- if you work in BD, does any of this resonate?
- if you are a partner, is your firm’s BD team helpful?
I have worked at two different Amlaw 15 firms in mid-career business development roles (mostly supporting corporate/transactional practices) and I have never been more bored in my professional life.
I pivoted into this line of work from a client-facing position in finance with the goal of leaving behind 70 hour weeks, getting 2 days of work from home, and actually being able to use my vacation days. I have ticked those boxes, but after a few years I am so understimulated I might actually pivot back out.
A lot of the BD professionals I’ve met are woefully ill-equipped to actually understand the complex practice areas they are supporting (eg. Liability management, antitrust enforcement, private equity cycles, asset management M&A, REITs, etc.) and therefore have a hard time generating actionable ideas for partners.
Some BD people, particularly those in leadership roles, have poor general technical skills - eg. they are horribly slow at putting together internal or external decks for meetings, can’t manipulate or digest large data sets, can’t utilize databases like Foundation or CRM systems, poor grasp of major market data sources like CapIQ, FactSet, MergerMarket, Bloomberg, LexMachina, etc. BD folks at the manager level and above seem to rely on the same research and knowledge teams the attorneys do for any heavy lifting and their junior population to produce deliverables… while they pontificate about KPIs and initiatives and pipelines and plan events with questionable ROI.
Folks at my level and below seem to spend our time creating endless reports and trackers that may or may not ever get in front of a partner. A huge portion of partners don’t even know we exist much less how to leverage us as a resource.
TLDR; It’s wild to me that most amlaw 50 firms have amassed BD departments with several hundred people who mostly push papers around while the senior rainmakers do the work to get business through the door, as has always been the case.
My honest assessment is BD’s value lies in getting pitches and RFPs out the door, maintaining the website and lawyer bios, and preparing directory submissions. Everything else BD purports to do, the partners handle more or less on their own… but with a growing cost center on the side.