP) for their projects.
1. Plan an expansion strategy
High level competitor analysis is useful when you want to understand the lay of the land, but when defining a winning strategy for a practice or office, firms need in-depth and precise analyses.
Example A global law firm was doing a strategy review for their Singapore office. They used PLP to identify key players in the local market, including smaller, independent firms. Then they analyzed where and how each had been growing over the last 3 years:
- In which practice areas / legal products did they expand? For which industries & customers?
- Did they grow organically or through acquisition?
- How did they resource the growth in terms of roles, levels & skills?
- Where did they find this talent? Which firms did they hire from?
2. Identify merger and acquisition (M&A) targets & conduct due diligence
Depending on the need, whether it’s to acquire a certain expertise, to add bench strength, or to enter new markets, the criteria for M&A targets will vary.
Strategy & BD teams require a quick way to identify firms with the right profile, presence, and talent.
Example An Am Law 100 firm was looking to identify elite boutique firms that might be good targets for acquisition. By filtering for firm size on PLP, they selected firms with a lawyer headcount between 30 and 100. Then, by ticking "Ranked by legal directories" they instantly generated a shortlist of small firms with ranked lawyers.
Example An Am Law 100 firm started looking at new niche offerings and where they could find that expertise in the market.
“The Artificial Intelligence (AI) market is buzzing. I used PLP to identify which firms are starting to set up AI practices, or Data Privacy practices.”
3. Leverage competitor intelligence to differentiate your pitch
Business Development teams want a winning edge when working on a pitch or tendering for a panel.
PLP can help to:
- understand who you might be up against
- and work out how to differentiate your firm's offerings effectively.
Example A firm uses PLP to map out which competitors might work with their target prospects. PLP can quickly get a list of attorneys who list that client anywhere in their online presence (e.g. work history or news articles).
Example An Am Law 100 firm knew that their Corporate M&A team were very stable and hadn't had any departures from the team in a long time. They wanted to know how this compares to peer firms they were going up against for a pitch. They used PLP to check the attrition of peer firms in that practice area.
Firm Comparison can also help you find other differentiators: is a competitor more senior-heavy, which might impact their billable rate? Could diversity statistics offer a way to stand apart?
4. Identify leads in target organizations
Example A user was looking to connect with a large corporation. With PLP, they could find individuals at their firm who had connections or alumni who now work in the company.
The Connections feature identifies individuals who might have been working in the same practice at the same firm or have graduated from the same law school in the same year.
5. Conduct due diligence on prospective partner laterals
Example An Am Law 100 firm used PLP to quickly pull a list of all ranked Partners in a practice & city. They were able to further refine this list by focusing on the more junior partners based on their JD year.
PLP profiles centralize information about:
- Education & Bar admissions
- Deals information & potential clients
- Connections
- Rankings
The firm used the deals & client information to identify any potential conflicts between the Partner’s clients and the firm’s clients. The Connections feature enabled them to quickly identify individuals who could give them a reference.
6. React quickly to market changes
It’s good to have a strategy but it’s even better to be able to quickly adapt it if the market shifts, and if significant changes may affect your firm.
Example An Am Law 100 firm had heard rumors that law firms were opening offices in Miami, FL, & Austin, TX. They used PLP to quickly identify which firms these were and what type of work and clients they were serving in those offices. The firm quickly disqualified this direction for their firm as it didn’t overlap with their expertise.
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