How Gatsby Aware and Intel Help Law Firms of Every Size Find and Develop Business

A five-lawyer boutique, a 150-lawyer regional firm and a global law firm with thousands of lawyers have very different resources, organizational structures and business development priorities. The smaller firm may rely heavily on the personal networks of its founding partners, while the midsize firm may be trying to coordinate relationships across several offices and practices. A large firm may have substantial information about its clients and prospects but struggle to connect that knowledge across the organization.

Despite these differences, all three firms face a similar challenge. They need to understand the people and companies they want to work with, recognize relevant business developments and identify the relationships that can help them begin or expand a conversation.

Gatsby's Intel and Aware products are designed to support these complementary areas of business development. Intel focuses on gathering and understanding business intelligence, while Aware focuses on making professional relationships more visible and useful.

Together, these capabilities can help firms connect what they know about a company with what they know about the people associated with it. How that information is used will depend on the firm's size, resources and business development objectives.

Understanding the Different Roles of Gatsby Intel and Aware

Business development research generally involves two related questions. What is happening at a company that might create an opportunity for legal services, and who does the firm know who could help it understand or pursue that opportunity?

Intel addresses the business intelligence side of this process. Research into companies, industries, leadership changes and other developments can help lawyers and business development professionals understand an organization's circumstances and identify reasons for a relevant conversation.

Aware addresses the relationship side. Understanding existing connections across the firm can help lawyers identify colleagues who know particular people, determine where introductions may be possible and coordinate outreach.

Consider a company that announces an acquisition. Business intelligence can help the firm understand the transaction, the companies involved and the potential legal implications. Relationship intelligence can help identify lawyers who know the company's executives, investors or other relevant contacts.

Connecting those perspectives gives the firm a more complete starting point. The business development team can assess the opportunity, identify relevant lawyers and determine whether outreach would be appropriate.

The value of these capabilities becomes clearer when examining how they can support firms at different stages of growth.

How a Small Law Firm Can Use Gatsby Intel and Aware

Small law firms often have strong personal relationships but limited time and resources for business development research. A founding partner may know numerous executives, former colleagues and referral sources, yet much of that knowledge may exist primarily in the partner's personal contacts and memory.

The firm may also lack a dedicated business development department. Lawyers are responsible for identifying prospects, preparing for meetings, maintaining relationships and performing client work.

For these firms, business development technology needs to support a focused approach that can be maintained without a large administrative commitment.

Using Intel to identify relevant opportunities

Imagine a 12-lawyer corporate boutique that wants to develop more relationships with privately held businesses in its region.

The lawyers have identified several industries where they have relevant experience, but they have limited time to research companies individually. Intel can support their research by helping them understand prospective companies and relevant business developments.

The firm might focus on companies that are expanding, making acquisitions, changing leadership or entering new markets. These developments can provide useful context for outreach when they align with the firm's capabilities.

Instead of researching a large, unfocused prospect list, the lawyers can concentrate on a smaller group of companies where there may be a relevant business reason to establish a relationship.

Using Aware to make better use of existing connections

The same boutique may have a valuable network through its partners' previous firms, former clients, professional organizations and personal contacts.

Before approaching a prospective company, Aware can support the process of identifying whether someone at the firm already has a connection to its leadership.

For example, one partner may know the company's chief financial officer from a previous engagement, while another may have worked with its general counsel several years earlier.

Understanding these relationships can help the firm decide whether a personal introduction would be more appropriate than an unsolicited email.

How the products work together for a small firm

The boutique identifies a growing company through its business intelligence research. The lawyers then examine their existing relationships to determine whether anyone knows the company's executives or advisers.

A partner discovers an established connection and reaches out to reconnect, using the company's recent expansion as context for the conversation.

The firm can pursue a focused opportunity using relevant research and an existing relationship without requiring an extensive marketing campaign or a large business development team.

For a small firm, the practical benefit is making more informed decisions about where to spend limited business development time.

