Legal Services · Client Development & BD
Identify and pursue new client opportunities
Trajectories describe the observable direction of human effort — not a prediction about specific roles, headcount, or individual careers.
What You Do Today
Partners track industry developments, monitor RFPs, leverage relationships, and pitch for new work — business development built on reputation and relationships.
AI Technologies
Roles Involved
How It Works
AI monitors trigger events (M&A activity, regulatory actions, litigation filings) that create legal needs, maps firm relationships to opportunities, and scores pursuit likelihood.
What Changes
Business development is proactive; AI identifies companies that just experienced a trigger event and maps your firm's relationship path to them.
What Stays the Same
Building genuine relationships, delivering excellent work that generates referrals, and the personal brand that makes clients choose you.
Cross-Industry Concepts
Evidence & Sources
- •Litera Foundation
- •Introhive
- •Mondaq
Sources listed are directional references, not formal citations. Verify against primary sources before using in business cases or presentations.
Last reviewed: March 2026
What To Do Next
This section won't tell you what your numbers should be. It will show you how to find them yourself. Every instruction below produces a real, verifiable result in your organization. No benchmarks, no projections — just the steps to build your own evidence.
Establish Your Baseline
Know where you are before you move
Before adopting AI tools for identify and pursue new client opportunities, document your current state in client development & bd.
Without a baseline, you can't tell whether AI actually improved identify and pursue new client opportunities or just changed who does it.
Define Your Measures
What to track and how to calculate it
matter cycle time
How to calculate
Measure matter cycle time for identify and pursue new client opportunities before and after AI adoption. Pull from your matter management system.
Why it matters
This is the most direct indicator of whether AI is adding value to client development & bd.
outside counsel spend
How to calculate
Track outside counsel spend using the same methodology you use today. Don't change how you measure just because you changed how you work.
Why it matters
Speed without quality is just faster mistakes. Measure both together.
Start These Conversations
Who to talk to and what to ask
General Counsel or Managing Partner
“What's our plan for AI in client development & bd? Are we piloting, planning, or waiting?”
This tells you whether to experiment quietly or push for formal investment in identify and pursue new client opportunities.
your matter management system administrator or vendor
“What AI capabilities exist in our current matter management system that we're not using? Most platforms are adding AI features faster than teams adopt them.”
The cheapest AI adoption is the features already included in your existing license.
a practitioner in client development & bd at another organization
“Have you deployed AI for identify and pursue new client opportunities? What worked, what didn't, and what would you do differently?”
Peer experience is more useful than vendor demos. Find someone who has actually done this.
Check Your Prerequisites
Confirm readiness before you invest
Check items as you confirm them.
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Technology That Enables This
These architecture components support or enable this AI application.