A law firm business development plan you will use

A law firm business development plan sets out which work the firm wants more of, where that work comes from, how enquiries will be converted, which relationships will be developed, and who does what each week. The useful ones fit on a page, start from the firm's own source and conversion data, and are reviewed monthly rather than written once a year.

Most BD plans fail for a predictable reason: they are lists of activity (write articles, attend events, post on LinkedIn) with no link to the numbers that produce instructions. A plan built the way a sales operation would build one starts with the pipeline, not the activity. This post is part of our guide to how law firms get clients.

What should a law firm business development plan include?

Six sections. Each should fit in a few lines.

• 1. Goal. One sentence on what growth means this year: more matters, better matters, more repeat work, or new capacity.
• 2. Baseline. Last quarter's enquiries by source, conversion rate, average fee per matter and response time.
• 3. Target work. Which practice areas and client types you want more of, and which you want less of.
• 4. Conversion actions. What the firm will change in how enquiries are answered, qualified and followed up.
• 5. Relationship actions. Named referrers and clients, the person responsible for each, and what they will do.
• 6. Rhythm. When the plan is reviewed, by whom, and what gets reported.

Notice that "marketing channels" is not a section of its own. Channels belong under target work, chosen because the baseline says they produce the right instructions.

Why start a BD plan with a baseline?

Because without one, every BD conversation is opinion. Partners will say referrals are the main source; the website analytics will say search is; the truth is usually visible only once "how did you hear about us?" is recorded on every enquiry.

The minimum baseline, measured over the last full quarter:

• enquiries received, by source and by practice area;
• the proportion that became instructions;
• median time to first human response, and the share of calls missed;
• average fee per new matter, by practice area;
• the proportion of new matters from returning clients and referrers.

If you cannot produce these numbers, the first quarter of the plan is building the ability to. That is not a delay; it is the most valuable BD work the firm will do this year. How to calculate conversion consistently is covered in law firm enquiry-to-instruction conversion rate, and which figures belong on a partner dashboard in law firm KPIs for managing partners.

How do you set business development targets for a law firm?

Work backwards from the fee target, using your own conversion rate. An illustration with invented numbers:

• Fee target from new work this year: £600,000.
• Average fee per new matter: £2,000, so the firm needs 300 new matters.
• Conversion rate from enquiry to instruction: 25 per cent, so it needs 1,200 qualified enquiries.
• Current enquiries: 1,000 a year.

There are two ways to close the gap of 200 enquiries' worth of work. Generate 200 more enquiries, or lift conversion from 25 to 30 per cent, which on 1,000 enquiries produces the same 300 matters. For many firms the second is cheaper and faster, and it is entirely in the firm's control. Most plans only consider the first.

Write both levers into the plan, with a target for each: "enquiries up 10 per cent and conversion up 3 points" is a better plan than "enquiries up 20 per cent".

What conversion actions belong in the plan?

Keep these concrete, with an owner and a date:

• Cover lunchtime and after-hours calls by a named date.
• A response target for every enquiry, such as a human reply within one business hour, reviewed weekly.
• A standard set of qualifying questions per practice area, including source.
• Undecided enquiries followed up twice before being closed.
• Price information on the website that meets the SRA Transparency Rules where they apply, so enquirers arrive better informed.

Each of these is a change to how the firm works, not a campaign. That is why they tend to last.

How should a law firm plan relationship development?

This is the section that makes BD personal, and it needs names. A simple table works:

• Referrer or client: the organisation and contact.
• Owner: the partner or fee-earner responsible.
• Last contact: date.
• Instructions last 12 months: the number.
• Next action: a specific thing, such as lunch, a CPD session for their team, or a catch-up call.
• By when: a date.

Keep the list short. Ten to twenty relationships per partner is more than most people can look after well. The Legal Services Consumer Panel's 2025 tracker found having used the provider before and a recommendation from family or friends were the two most common ways consumers chose a legal provider, so former clients belong on this list too, not only professional referrers. Any arrangement involving payment for referrals needs to be checked against the rules first: see can law firms pay referral fees?.

What does a weekly BD rhythm look like?

A plan without a rhythm becomes a document. A light rhythm that works in firms of most sizes:

• Weekly, 15 minutes, per team: last week's enquiries, missed calls, response time, instructions. Any referrer who sent work gets a thank you.
• Monthly, 45 minutes, partners: conversion by practice area and by source, progress on the relationship table, one decision about what to change.
• Quarterly, two hours: rerun the baseline, reset targets, decide on any marketing spend using source data.

