Session on 24th March 2025
In yesterday’s Platforum9 Session, we were joined by Robert Flint, founder of Adviserly (a boutique network of law firms), who shared insights from his recently published book “Working with Strangers” on how lawyers can build strategic relationships to grow their practice.
With experience as a corporate lawyer who transitioned to creating a network for small firms, Flint offered practical guidance on transforming your professional acquaintances into valuable business relationships.
Beyond Mere Networking
Flint began by emphasising that strategic relationships in law go far deeper than typical networking. “These are people that you have a personal connection with more than just business,” he explained. These relationships not only generate referrals but also make your practice more sustainable by building resilience through trusted connections.
This approach represents a shift from viewing relationships purely in terms of immediate business value to seeing them as long-term investments in both professional success and personal satisfaction. As Flint noted, “They’re not primarily about money, even though that is key. They are about actually liking and trusting the people that you are referring to.”
Identifying Strategic Partners
The first step in building valuable connections is identifying who your strategic partners should be. Flint recommends a systematic approach that balances efficiency with genuine human connection:
- Define client personas – Create detailed profiles of your ideal clients
- Develop referrer personas – Identify who knows your ideal clients and can introduce you to them
- Analyse your existing referral patterns – Track which types of professionals already refer business to you
- Target your efforts – Focus on building relationships with those most likely to refer valuable work
This data-driven approach allows lawyers to be more strategic about where they invest their networking time. Flint shared a practical example: “I’ve got three accountants, they refer me two pieces of work each a year, whereas I know six IFAs and I get one piece of work a year. So your accountants are doing much better than your IFAs in total.”
Finding the Right Space
A key insight from Flint’s approach is the need to attend events where potential referrers, not just potential clients, gather. He observed that many lawyers make the mistake of attending events filled with other lawyers rather than with professionals who might refer business.
“Senior lawyers will send you to the wrong events almost every time,” Flint noted. “I started going to events to look for investors, and at these events… everyone was my sort of target client as a lawyer.”
His advice is to focus on events where your potential clients or referral partners are the “sellers” – places where they are looking to make connections themselves. This creates natural opportunities for meaningful conversations without requiring aggressive sales tactics.
The benefit of this approach is that “it becomes much easier to harvest the work without really being pushy about it,” creating a more enjoyable and authentic networking experience.
Making Meaningful Connections
For many lawyers, especially those who are less extroverted, the personal aspect of networking can be challenging. Flint emphasised that the goal isn’t to connect with everyone but to identify people you genuinely like once you’re in the right setting.
“If you are someone who is shy… you’re probably going to initially look at other shy people to build those quieter relationships, and that’s perfect,” he explained. “I think there’s a misconception that if you are not a wild extrovert, that you shouldn’t be going to events or that you’re no good at them.”
The key is making even one good connection at an event, which then becomes the foundation for future networking. Each subsequent event becomes easier as you gradually build a network of familiar faces.
The Follow-Up: Where Most Networking Fails
Flint highlighted that the follow-up is where most relationship-building efforts collapse. “There’s an awful lot of admin involved in making friends,” he observed. Even with the best intentions to contact people after an event, the demands of billable work often intervene, and those promising connections fade away.
His solution combines human connection with technology, utilising tools like LinkedIn and CRM systems to streamline the follow-up process. He recommends:
- Use LinkedIn’s QR code function to connect immediately
- Send a message referencing what you discussed
- Link LinkedIn to your CRM system to capture contact details
- Set up automated but personalised follow-up emails
- Include a calendar link to schedule further conversation
This system transforms what might take hours of administrative work into a process that takes minutes, dramatically increasing the likelihood of maintaining momentum after initial meetings.
Thought Leadership That Serves Relationships
For lawyers looking to enhance their profile, Flint categorises marketing efforts into “know, like, and trust” marketing. Each piece of content should serve at least one of these goals, with a particular focus on making your value proposition clear.
“The more vague you are, or the more you try to be all things to all people, the harder it will be for your referral partners and your clients to remember,” he noted. Clarity about your expertise makes it easier for referral partners to know exactly when to send work your way.
Even more powerfully, Flint suggests creating content specifically designed to add value for referral partners: “Maybe it’s a guide that you can give your accountants or a webinar or something that they can use with their clients to add value for them.”
The Organisational Challenge
A final challenge for many lawyers is aligning their personal relationship-building with their firm’s strategy. Junior lawyers often face significant constraints, either from narrow specialisation in large firms or dependence on partners in smaller firms.
“At large firms, you are at the mercy of your partner,” Flint observed. “If you’ve got a good partner who loves the business development side of things and is happy to get involved, then great. But there are so many senior lawyers who are kind of reluctant.”
This reality makes it all the more important for lawyers, particularly those early in their careers, to be strategic about relationship-building. By focusing on the right people, attending the right events, and using technology to maintain momentum, even those with limited time and support can begin developing valuable connections.
A Data-Driven Approach
Perhaps the most valuable aspect of Flint’s methodology is its emphasis on systematically gathering and analysing data about networking efforts. Rather than blindly attending events and hoping for results, he encourages lawyers to track which activities lead to genuine opportunities.
As he puts it, “If you go to ten events and you get nobody, no clients or referrals out of it, well I guess the data’s telling you you’re in the wrong event or you’re the wrong person.”
This data-driven mindset transforms networking from a vague, sometimes uncomfortable social obligation into a strategic activity with measurable outcomes. By continuously refining one’s approach based on results, lawyers can build a network that not only generates business but also makes their professional life more enjoyable and sustainable.
For those seeking to build a practice through referrals, Flint’s message is clear: be systematic, be authentic, and focus on relationships that bring both professional value and personal satisfaction. After all, as he concludes, the goal is to stop “working with strangers” and start working with a trusted network of colleagues who make the practice of law more rewarding.
