I’ve often wondered if senior business development professionals in law firms truly have a seat at the executive table. People often tell me they do, but my gut has always had this niggling suspicion that maybe they actually don’t.

Well, a review of ‘Aligning Marketing and Business Development Resources for Law Firm Growth‘ – Results from the joint Legal Marketing Association and Bloomberg Law® research study  published overnight my time (Australia) would appear to answer some of these doubts – at least from a US standpoint, as one of the first charts in the report looks at exactly this issue:

My take on this chart is that most law firms see the role of BD as being the executors/executers of a law firm’s business strategy, but not necessarily the developers of that strategy.

In other words, only about 36% of senior business developers can truly claim to have a seat at the top table.

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