The weekly meeting is the one that matters. It is where a missed-call problem is noticed in week two rather than in the annual review.

A one-page business development plan template

Copy this and fill it in. If a section runs over a few lines, cut it.

• Goal this year: [one sentence]
• Baseline (last quarter): enquiries [n], conversion [x%], median response [time], missed calls [x%], average fee [£], repeat and referred share [x%]
• Target work: more of [practice area and client type]; less of [practice area and client type]
• Lever 1, conversion: from [x%] to [y%] by [date]. Actions: [three bullet points with owners]
• Lever 2, enquiries: from [n] to [m] by [date]. Channels: [only those your source data supports]
• Relationships: [table of 10 to 20 names, owners and next actions]
• Rhythm: weekly team check on [day], monthly partner review on [date], quarterly reset in [month]
• What we will stop doing: [one or two activities that do not produce instructions]

The last line is the most neglected. A plan that only adds work will not be followed.

What are common mistakes in law firm BD plans?

• Activity targets without outcome targets. "Four articles a quarter" says nothing about instructions.
• Ignoring conversion. Planning more enquiries without checking how many current ones are lost.
• No owners. Relationship lists with no names beside them.
• Annual review only. By the time a problem is visible, a year has gone.
• Treating BD as the marketing department's job. In most firms, fee-earners own the relationships that produce the work.

How does this plan connect to operations?

The conversion section of a BD plan is really an operations plan, which is why we describe the whole path from enquiry to instruction as revenue operations for law firms. If you want ideas for the enquiries lever that do not need a large budget, see business development ideas for law firms. For a shorter version aimed at small firms, see how to grow a small law firm, and for the lead side, how to generate leads for a law firm.

How does a BD plan differ for different practice areas?

The structure stays the same; the emphasis moves:

• Conveyancing. Referrer relationships with estate agents and brokers, published prices under the Transparency Rules, and speed of quote. Conversion work matters most at the quote stage.
• Private client. Former clients and family recommendations, relationships with IFAs and accountants, and closing letters that invite the next conversation.
• Family. Search, reviews and a first response that is fast, kind and discreet. See marketing a family law firm.
• Employment and commercial. Relationships with businesses the firm already acts for, introductions from accountants, and content that answers the questions managers ask.
• Personal injury. Search and, where used, marketing arrangements that need particular care because of section 56 of LASPO 2012.

A multi-department firm should write one short plan per department and a one-page summary for the whole firm, rather than one long plan that nobody in any department recognises as theirs.

What does a finished BD plan look like? A hypothetical example

An invented example, for illustration only. A hypothetical four-partner firm with conveyancing, private client and family departments fills in the template like this:

• Goal: more private client matters at current fees, and more repeat work from conveyancing clients.
• Baseline: 110 enquiries a month; 24 per cent conversion; median first reply four working hours; 22 per cent of calls missed, mostly at lunch and after 5pm; repeat and referred share unknown because source is not recorded.
• Lever 1, conversion: from 24 to 28 per cent by the end of the quarter. Actions: cover lunch and 5pm to 7pm calls (practice manager); one-hour reply target for forms (team leads); follow up undecided enquiries twice (assistants).
• Lever 2, enquiries: hold steady this quarter. Decide next quarter, once source data exists.
• Relationships: twelve estate agents, four IFAs and two accountants, each with a named partner owner and a next action.
• Stop: the quarterly print newsletter, which nobody could link to an instruction.

The plan fits on a page. The first quarter's biggest win is expected to come from the conversion lever, and the firm will know by the end of it whether that expectation was right.

Where WasilX fits

Two of the conversion actions above are where firms most often struggle: answering every call, and keeping clients updated so they come back. Cam, our AI Engagement Coordinator, takes calls on the firm's line at any hour, says it is AI, asks the firm's own qualifying questions including source, books the call back and sends the firm a summary. Each fee-earner's personal assistant covers their calls in court and drafts matter updates for the fee-earner to approve. If you would like to see how that fits into a plan like this, let's talk.

Frequently asked questions

What should be in a law firm business development plan? A goal, a baseline of last quarter's enquiries, sources and conversion, the work you want more of, conversion actions, named relationship actions with owners, and a review rhythm.

How long should a law firm BD plan be? One page is enough for most firms. If it runs longer, it tends to become a document nobody reads.

How often should a law firm review its BD plan? A short weekly check of enquiries and response, a monthly partner review, and a quarterly reset of targets works for most firms.

Who should own business development in a law firm? Partners and fee-earners own the relationships that produce most instructions, so they own the relationship section. Someone should own the conversion numbers and the weekly check.