Five questions partners ask about growing a law firm

Earlier this year the Law Society of Ireland asked me to write two of its Practice Essentials workbooks for solicitors. Writing them meant sitting with the questions partners actually ask, rather than the ones marketing people prefer to answer.

Five came up more than any others. The answers below are drawn from both guides, which are published by the Law Society and free to every member firm.

1. How much time does this actually take?

One to two hours a week.

That is the figure both guides are built around, because anything heavier does not survive a busy month. The structure is a fixed weekly hour that rotates through four things: client contact, referral outreach, content, and review. The same hour, in the diary, treated like a client meeting.

The arithmetic is worth doing once. An average client is worth somewhere between €6,000 and €10,000 to a firm over the life of the relationship. Four hours a month pays for itself if it produces one new client a quarter.

The guides are blunt about the weeks when even that is impossible. Fifteen minutes is infinitely better than zero minutes.

2. Where does new work actually come from?

Referrals, still. What has changed is what happens next.

The path now runs referral, Google search, website check, LinkedIn scan, then the decision to make contact. Your referrer does the recommending. Your online presence decides whether the recommendation survives the next four minutes.

Marketing in Practice opens with a five-point Referral Verification Test for exactly this. Does the firm appear on the first page of results for its own name. Is there a photograph on LinkedIn. Is the information consistent across listings. Does the impression online match the impression in person. Is it easy to make contact.

Most firms fail at least one. Over 60% of website visits come from a phone, which is where most of the failures show up.

3. Should we specialise, or stay general?

Being known for something makes a firm easier to refer. Try to be for everyone, and no one will remember you.

This is not a question of turning work away. It is a question of what you lead with. The practical test in Growth in Practice is simple: look for a sector where you already act for five or more clients, in a market with twenty to thirty potential clients in it. The concentration is usually already there, unrecognised.

Medical, hospitality, agriculture and property come up repeatedly in Irish firms. Emerging areas named by solicitors themselves in the Law Society's 2025 survey include AI and legal technology at 27%, technology and cyber law at 21%, and environmental and planning law at 20%.

4. How do I get partners involved?

By accepting that they are not all going to do the same thing.

Growth in Practice sets out three partner roles. The Relationship Builder, who spends twenty to thirty per cent of time on business development. The Technical Expert, who is ninety-five per cent or more billable and should stay that way. The Internal Leader, who holds the firm together.

All three contribute to growth. They contribute differently. A firm that asks every partner to behave like a relationship builder gets resentment and no growth. A firm that names the roles honestly gets both.

Fix internal alignment first. External growth follows. For multi-partner firms the guide sets out a two hour session off site, covering where we are, what we want, what we have agreed, and how we will measure it.

5. How do we know if it is working?

Ask every new client how they heard about you. That single habit tells you more than any dashboard.

Beyond that, the guides track movement rather than activity. The Relationship Ladder has four stages: transaction, repeat, relationship, advocate. Most firms carry too many clients at stage one. The work is moving stage two clients to stage three, and that movement is countable.

One number is worth watching on its own. Enquiry response time. The target is within twenty four hours, ideally four. The fastest responder often wins the instruction, and it costs nothing to be the fastest.

Then a ninety minute review every quarter. What worked, what did not, what changes, and three or four priorities with a name against each.

Both guides are free

Marketing in Practice covers visibility, reputation and consistency through People, Clients and Markets. Growth in Practice covers building sustainable success through the same three. Both are published by the Law Society of Ireland and free to every member firm.

If these questions are on your partners' meeting agenda, I would be happy to talk them through with you.

Marketing in Practice. Visibility, Reputation and Consistency through People, Clients and Markets. Photographs and biographies, LinkedIn, client communications and personas, testimonials and referrals, website and search basics, safe use of AI, and a 90 day plan to get started.

Growth in Practice. Building Sustainable Success through People, Clients, and Markets. Partner roles and internal alignment, the Relationship Ladder, a client contact system, enquiry handling, choosing a sector, and the weekly growth hour.

Both are published by the Law Society of Ireland and free to download.

I work with law firms across Ireland and the UK on exactly this, at managing partner level. If these questions are on your partners’ meeting agenda, I would be happy to talk them through with you.