Pitching Your Firm's Services? Take A Note From Silicon Valley

For all the credit we tend to award ourselves, we could learn a thing or two from our non-lawyer friends in Silicon Valley.

Get ready for your pitch meeting.

If you work at a law firm of any size and think pitching your services to potential clients is painful, believe me, it can be as equally as painful on the receiving end.

In my time, I have sat through countless bad business development lunches that rarely end in me being any more motivated than I was before the lunch to “keep XYZ firm in mind” next time we have an issue. But every once in a while, I genuinely walk away from one of these respective pitches impressed.

Over the past couple of weeks, our company has interviewed several firms ranging from Biglaw to Midlaw for a potential sizable engagement.

Most of these meetings progressed as you might normally expect. The sort of cookie cutter approach I have come to expect of these pitches. A quick mention of who will be responsible for our account, followed by a restatement of representative matters the firm has handled, before ending on the expected length and cost of the engagement. All done over the course of an hour or so that easily could have taken half as much time.

As we subjected ourselves to a marathon of interviews that quickly began to blur together, three in particular stood out amongst the pack, each for a different reason that merits a mention.

Firm 1 was one of the largest firms we asked to meet with. They have one of those names and reputations that usually strikes some fear in opposing counsels everywhere. Candidly, I was most excited for this particular meeting out of all of those which we had scheduled.

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However, shortly after we exchanged pleasantries, it became clear they believed we were the ones who needed to pitch them to get them agree to represent us. After all, why would they reduce themselves to groveling when they, in their minds, were the best and had the upper hand?

Thanks, but no thanks. And onto the next one we went.

Firm 2 was also a well-known and respected Biglaw firm. Although lessor known than Biglaw 1, they had a storied reputation and based on this reputation alone, I was confident they could adequately represent our interests. That is until the partner tasked with pitching their services droned on for 35 minutes… without pause. While they had clearly taken the time to understand the limited facts of the case we had given them, if I tuned out midway through their presentation, I was confident a judge would do the same.

Thankfully, Firm 3, the firm in which I expected the least given their size, saved the day.

Firm 3 used just 13 slides — I counted — to succinctly state their plan for representing us. In those slides, they clearly articulated what team would manage the case, their suggested strategy, and our expected cost. Thirteen slides, I was sold, and they walked out with a deal worth at least six, if not seven, figures.

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While that may sound a bit unorthodox for us in the legal world, such succinct pitches are common in the world of Silicon Valley where the stakes are generally hundreds of millions, or even billions, of dollars. The potential engagement I offered was a mere rounding error when compared to those done on a nearly daily basis in the tech world.

As lawyers, we claim to be the masters of the English language. After all, who can make a larger issue out of what the meaning of “is” is than a lawyer? But for all the credit we tend to award ourselves, we could learn a thing or two from our non-lawyer friends in Silicon Valley.

After all, if Airbnb was reportedly able to raise $4.4 billion off a pitch deck of 13 slides as well, shouldn’t we expect the same of Biglaw?


Stephen R. Williams is in-house counsel with a multi-facility hospital network in the Midwest. His column focuses on a little talked about area of the in-house life, management. You can reach Stephen at stephenwilliamsjd@gmail.com.