Does Your Law Firm Have a Relationship Intelligence Problem? 7 Signs to Look For
Law firm leaders may never describe an issue as a "relationship intelligence problem," but the symptoms are often familiar. A partner wants to know who knows a prospect and the answer requires several emails, a pitch team spends hours researching connections or a lateral joins the firm and useful relationship overlaps emerge months later through chance conversations.
When these situations happen regularly, the firm may have valuable relationship information that is difficult to access or connect. Here are seven signs that can help law firm leaders and business development teams evaluate how easily they can find and use the relationships that already exist across the firm.
1. Finding Out Who Knows Someone Requires Several Emails
Firmwide and practice-wide emails remain a common way to find relationships. A lawyer asks whether anyone knows a particular general counsel, CEO, investor or other executive and waits to see who responds.
This approach can identify useful connections, but it depends on the right people seeing the message and remembering the relationship. Greater visibility into the firm's network can give business development teams a starting point before they begin contacting individual lawyers.
Pay attention to how often these requests are being sent and how long it takes to get a useful answer. If relationship searches regularly require multiple emails and follow-ups, there may be valuable information within the firm that could be easier to access.
2. Pitch Preparation Requires Hours of Relationship Research
An important pitch often triggers a search for every possible connection to the company and its decision makers. BD teams may review CRM records, search LinkedIn, contact lawyers, examine previous pitches and look through event information.
When this work needs to be reconstructed for each opportunity, teams spend valuable time gathering information that may already exist across the firm. Easier access to relationship information can allow them to devote more attention to pitch strategy and preparation.
Look at what happens the next time a major pitch comes in. Track where the team searches for relationship information, how many people need to be contacted and how much time is spent putting the picture together. That exercise can reveal where the process could become more efficient.
3. Lawyers Regularly Discover Valuable Connections by Accident
A prospect's name comes up during a meeting and another partner mentions that they worked closely with the general counsel years ago. These discoveries can be valuable, while also demonstrating how much relationship knowledge may exist outside a lawyer's immediate network.
As firms grow, the likelihood of these hidden connections grows as well. A more complete view of relationships can help firms find them earlier and use them more consistently.
When an unexpected connection emerges, capture it. Look at where the information was stored, who knew about it and whether there are similar relationships elsewhere in the firm that could be relevant to current clients and prospects.
4. Major Client Relationships Are Concentrated With One Partner
Many significant client relationships begin and grow through one partner. Over time, firms may want to understand which other lawyers have relationships within the client organization and where additional connections could develop naturally.
This information can support client team planning and succession. It can also help firms introduce the next generation of lawyers while the primary relationship partner remains actively involved.
For important clients, map the relationships beyond the primary partner. Look at who knows the general counsel, deputy general counsel, business executives and other decision makers, as well as which lawyers across the firm have worked with those individuals in other contexts.
5. New Lateral Partners Need Months to Understand the Firm's Network
A lateral partner arrives with a professional network and joins a firm with hundreds or thousands of additional relationships. Connecting those networks can create opportunities for both the lateral and existing lawyers.
If the process relies primarily on introductory meetings and informal conversations, some overlaps may take a long time to emerge. Relationship intelligence can help BD teams identify promising connections earlier and make lateral integration more targeted.
During the lateral's first few weeks, identify important clients, former clients, prospects, referral sources and other relationships and compare them with connections already across the firm. Those overlaps can help determine which internal introductions are most useful and where early business development opportunities may exist.
6. Business Development Teams Spend Significant Time Finding Basic Relationship Information
BD professionals may know that someone at the firm has worked with a company or met a particular executive, yet finding the details can require searching several systems and contacting multiple people.
Reducing that research burden gives BD teams more time for strategy, coaching, opportunity development and other higher-value work. It also allows them to respond more quickly when lawyers need information before a meeting or pitch.
Keep track of the questions the BD team repeatedly spends time answering. "Who knows this person?" "Who has worked with this company?" and "Do we have a relationship here?" are good examples. Repeated questions can help identify where easier access to relationship information would have the greatest practical value.
7. The Firm Has a CRM, Yet Lawyers Still Need More Relationship Context
A CRM can contain extensive contact and client information, while lawyers may still need additional answers about the relationships behind those records. They want to know who knows the person, the strength of the connection and whether there has been recent interaction.
Relationship intelligence can complement the information firms already maintain by helping users understand connections and context. This can make existing data more useful for everyday business development.
Look at the questions lawyers ask after they have already checked the CRM. Those questions can help identify what additional context they need and where relationship intelligence could complement the firm's existing systems.
How Can Law Firms Improve Relationship Intelligence?
A useful first step is identifying the questions lawyers and BD teams repeatedly ask and evaluating how difficult those questions are to answer. Firms can then look at the information they already have, where it resides and how easily people can connect it.
One practical exercise is to choose several recent business development situations, such as a pitch, prospect meeting, client team discussion and lateral integration, and trace how relationship information was gathered for each one. Look at how many systems were searched, how many people were contacted, how long the process took and whether important connections were discovered too late to be useful.
That gives the firm a much clearer picture of where relationship intelligence can improve the business development process.
Gatsby helps law firms make relationship information more accessible by giving lawyers and business development teams greater visibility into connections across the organization. This can support pitches, prospecting, client development, lateral integration and succession planning while helping firms make more practical use of their collective networks.
Frequently Asked Questions About Relationship Intelligence
Is relationship intelligence the same as CRM?
The two can work together, but they serve different purposes. A CRM organizes information about contacts and interactions, while relationship intelligence helps users understand connections among people and the context surrounding those relationships.
Why is relationship intelligence important for large law firms?
As a firm grows, its collective network becomes much larger and harder for any individual lawyer or BD professional to understand. Relationship intelligence can help connect relationships across practices, offices and lawyers so useful connections are easier to identify.
How can relationship intelligence help business development teams?
Relationship intelligence can reduce manual relationship research, help teams prepare for pitches and meetings, identify possible paths into prospects and give BD professionals more information to use when helping lawyers determine their next steps.