How a Midsize Law Firm Can Use Gatsby Intel and Aware

Midsize firms often reach a point where business development becomes more complicated. They may have several offices, multiple practice groups and a growing number of clients, prospects and referral relationships.

Individual partners may know their own contacts well, but they may have limited visibility into relationships maintained by colleagues in other offices or practices.

The business development team may also be responsible for supporting numerous lawyers while balancing pitches, events, client development and marketing initiatives.

At this stage, coordinating information across the firm becomes increasingly important.

Using Intel to support targeted growth

Consider a 200-lawyer firm with corporate, litigation, employment and real estate practices. The firm wants to expand its work with healthcare companies and private equity-backed businesses.

Intel can support research into target companies, relevant industries and business developments that may create opportunities for the firm's lawyers.

A healthcare company announcing an acquisition may have transactional needs, while a growing portfolio company may encounter employment, regulatory or commercial issues.

The business development team can use this information to develop more focused prospect lists, prepare for meetings and identify opportunities that align with the firm's experience.

Research can also support existing client development. When a client expands into a new market or announces a significant business change, the team can evaluate whether the development creates a reason for the relationship partner to reconnect.

Using Aware to connect lawyers across the firm

A midsize firm's collective network may contain relationships that individual partners have never encountered.

A corporate lawyer in one office may be pursuing a company whose general counsel knows a litigation partner in another office. A newly hired lateral may have relationships with executives at companies the firm has been targeting for several years.

Aware can help the firm identify relevant connections and understand the context surrounding those relationships.

This information can support introductions, pitch preparation and collaboration across practices. It can also help business development professionals coordinate outreach when several lawyers have connections to the same organization.

How the products work together for a midsize firm

The business development team identifies a private equity-backed healthcare company that has announced plans to expand into several new states.

Intel supports research into the company, its ownership and the business development.

Aware helps the team identify existing connections to the company's executives, investors and other relevant contacts.

The team discovers that a corporate partner has previously worked with an executive at the company, while an employment partner has a relationship with someone at the private equity sponsor.

With that information, the business development team can coordinate with both lawyers, determine whether outreach is appropriate and prepare a conversation around the company's potential legal needs.

For a midsize firm, the opportunity is to make business development more coordinated across offices and practices while giving a relatively lean team better information to support its lawyers.

How a Large Law Firm Can Use Gatsby Intel and Aware

Large law firms face a different set of challenges. They may have extensive CRM records, experience databases, financial information, pitch histories and relationships spanning multiple countries and industries.

The difficulty often comes from the scale of the information and the number of people involved.

A partner in New York may be pursuing a company whose executives have longstanding relationships with lawyers in London, Boston or San Francisco. Another practice may already perform work for a subsidiary, while a recently hired lateral may have represented the parent company at a previous firm.

The firm may possess much of the information needed to understand the opportunity, but connecting it across offices, practices and systems can require considerable research.

Using Intel to support strategic client and prospect development

A global firm may have dedicated industry teams, key client programs and extensive lists of priority prospects.

Intel can support research into companies, industries and business developments relevant to those initiatives.

For example, a private equity team may be researching a sponsor's portfolio companies, investment activity and recent acquisitions. A technology team may be examining expansion activity among existing clients, while an industrials team may be researching companies entering new markets.

Business intelligence can help these teams understand relevant developments and prepare more informed recommendations for their lawyers.

The information can also support pitches, client meetings and account planning by giving business development professionals a clearer understanding of the companies involved.

Using Aware to understand the firm's collective network

At a large firm, relationship visibility can be particularly valuable because important connections may exist far beyond the immediate practice team.

Aware can help identify relationships across lawyers, clients and contacts, providing context for prospect outreach and client development.

A partner pursuing a major corporation may discover that colleagues in several offices know members of its leadership team. Another lawyer may have an established relationship with a board member, while a lateral partner may have worked with the general counsel at a previous organization.

