Last week, I attended the LMA Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference in Washington, DC. The programs covered everything from AI and personal branding to lateral integration and client feedback. Across those conversations, I kept coming back to the role we play as marketing and business development professionals: helping attorneys understand their value and teaching them how to build strong client relationships. This article highlights a few things I'm still thinking about.

Whether your firm calls them practices, sections, or departments, a planning process should do more than produce a completed document. It should connect firm strategy to group priorities, give attorneys a roadmap for where to focus limited business development time, and create accountability for progress.

This article identifies six questions you should ask before sending that practice group planning template.

Most law firms say they want to cross-sell. Few have the internal foundation to actually make it happen. Rebecca Hnatowski joined Scott Love’s The Rainmaking Podcast to break down why cross-selling initiatives stall — and exactly what has to be in place before the first client conversation ever happens.

Recent conversations have reminded me how easily good business development intentions can get stuck. Maybe it’s when we say too much, drop an internal handoff or keep following a strategy that no longer fits. Read on for tips for countering these issues.

Your digital presence has never mattered more. In this hands-on workshop, Guy Alvarez and Rebecca Hnatowski will show you how to transform your website bio and LinkedIn profile into business development tools. Using AI, you’ll define your Ideal Client Profile (ICP) and the content they want—leaving with real updates in hand.

Last week, I attended LSSO's RainDance Conference in Chicago. The conference offers a unique perspective: one that sits at the intersection of sales, client experience, business development, technology, and growth. While the speakers covered a wide range of topics, I kept hearing the same themes emerge. Here are five ideas that stuck with me.

Earlier this week, I gave a presentation for summer associates on building lasting business relationships. We spent some time talking about the thing that actually makes someone want to stay in touch with you: the quality of the conversation.

A few weeks ago, I presented a webinar with legal industry strategist Patrick Fuller on turning legal market data into a revenue strategy. One line from Patrick has been stuck in my head ever since: “Do it now while you’re playing with house money.” His point was simple: many firms delay meaningful strategic planning because the last several years have been pretty good. For many firms, chaos in the market has translated into demand. But smart firms are making investments now in infrastructure and long-term growth strategy.

Law firms have unprecedented access to market intelligence, yet many struggle to convert insight into sustained growth. In this webinar, we will examine where strategy commonly veers off course and how firms can establish guardrails to stay aligned. Attendees will leave with a practical framework for translating market data into client development priorities, strengthening practice leader accountability, and implementing a disciplined cadence that turns strategy into measurable revenue results.

I came back from LMA Annual with a few practical takeaways focused on execution: a simple framework for strategy, a coaching approach grounded in better conversations, and clear proposal processes. All of these reinforced the same idea: success comes from translating plans into action, with clarity, ownership, and consistency.

Law firms invest significant time and energy defining growth strategies. Business plans. Revenue targets. Client account programs. Cross-selling initiatives. Increasingly, AI-driven marketing and content strategies.

All important, but in practice, success or failure rarely hinges on the strategy itself. It hinges on something less visible: how that strategy is translated, communicated, and implemented.

Originally published on JDSupra.

Most law firms don’t struggle with planning. They struggle with execution.

As we approach the end of the first quarter, this is the perfect time to revisit your business development plan, and take a few practical steps to move it forward.

Rebecca Hnatowski was quoted in the article, “Why One-Size-Fits-All Individual Attorney Business Plans Fail Lawyers and How to Build Plans That Reflect Strengths, Not Templates,” published by The Legal Intelligencer, an ALM publication, on 3/10/26.

Your digital presence has never mattered more. In this hands-on workshop, Guy Alvarez and Rebecca Hnatowski will show you how to transform your website bio and LinkedIn profile into business development tools. Using AI, you’ll define your Ideal Client Profile (ICP) and the content they want—leaving with real updates in hand.

The end of the year can feel like a sprint, but it’s also one of the best windows to strengthen client relationships and clear a little space for momentum in 2026. This post includes my favorite high-impact moves.

A strong practice group plan should be an opportunity to pause, look at the current state of the practice, and make intentional choices about not only what can be achieved in 2026, but what groundwork needs to be laid for long-term success.

This article includes a few conversations and planning elements that will elevate your plan beyond the usual.

This session will explore how Professional Development and Business Development professionals can move beyond departmental silos to strategically collaborate in supporting the professional growth of lawyers.

The session will use examples and audience interaction to explore how PD and BD can codesign initiatives around lawyer development, retention, and client service.

The end of the year can feel like a sprint, but it’s also one of the best windows to strengthen client relationships and clear a little space for momentum in 2026. This post includes my favorite high-impact moves.

When we talk about collaboration in law firms, it’s often within the marketing and business development team: communications, events, or business development. But some of the most powerful partnerships happen outside of marketing. Finance, IT, operations, HR: these departments all have valuable perspectives, data, and processes that can strengthen your work and the firm’s overall strategy. I had the chance to explore this topic with colleagues from finance, knowledge management, operations and marketing at a recent panel discussion at LMA Tech West x Southwest.

When it comes to building stronger business relationships, we tend to overcomplicate things. We look for the perfect icebreaker, the polished pitch, the smartest insight. But in my experience, the most powerful tool is also the simplest one. Three little words: Tell me more.

I can’t tell you enough how many times I encourage attorneys (and even my fellow legal marketers) to use this phrase. People love to talk about what they’re working on, what they’re proud of, or what challenges they’re navigating. You just have to ask - and then be patient enough to listen.