Turning Good Intentions Into Consistent Execution for Client Teams

Client teams are one of the most talked-about growth strategies in law firms. The concept is simple: bring together lawyers from different practice areas who serve a single client, help them collaborate more intentionally and enjoy increased revenue as a result.

Most client team programs stall for the same reasons: we launch too many at once, ownership and accountability are fuzzy, and meetings drift without converting insight into action. Luckily, capacity-aware selection, clear operating roles and a repeatable rhythm can allow for better collaboration and growth.

Cultivating the Right Client Teams Portfolio

Administering a successful client teams program utilizes valuable resources. Use a quick rubric so you focus your support on the teams that have the best opportunity for real traction now. For each proposed client, score each of the criteria below with a rating of 1–5. Launch client teams for those with a combined rating greater than 20 with a committed attorney lead.

• Revenue stability and significant client threshold
  • Tip: Establish what a significant client means to you / your firm
• Current matter mix
• Market opportunity
• Cross-practice potential (two adjacent practices with clear relevance)
• Internal champion

If a client misses the bar — or lacks a real owner — park it on a waitlist and re-score on a yearly basis.

Client mix also matters. Some firms start with stable, anchor clients with relationships that are steady, aligned with the firm’s focus areas and ready for deeper collaboration. These teams deliver early wins, refine your process and build firmwide confidence. Others target high-potential clients — expanding industries, new relationships or evolving legal needs. They bring more upside but demand greater agility and bandwidth from the marketing and business development team. There’s no right or wrong approach, only the importance of choosing intentionally and ensuring you have the appropriate resources to drive your portfolio mix.

Allow Business Development Professionals To Drive the Program in Collaboration With Lead Attorneys

Set expectations for roles and active participation. For example, partners own relationships and strategy, while Business Development owns the rhythm and provides proactive advice. Give your business development lead permission to:

• Lock a 45-minute monthly cadence with a fixed agenda: metrics → intel → opportunities → blocks → assignments.
• Translate intel into two or three next steps with owners and dates.
• Keep a visible action log and escalate when the same item slips twice.
• Pull in members of the firm’s finance, research and leadership teams as needed.

One of the top ways business development professionals can provide value is by turning data into insight and recommended actions. They pull metrics and intel that make next steps concrete: financials like matter mix and fee concentration, AR, client feedback or post-matter evaluations, touchpoint opportunities, upcoming business triggers from news or filings, and relationship maps showing who knows whom. They help take the guesswork out of next steps by connecting the dots, so the team isn’t just talking about what they already know — they’re identifying what to do next.

With roles and expectations set, you can turn 90 days into momentum everyone can see.

Run a 90-Day Playbook

The first 90 days should focus on establishing habits: consistent contact, shared visibility, coordinated cross-sell and fast follow-through.

Here are five plays your business development team can deploy now:

1. Stakeholder map and short list: Identify priority client stakeholders (decision-makers, influencers, skeptics). Set monthly contact goals with value-led touches.
2. Voice-of-client sprint: Set two interviews at different levels (e.g., GC and operations lead). They can be formal or informal. Develop action items and assign ownership.
3. Plan a forward-looking client meeting: If you can’t conduct a stand-alone meeting to focus on the future, suggest the lawyers pair matter updates with two to three future topics (regulatory horizon, supply-chain risk, or merger and acquisition pipeline).
4. Cross-sell huddle: Two 30-minute internal syncs with one adjacent practice; agree on a single hypothesis to test with the client during the 90-day stretch.
5. Micro-insight delivery: A 200-400 word tailored note reframing a current risk or opportunity; invite a 30-minute call to explore in more depth.

These plays all work best within a light structure that nudges them forward and provides accountability.

Keep the Structure Light

Standardize just enough to scale:

• Agenda (same everywhere): Leading metrics → top three intel items → review opportunities → blocks/asks → assignments.
• Tools and Templates: Shared client plan document, concise key takeaways and next steps with owner and due date, and a simple green/yellow/red dashboard for activity, relationship breadth and pipeline momentum.
• 90-Day Micro-Plan: three moves, micro-budget, one learning goal.

The template is there to help you scale. Don’t let the template become the work. Focus on actions that are going to drive the relationship forward.

Measure What Matters

Weight leading indicators at the onset, then shift to lagging indicators after six months.

• Leading (monthly): Visits completed, client feedback conducted, new in-house relationships, tailored insights sent; cross-practice huddles, matter-stage advances, pitches and proposals (e.g., “discussed” to “scoped”).

• Lagging (quarterly/biannual): Practices serving the client; revenue mix shift; new matters opened; proposal win rate.

Leading indicators matter — because they lead to trust, visibility and, eventually, revenue.

If you conduct a client teams program long enough, some years the client revenue will dip. Perhaps a large matter will be wrapped up. Perhaps there was a client service issue that’s on its way to being resolved. A revenue dip doesn’t always mean the team failed. But, if the leading indicators flatline, that’s a red flag.

And, if momentum begins to stall, intervene as early as possible.

Early Warning Signals and Their Fixes:

• Meetings slip → Keep a standing cadence; proceed with whoever shows.
• Activity log doesn’t move → Cut scope; switch to 14-day deliverables with weekly email reminders.
• Client intel ignored → Ask for “decide or decline” on each item and escalate emerging patterns to leadership.
• Team not communicating between meetings → Create Outlook distribution list to streamline communications.
• Inconsistent client service / interactions → Develop client playbook to promote consistency with client standards.

Next Steps 

At the end of the day, client teams work best when they’re viewed as a way to make the work better — for the lawyers, for the firm and, most importantly, for the client. 

You don’t need a grand launch (or relaunch) of a client teams program. Pick one to three clients that clear the rubric, name your business development team leads and run the 90-day cycle with the tools and templates above. What you’re building is a quiet operating system for growth: greater client visibility, less stalled activity and results that drive both client satisfaction and new revenue.

Learn More About Business Development With the Third Edition of the LMA Body of Knowledge The content in this feature correlates with the Business Development domain in the LMA Body of Knowledge (BoK). Dive deeper and access the latest edition of the BoK online. The Third Edition of the LMA BoK showcases enhanced expertise across every domain, introduces new competencies in Client Services, Communications and Technology Management, features more advanced skills across all domains and broadens coverage of competitive and business intelligence skills. Plus, it emphasizes a stronger commitment to nurturing diversity, equity, and inclusion across the entirety of the BoK. Learn more.