Client Development
Best practices from 27 law firm experts
In most firms, the BD culture is more my default than by design. CultureShift® is the operating system that makes it intentional, combining retreats, training, coaching, and BD Buddy into one orchestrated program that turns growth into a firmwide habit.
The Four Pillars
Orchestrated by CultureShift®
260+ Firms
Cultures shaped firmwide
50%+ Am Law 200
Have engaged Freeman
10,000+ Lawyers
Trained, coached, certified
30+ Years
Refining the operating system
Typical firm culture is a hodgepodge of fits and starts, more siloed than synchronized, more Frankenstein than Formula One.
The cost compounds quietly: missed originations, lost cross-sales, disengaged partners, and lawyers who never become the rainmakers they could be.
Culture Killers
noun, singular: culture killer
The organizational dysfunctions that silently cap a firm's revenue ceiling, and that the right operating system obliterates.
Silo mentalities
Lackluster cross-selling
Poor communication
Under-trained lawyers
Lack of internal trust
Misaligned compensation
Inconsistent client service
Minimal accountability
Unclear goals and measures
Inefficient teams
Poorly trained leaders
Lack of follow-through
The Opportunity
The firms that win are the ones that stop treating BD culture as an accident, and start engineering it deliberately, across every lawyer, every quarter, every year.
CultureShifters are the leaders, partners, and BD professionals inside a firm who carry the new operating system forward when the outside engagement ends.
Ask yourself
How many CultureShifters live in your firm today, and how many will, twelve months from now?
01
Powerful change agents who create great places to work, delight clients, and awaken the rainmaking superpowers within their lawyers.
02
Obliterate obstacles, inspire action, and move people from today toward a better tomorrow.
03
Develop other CultureShifters who together create a high-performing workplace.
Each Freeman product is best-in-class on its own. CultureShift® is what happens when you sequence them, integrate them, and run them as one program, so the impact compounds instead of evaporating.
How the pillars compound
Assessment
Culture XRay®
The firmwide diagnostic reveals where you stand today, so every pillar that follows targets the right obstacles.
Strategy
Retreats
Leadership aligns, the firm commits, the direction is set.
Skill & Practice
BookBuilder® · Coaching
Every lawyer learns the same proven curriculum, then coaching turns skill into action in the field.
Habit
BD Buddy
AI-enabled tracking embeds new behaviors as daily habits.
CultureShift® engagements are sequenced so each phase feeds the next, from a focused diagnostic to a multi-year firmwide build-out.
Phase 01
Diagnose
Culture XRay® firmwide assessment plus leadership interviews. Get a clear picture of the BD culture you have today.
Phase 02
Design
Co-design a CultureShift® plan that sequences retreats, training, coaching, and BD Buddy around your specific obstacles and goals.
Phase 03
Launch
Open with a leadership retreat to align the partnership, set the theme, and capture firmwide commitments to the work.
Phase 04
Train
Deploy Lawyer BookBuilder® across cohorts so every lawyer learns the same proven BD frameworks and language.
Phase 05
Expand
Expand coaching, Lawyer BookBuilder and BD Buddy to more lawyers and cohorts. Scale what works across the firm.
Phase 06
Sustain
Internal CultureShifters trained, dashboards reviewed quarterly, and the operating system handed off so the culture continues to compound.
See how it feels to shift your culture
Every CultureShift® is custom-designed. These are the three shapes our engagements typically take, depending on how much of the system your firm wants to deploy in year one.
Assessment & planning
FocusShift
A focused diagnostic engagement that gives leadership an honest read on the BD culture today and a credible plan for the year ahead.
What's included
Culture XRay® firmwide assessment
Leadership interviews & data review
Culture findings presented to the partnership
CultureShift® plan & sequencing
Best for
Firms exploring CultureShift or evaluating where to invest first.
Targeted upgrade
PracticeShift
Concentrate the four pillars on two or three Key Accelerators, usually cross-selling, lateral integration, or rainmaker development, and produce a measurable lift inside one fiscal year.
