Over the past few years, the legal market has undergone a profound transformation. Competition is increasing, clients are more sophisticated, international firms have a growing presence, and technology is changing both how legal advice is provided and the expectations of those who seek it.

In parallel, marketing, communication, and business development have gradually ceased to be ancillary functions and now occupy a more prominent place within law firm structures. In Spain, their professionalization has been progressing for several years, allowing many firms to move from support areas to becoming integral parts of the strategic conversation.

Chambers’ recent analysis of the legal market reflects this evolution: technical excellence remains essential, but business acumen, strategic advice, responsiveness, and building long-term relationships are becoming increasingly important.

From my experience in the Spanish market, these are ten practices that I consider especially interesting for Latin American firms that want to face their next stage of growth.

1. Start with the business plan, not the marketing plan

It may seem obvious, but it’s not always the case. Before deciding what content to publish, what event to organize, or what campaign to develop, a firm should have a clear understanding of where it wants to grow, in which areas, sectors, and markets, with which clients, which partners can lead that growth, and what resources it needs.

Marketing, communication, and business development should not define the firm’s strategy on their own, but rather help to execute it. The business plan sets the destination: marketing builds positioning, communication conveys the value proposition, and business development transforms the strategy into relationships and opportunities.

This need for planning becomes even more relevant given the growing interest of investment funds in the legal sector. In Spain, the entry of investment funds into law firms demonstrates how external capital can be used to accelerate growth, invest in technology, attract talent, expand internationally, and explore acquisitions.

For a company that aspires to grow, having a clear strategy ceases to be an internal matter and becomes a condition for knowing where it wants to go, what resources it needs, and how it wants to finance that expansion.

When there’s no clear business plan, these functions can end up being reduced to a series of activities: events, publications, newsletters, rankings, sponsorships, and LinkedIn content. And a busy schedule doesn’t necessarily mean a business strategy.

2. Understand that marketing, communication and business development are different disciplines

Although they work closely together, they are not the same. Communication builds reputation and positioning; marketing develops the brand, content, channels, and campaigns; and business development works on clients, opportunities, markets, sectors, proposals, relationships, and growth.

True professionalization begins when a firm understands the contribution of each discipline and ensures they work in a coordinated manner. An event can be marketing, a media interview can be communications, and a meeting with a strategic client can be business development. When all three areas work together, the result can be far greater than the sum of its parts.

3. Getting to know customers beyond how much they bill

Knowing each client’s revenue is essential, but not enough. A firm should also know which areas they use, their growth potential, which other firms they use, who their main contacts are, how much the relationship depends on a single partner, what new projects they have, and what needs might arise.

Segmentation allows you to identify not only who is important today, but also who could be strategic tomorrow. A client who currently represents modest revenue may be experiencing rapid growth; another who accounts for a significant portion of revenue may pose a risk if the entire relationship depends on a single person.

Knowing the customer is the first step to anticipating their needs, a capability that will become increasingly relevant as the weight of business knowledge and understanding of business objectives in the expectations of Latin American customers increases.

4. Make client listening a regular practice

We shouldn’t wait until a client stops working with the firm to ask them what could have been done better. Client interviews, satisfaction surveys, feedback meetings after significant matters, or regular conversations with in-house legal teams provide insights that are rarely reflected in billing data.

But listening only makes sense if it leads to action. If a client needs greater international coordination, faster responses, better communication about their issues, or a deeper understanding of their business, the firm must be able to turn that information into concrete actions.

True customer listening doesn’t end when feedback is collected. It begins there. Listening to the customer isn’t a marketing initiative; it’s a management tool.

5. Moving from customer loyalty to strategic customer plans

Retaining a client shouldn’t depend solely on the personal relationship between a partner and their contact. Strategic accounts need a plan that considers their key contacts, current services, potential needs, jurisdictions involved, partners who should be involved, and planned projects.

This information allows us to move from a reactive to a proactive relationship. The goal is not simply to ensure the client continues to hire the firm, but to progressively transform it into a more relevant partner for their business.

In a market where customers increasingly value business knowledge and the ability to offer advice aligned with their objectives, this evolution will be decisive.

6. Turn partners into ambassadors of the firm

A law firm’s reputation isn’t built solely by its communications department. The partners are its primary ambassadors, and their participation in conferences, business associations, universities, industry forums, media appearances, and client meetings can, over time, become a source of opportunities.

The key is to do it strategically. Not all partners need to attend every event or constantly post on LinkedIn. But each one should be clear about the position they want to occupy in the market and the relationships they need to build to achieve it.

A relationship built today can become a business opportunity in two years. That’s why networking shouldn’t only be activated when there’s an immediate business need.

7. Stop measuring events by the number of attendees

Events remain an extraordinarily useful tool for law firms, but their success should not be measured solely by attendance.

