Attorney Development

What a 90-Day Attorney BD Program Actually Looks Like

Most law firm business development programs are vague by design. Here is what a structured 90-day program actually contains and why the sequence matters more than the content.

Chad Davis, Cross Oceans

When a managing partner asks what a structured attorney business development (BD) program looks like, the answer they usually get is deliberately vague. Concepts. Frameworks. A description of outcomes rather than a description of what actually happens.

That vagueness is a problem on both sides. Firms cannot evaluate what they are buying. Advisors can claim results without being accountable for a specific process. And the attorneys going through the program have no way to know whether what they are experiencing is designed to produce lasting change or just to fill a calendar.

So here is what a 90-day program actually contains.

Phase one: Assessment and targeting (weeks one and two)

The program does not begin with content. It begins with diagnosis. Each attorney in the cohort completes a structured assessment that covers three things: the state of their current pipeline, the BD activities they have already tried, and the marketing department resources they have access to but are not using.

This is not a survey. It is a working session. The output is a one-page targeting document for each attorney: who they are trying to reach, what relationship stage they are currently at with each target, and what support they need from the marketing department to advance the relationship.

Most attorneys have never done this exercise. It is uncomfortable. It also reveals, very quickly, that the reason they are not using the marketing department is not disinterest. It is that they have never had a structured way to think about what to ask for.

Phase two: Skill building (weeks three through six)

This is the training phase. The cohort meets for two structured sessions focused on a single skill: how to brief the marketing department.

That skill has four components. First, the attorney must be able to describe their target with enough specificity that the department can execute against it. Not a practice area. Not an industry. A named relationship at a named organization with a defined context. Second, they must be able to articulate the relationship stage: are they building awareness, deepening an existing relationship, or trying to convert a warm contact into a matter? Third, they must define what they need from the department in the next thirty days. Fourth, they must define how they will know if it worked.

Those four components constitute a brief. Attorneys who can deliver one consistently become productive users of the marketing department. The training phase is where they practice that skill in a structured environment before the coaching phase holds them accountable for doing it in the real one.

“The training is not the program. It is the foundation. What comes after is what determines whether anything changes.”

Phase three: Reinforcement (weeks seven through thirteen)

This is the phase most programs skip. It is also the phase that determines whether the training produced lasting change.

Each attorney in the cohort has a bi-weekly coaching session during the reinforcement phase. The session covers three things: what did they commit to doing in the last two weeks, what actually happened, and what do they need to adjust. The marketing department is included in at least two of these sessions so that the feedback loop is live rather than theoretical.

The reinforcement phase does not need to be long. Ninety days of structured reinforcement is enough to make the briefing behavior habitual for most attorneys. After that, the pattern is self-sustaining because the attorney has experienced enough concrete results from the marketing department to trust that the process works.

What the marketing department does during all of this

The department is not a passive resource in this program. It is an active participant. During the skill-building phase, the marketing director or a designated team member sits in on at least one training session to hear how attorneys are being taught to brief them. During the reinforcement phase, the department responds to attorney briefs within a defined window and provides feedback on whether the brief was specific enough to execute against.

That participation changes the dynamic on both sides. Attorneys stop seeing the department as a service desk that requires a ticket. The department stops seeing attorneys as the obstacle to their work. The program builds the relationship by making both parties accountable to the same process.

Common Questions

What does a 90-day attorney BD program include?

A structured 90-day attorney BD program has three phases. The first phase is assessment and targeting: identifying the attorney's realistic pipeline, clarifying their BD goals, and mapping the marketing department resources available to support them. The second phase is skill building: teaching attorneys how to brief the marketing department, define targets with enough specificity to execute against, and manage a simple 30-day action plan. The third phase is reinforcement: bi-weekly coaching that holds attorneys accountable to their plan and adjusts based on what is actually happening in their practice.

How is a 90-day BD program different from rainmaking training?

Rainmaking training is a one-time event that builds awareness. A 90-day program is a structured sequence that builds skill and then reinforces it in the actual work environment over time. The training is typically one component of the larger program, not the program itself. The difference in outcome is significant: training produces a temporary spike of motivation; a structured program produces behavior that sustains itself after the program ends.

How many attorneys should be in a 90-day BD cohort?

Six to ten attorneys is the range where group accountability works without diluting individual attention. Smaller cohorts lose the peer accountability dynamic. Larger cohorts make it difficult to tailor the program to each attorney's actual practice and pipeline. The cohort structure also matters: mixing practice groups works well for the skill-building phase; the coaching phase is more effective when attorneys are grouped by seniority level.

What does the marketing department's role look like during a 90-day BD program?

The marketing department is an active participant, not a passive resource. During the program, attorneys practice briefing the department with defined targets and outcomes. The department responds with execution and feedback. The coaching layer creates a structured feedback loop between the attorney and the department that does not currently exist at most firms. By the end of 90 days, the pattern of engagement is established as a habit rather than a behavior the program was producing artificially.