At the Law Firm Marketing Summit, there was a high-energy discussion led by Reign Lee (Partner, Keystone Law), with panelists Amelia Stirling (CMO, Burges Salmon) and Rachel Reid (COO, Shoosmiths). They delved into one of the most complex challenges for law firms today: how to connect business development, operations, and culture to drive sustained, profitable growth.

Their central theme: growth is not a marketing initiative, it’s an organisational operating system.

From Data to Direction: How Insight Drives Strategy

Amelia opened with a candid reflection: success depends less on having a big idea and more on how you manage its execution. Her firm’s client experience programme was a case in point , a multi-department collaboration that mapped the full client journey from onboarding to billing. By aligning marketing, finance, IT, and risk teams around shared data, they uncovered pain points and designed measurable improvements.

It was clear, data is not the goal, adoption is. To get buy-in, Amelia emphasised the importance of understanding how different stakeholders think. “Some want the numbers, others want the strategic vision, and some need to see the step-by-step detail. You have to translate the story for each of them.”

For her, stakeholder management is the hidden skill of modern BD leadership  it’s how strategic ideas move from PowerPoint to practice.

Culture as a Growth Engine

Rachel explored the link between operational discipline and firm culture, arguing that the two are inseparable. “You can’t deliver on strategy without embedding it into everyday operations,” she said. Her mantra: “Operational strategy and BD strategy are one.”

She introduced the concept of “weaponising culture”,  identifying which elements to protect and which to evolve. Many firms cling to the idea of a “collegial culture” as a reason to resist change, but Rachel challenged that. “Ask yourself: which parts of your culture genuinely drive collaboration, and which slow you down?”

She illustrated how her firm linked culture directly to performance, tying firmwide bonuses to client  data in their CRM.  Rachel then gave us some numbers that can only be deemed a huge success with data inputs into the CRM going up from a tiny 79 to 22,000 interactions in the first year alone.  “If collaboration is the goal, then measure it, and reward it.” The results are clear, with a sharp rise in client-sharing behaviour and a clearer picture of where cross-selling actually happens.

At Shoosmiths like many firms, Rachel and the firm want more cross-practice collaboration and have fully identified that cross-selling is the biggest issue within law firms.

Execution, Profitability, and Focus

When the conversation turned to execution, Amelia stressed the need for precision: define which projects drive profitable growth, understand true costs (including partner hours), and set micro-milestones. “Not all projects will work, fail fast, pivot faster.”

Rachel closed with a simple but powerful piece of advice for the audience: “priorities on a page.” At the start of each year, the team aligns around three to five non-negotiables, ensuring that new initiatives can only enter if something else exits. “Focus isn’t about doing more, it’s about doing what matters.”

Final Lessons: Influence Through Trust and Action

Asked for their advice to peers, the panelists’ guidance was both human and tactical:

• For those not yet empowered: Become the voice of the client. Use data from listening programmes to earn influence and shape firm strategy.

• For those with a seat at the table: Collaborate early across business services. Diversity of thought, they agreed, creates stronger, faster decisions.

• And for everyone: Build trust through delivery. “Execute brilliantly once,” Reid said, “and you’ll be invited to the next strategy meeting.”

In a profession obsessed with intellect, this panel made the case for something rarer: discipline, collaboration, and courage. Growth isn’t achieved by adding more plans , it’s achieved by executing fewer, better ones, together.