I recently read a reflection on the importance of networking in a lawyer’s career and how a seemingly casual encounter at an event can end up changing a person’s professional trajectory. The idea struck me as particularly relevant to the legal sector: many opportunities arise from a conversation that happens at the right time and place.

Therefore, the value of an event should also be measured by the relationships it generates and by what happens afterwards: deepening the relationship with certain clients, positioning a partner in a sector, generating new connections, presenting a practice, exploring a market or connecting certain clients with each other.
An event without follow-up can simply be an activity. However, when connected to a customer strategy, positioning, and tracking, it can become a business development tool.

Relational capital also has a unique characteristic: we can’t always anticipate where the next opportunity will lie. A ten-minute conversation with someone who isn’t a client today can turn into a recommendation, an alliance, a new team member, a business opportunity, or even a contact that changes a lawyer’s career path.

In this context, a practice I learned while working with Anglo-Saxon firms also makes sense: dedicating a specific budget to hospitality. It’s not simply about inviting clients to lunch or attending a sporting event together, but about understanding these spaces as an extension of the relationship strategy: building trust, getting to know the client better, and creating opportunities for conversation in contexts beyond the strictly professional.

Hospitality, when well managed, is an investment in relational capital and should have objectives and monitoring, just like any other business development activity.

8. Having senior professionals capable of providing strategic vision

Not all firms need large departments, but even a small firm needs professional expertise to manage these disciplines. This could be a senior director, a small team, or a hybrid model with external resources. The important thing is to have someone who can sit down with the partners and speak their language: the language of business.

The professional in business development, marketing, and communications shouldn’t limit themselves to simply fulfilling requests. Their value also lies in asking strategic questions: why organize an event, which client to develop, which market to explore, what differentiates the offering from the competition, and how to measure the results.

A study by the Legal Marketing Association and Above the Law shows a growing participation of these functions in the strategic planning of firms and a greater involvement in technology.

It is not, therefore, a matter of having more people, but of having the right skills.

9. Use artificial intelligence to support the business

Talking about artificial intelligence in law firms should no longer be limited to its application in legal research or document drafting. There is also enormous potential in business functions.

AI can help analyze customer portfolios, identify opportunities, prepare meetings, study markets, analyze competitive information, personalize content, prepare pitches, synthesize feedback, and automate repetitive tasks.

There is a significant difference between having an AI strategy and making it a business strategy. The debate is evolving from what tools a company can use to how to integrate AI into its processes, customer relationships, and business model.

Juanjo Cano, president of KPMG Spain, has emphasized the importance of people acquiring training and skills in AI and has pointed out that it will be the employees themselves who will not want to work without these tools.

The key is identifying which business problems can be best solved using AI. Even in business development, it can help prepare more relevant conversations with customers by combining information about their business, regulatory updates, activity, and existing relationships.

10. Having a CRM: the firm’s commercial memory

Finally, there is one tool that should be part of the basic infrastructure of any firm that aspires to professionally manage its growth: a CRM.

Not because it’s a sophisticated technology, but because it allows for something much simpler and more relevant: maintaining knowledge about the firm’s relationships. Who knows whom, when was a client last contacted, what issues they have, what opportunities are open, what proposals were submitted, which partners are involved in the relationship, what events they’ve attended, and what additional areas might be relevant.

Without this information, much of the business knowledge remains scattered in agendas, emails and, above all, in the individual memory of the partners.

Thinking that only large firms need a CRM is confusing size with complexity. Precisely when resources are limited, knowing where opportunities lie, protecting existing relationships, and preventing knowledge loss can be even more crucial.

True change is cultural

The ten practices mentioned above have something in common: none of them simply involve purchasing a tool, organizing more events, or publishing more content. The real change is cultural.

It means understanding that a law firm is also a professional services company and that, in addition to providing excellent legal advice, it needs to know its market, understand its clients, manage its relationships, build a brand, develop opportunities, attract talent, invest in technology, and anticipate changes.

Latin America doesn’t need to copy the Spanish model. Its markets and structures are different, and each firm must find its own path. But Spain offers valuable lessons at a time when the legal industry is rapidly evolving: from the professionalization of marketing, communications, and business development to the influx of external capital and the adoption of new technologies.

Artificial intelligence is proving to be one of the major drivers of this transformation. As Juanjo Cano has pointed out, AI training and the development of new skills will be fundamental to navigating this change.

The challenge for firms is not to replace legal knowledge, but to complement it with new capabilities that allow them to better understand their clients’ businesses, build stronger relationships, make better use of information, and leverage technology to offer increasingly sophisticated services.

Legal excellence will continue to be at the heart of law firms. The difference will increasingly lie in everything they are able to build around it.

By Tatiana López Molina
Director of Business Development, Marketing and Communication specializing in the legal sector