Understanding these connections can help the business development team identify relevant colleagues and coordinate a firmwide approach.

Relationship intelligence can also support client succession planning by helping leadership understand where important connections are concentrated and which other lawyers have relationships within a client organization.

How the products work together for a large firm

Consider a global law firm that wants to expand its relationship with a major private equity sponsor.

Intel supports research into the sponsor's investment activity, portfolio companies and relevant business developments. The team identifies several portfolio companies that may have legal needs aligned with the firm's capabilities.

Aware helps the firm examine its relationships with the sponsor's investment professionals, operating team and portfolio company executives.

The research reveals that lawyers in different offices have relevant connections, including a funds partner who knows the sponsor's leadership and a corporate partner who previously advised one of its portfolio company executives.

The business development team can bring this information together, consult the relationship holders and coordinate an approach involving the appropriate lawyers and practices.

For a large firm, the benefit is the ability to connect information and relationships across a complex organization, supporting more coordinated client development and better use of the firm's collective knowledge.

Different Firm Sizes, Different Business Development Priorities

The practical applications of Intel and Aware vary depending on the firm's resources and objectives.

A small firm may use the products to research a focused group of prospects and identify personal connections that could support introductions. A midsize firm may use them to coordinate outreach across practices and develop relationships with companies in priority industries. A large firm may use them to support strategic account planning, cross-practice collaboration and research across a much broader network.

The underlying business development process remains similar. Firms need to understand the company, identify relevant relationships, evaluate the opportunity and determine the appropriate next step.

The amount of information and the number of people involved may change, but the value of connecting business intelligence with relationship knowledge applies across firms of different sizes.

Making Intel and Aware Part of Everyday Business Development

Technology becomes more useful when it supports the activities lawyers and business development teams already perform.

Before a prospect meeting, the team can research the company and identify existing connections. Before a pitch, it can examine relevant business developments and determine which lawyers have relationships with the decision makers.

When an existing client announces a significant development, the team can evaluate the potential legal implications and coordinate with the appropriate relationship partners.

The same approach can support lateral integration, client succession planning and the development of priority prospect lists.

Gatsby Intel and Aware provide complementary perspectives for these activities by connecting business intelligence with relationship knowledge. Used together, they can help firms approach opportunities with a clearer understanding of both the organization and the people involved.

Whether a firm has five lawyers or 5,000, making better use of its information and relationships can help it develop a more focused and coordinated approach to business development.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between Gatsby Intel and Gatsby Aware?

Intel focuses on business intelligence that helps law firms research companies and understand relevant developments. Aware focuses on relationship intelligence, helping firms identify professional connections and understand the context surrounding those relationships. Together, they support research and preparation for business development activities.

How can small law firms use Gatsby?

Small firms can use business intelligence to research a focused group of prospects and relationship intelligence to identify existing connections that may support introductions. This can help lawyers prioritize business development activities when they have limited time and administrative resources.

How can midsize law firms use Gatsby Intel and Aware?

Midsize firms can use the products to research priority companies, identify relationships across offices and practices and coordinate outreach. This can support prospect development, pitches and collaboration among lawyers who may have relevant connections to the same organization.

How can large law firms use Gatsby?

Large firms can use business and relationship intelligence to support strategic client development, prospect research, pitch preparation and collaboration across practices and offices. Greater visibility into existing connections can also support client relationship management and succession planning.

How do Gatsby Intel and Aware work together?

The two products address complementary business development questions. Intel helps firms understand relevant companies and business developments, while Aware helps them identify relationships connected to those organizations. Combining the information can help lawyers and business development teams develop more informed outreach strategies.

Can Gatsby support existing client growth as well as new business development?

Business and relationship intelligence can support both activities. Firms can research developments affecting existing clients, identify relevant connections and determine whether additional legal needs align with their capabilities. The same information can support prospect research and preparation for new business opportunities.