What's included
Targeted retreats & working sessions
Lawyer BookBuilder® for the priority cohort
1:1 coaching for the people who matter most
BD Buddy deployment for tracked accountability
Best for
Firms that need a specific result on a specific timeline.
Firmwide transformation
FirmShift
The full CultureShift®: a coordinated, firmwide build-out of strategy, skill, practice, and habit, designed to make business development part of how the firm operates, permanently.
What's included
Firmwide diagnostic + leadership planning
Leadership & rainmaker retreats
Lawyer BookBuilder® across cohorts
Coaching for partners, leaders & laterals
BD Buddy firmwide for habits & analytics
Internal CultureShifters trained to sustain
Best for
Firms ready to make BD a permanent firmwide capability.
In the AI era, winning is less about drafting documents and more about relationships, trust, and consistent follow-through. Model what a few more engagements from new clients and cross-sells could mean for your firm.
Your firm today
Number of lawyers
Average value per engagement
Model a modest uptick
Additional engagements per lawyer per year, whether from a new client or a cross-sell inside an existing relationship.
New client engagements
A new client relationship that turns into billable work.
+0.25 engagements
avg per lawyer / year
Cross-sold engagements
New work opened inside an existing client relationship.
+0.25 engagements
avg per lawyer / year
At +0.5 engagements per lawyer, that's roughly 100 new engagements firmwide each year.
Projected incremental revenue
$5,000,000
100 more engagements × $50K each. Small shifts in activity, firmwide, add up fast.
New client engagements
50 engagements firmwide
$2.50M
Cross-sold engagements
50 engagements firmwide
$2.50M
The math is simple
200 lawyers × +0.5 engagements each × $50K = $5,000,000 in new revenue.
That kind of upside comes from building BD capability across every lawyer in the firm, not just a handful of rainmakers.
“Culture trumps strategy every time, and David helps law firms build the right one.”
He's been recognized by the National Law Journal and for over two decades has worked with hundreds of law firms helping them create collaborative teams that propel revenue. He helps law firms create a culture of business development, and in many instances, culture will trump strategy every time. You should get in touch with him if you want to take your firm to the next level.
Cole Silver, Esq.
Chief Client Officer, Blank Rome LLP
“Our firm has consulted with David for many years to improve our culture of business development and general firm leadership. He is knowledgeable, experienced and fun to work with. He is extremely strong on implementation, follow up and accountability.”
Susan Brewer, Esq.
CEO, Steptoe & Johnson PLLC
“Over the six years we have worked with David, he has established a high level of trust and credibility with our management team and lawyers. The result is that all of our practice groups have been able to get more buy-in, action in the right direction, continued momentum, and most important, additional business.”
Rhea F. Law
Former President & CEO, Fowler White Boggs
“We have worked with David over several months to launch a client service and cross-selling initiative. His innovative mix of providing virtual training, consulting with our leadership team and administrative staff, gamification and a deep focus on driving ongoing implementation have delivered tremendous results.”
Jessica Lyon
Executive Assistant, Vicente Sederberg LLP
Managing partners & executive committees
Leaders ready to set a firmwide BD direction
You want every partner, associate, and BD professional pulling in the same direction, and a credible plan to get them there.
Practice group & office leaders
Leaders who must grow revenue through other lawyers
You need your group to behave like a team that grows revenue, not a collection of solo practices that happen to share a hallway.
BD, marketing & talent leaders
Professionals carrying the firmwide BD program
You want a partner who brings the operating system, the credibility, and the tooling, and who multiplies your internal team instead of replacing it.
David's books are used by law firm leaders and lawyers across the profession. Practical guides grounded in decades of work inside the firms that hire Freeman.
16
Books published
2
National bestsellers
30+
Years in print
Client Development
Best practices from 27 law firm experts
Cross-Serving®
Maximize firmwide cross-selling
Leadership
Leading a culture of business development
A thirty-minute call with David is enough to determine whether CultureShift® is the right fit for your firm, and which pillars to deploy first.