Has the BD talent pool dried up?
Recruitment continues to be a challenge keeping law firm leaders up at night. In fact, identifying and recruiting talent was the top challenge identified by 59% of leaders planning any form of strategic growth, according to the latest Briefing/HSBC UK report — far ahead of concerns around the volume or complexity of changing regulation (12%), variable results in terms of profitability (12%) or the clear escalation in geopolitical conflict in 2024 (16%).
Behind this recruitment challenge lie many factors — a significant one being the rising salary expectations driven by US firms, which is putting pressures on UK firms to match these high figures or find unique EVPs to attract new talent.
Moreover, as firms continue to invest in and trial technology solutions — including AI and generative AI (genAI) — for legal work, and as clients increasingly expect more value and expertise from their firms, the need for highly skilled staff that have all these necessary new abilities and expertise is even greater. Add that to the increased competition between firms to secure talent, and you have a potent combination that’s making the recruitment experience a lot more difficult.
This recruitment conundrum seems to extend beyond fee earners to business services as well. During an insightful roundtable hosted with Epigram — which welcomed law firm experts from Brodies, Charles Russell Speechlys, Clarion Solicitors, Clifford Chance, Cripps, Foot Anstey, Hogan Lovells, Mills & Reeve, Osborne Clarke, Shakespeare Martineau and Switalskis Solicitors — several firm leaders confirmed that the marketing and business development (MBD) function is also facing the same issue.
These leaders noted a lack of BD talent available in the market over the past few years, primarily driven by many experts leaving the legal sector during the Covid-19 crisis. The pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, they believe, have also resulted in poor BD skills development for those entering the legal sector in 2020 and 2021.
This shrinking talent pool has led to more firms looking to recruit BD people from other sectors, who have transferrable skills and knowledge of specific jurisdictions and areas of law that firms operate in. To ensure the right people are recruited, MBD leaders have also had to rethink the way they advertise roles — including the skills required and responsibilities associated with these.
Moving the dial from marketing to BD
When it comes to task prioritisation, several leaders said that MBD teams generally gravitate more towards marketing-related initiatives and activities, rather than BD support — something particularly prevalent in smaller and mid-sized firms, due to the reduced size of their teams. However, leaders have noted a shift in focus towards more BD activities — including lead generation, and providing support for client relationship management.
Despite the increased desire and ability to help identify new client opportunities and build stronger relationships for the benefit of the firm, MBD teams are often met by pushback from partners, who are reluctant to give up the control they have over their clients. The remuneration model can also pay a part in this, as fee-earners may fear that working with someone else could eat away at their hard-earned money.
So how can firms build a bridge of collaboration between lawyers and MBD teams? That remains the million-dollar question, one that still doesn’t have a one-size-fits-all answer.
However, as remuneration can drive a wedge between fee earners and MBD teams, it brings into question whether a change in salary and bonus structures — in a way that would encourage more collaboration between practitioners and support staff, and greater emphasis on collective, rather than individual, wins — could be a potential solution. While this is an idea that this group seemed open to, it remains to be seen whether this idea will take root within firms.
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