How to say in cover letter that I am interested in business development? Forum

[Anonymous User]

The title says it all: I am just a junior asso but always interested in business development. I have extensive business experience prior to law school and I speak fluently a foreign lanuguage (one of Asian languages) I am more interested in mid-sized firms.

Can anyone suggest a concise yet humble way to indicate that I want to do biz dev in addition to normal asso leg work? ( so the key is that I dont wanna cone across as an asso who has tons of life experience and doesnt wanna work for senior assos and partners)

[2013]

Don’t do that. As a junior associate, your job is to do grunt work. A lot of associates come in with years of industry experience and many more associates are fluent/native in Mandarin/Japanese/Korean. You’re not some special case. I don’t think you offer as much in terms of business development as you think.

AFTER you get the job, maybe you can discuss this with partners. But don’t risk not even getting an interview.

[Npret]

The title says it all: I am just a junior asso but always interested in business development. I have extensive business experience prior to law school and I speak fluently a foreign lanuguage (one of Asian languages) I am more interested in mid-sized firms.

Can anyone suggest a concise yet humble way to indicate that I want to do biz dev in addition to normal asso leg work? ( so the key is that I dont wanna cone across as an asso who has tons of life experience and doesnt wanna work for senior assos and partners)

The best way to do this is to show what business you have already developed. If you have none, then don’t mention it because it won’t benefit you as the poster above explained.

[Bllljd115]

Agree with the above poster. I've found that there are a lot of differing views on business development based on personalities and firm culture. Some partners view "business development" as maintaining a good reputation within the firm and doing good work as it comes in, thus placing yourself in a position to inherit institutional clients or cross-sell within the firm. Other partners are more natural marketers and go out and try to generate new clients. You should wait to get to the firm, find out who the partners in the latter category are, and try to work for them and be involved in their biz dev efforts.

[Anonymous User]

Agree with all posters above. Junior associates in biglaw who think they can do biz dev are categorically insufferable to me.

If you actually have a client or have done biz dev successfully in the past, you can mention that but honestly, nobody cares and you're just wasting space on the cover letter.

[kaiser]

The title says it all: I am just a junior asso but always interested in business development. I have extensive business experience prior to law school and I speak fluently a foreign lanuguage (one of Asian languages) I am more interested in mid-sized firms.

Can anyone suggest a concise yet humble way to indicate that I want to do biz dev in addition to normal asso leg work? ( so the key is that I dont wanna cone across as an asso who has tons of life experience and doesnt wanna work for senior assos and partners)

Then mention your entrepreneurial background and business experience. And that will convey the message that you have client/business experience. But don't literally say that you are interested in biz development. Sure, its great that you are conscious of that side of legal practice, but as a junior associate, that isn't what you are there for.

[Anonymous User]

Junior partner in biglaw here. I disagree with the advice in this thread to an extent. I agree that if the poster comes off as suggesting that s/he is a business development unicorn and intends to hit the ground running by generating tons of new clients singlehandedly, that will strike the wrong note (unless OP has a history of doing this already, in which case they should probably find a firm to promote them to partner early).

That said, frankly, most associates are strikingly disinterested in business development because it requires non-billable expenditures of time. They don't volunteer for (or try to avoid) pitches; they wouldn't write an article or spend time working a networking event if it hit them over the head. An associate who is generally interested in helping with these tasks and who'd volunteer for them with enthusiasm would be a positive in my book. And I totally disagree with the idea that a junior associate's job has nothing to do with business development or that they have nothing to offer on that front (heaven help me if I had to finalize a pitch submission without juniors...) Even if that were true (it is not), today's juniors are tomorrow's seniors, and all too soon, firms will expect them to have not just an interest in, but demonstrated proficiency in, business development if they want to remain in firm practice.

I wouldn't overdo it in your cover letter, OP. If you have a track record of contributing to successful BD, a sentence or two will do. "I am passionate about business development, have participated in three successful pitches to date for [significant type of matter], and would look forward to supporting the partners' business generation efforts" would be plenty in my book. That'd be a positive if I saw it in a cover letter. Otherwise, you can raise it during your interview. I don't think it needs to be in your cover letter or will make a massive difference if it is. But I think it's fine to ask about during interviews. I'm just having a hard time picturing partners having a negative reaction to an associate candidate sincerely expressing interest in contributing to the practice group's business development efforts, unless the person comes across as totally clueless about business development and/or having an outsize view of their immediate potential contributions.

[2013]

Junior partner in biglaw here. I disagree with the advice in this thread to an extent. I agree that if the poster comes off as suggesting that s/he is a business development unicorn and intends to hit the ground running by generating tons of new clients singlehandedly, that will strike the wrong note (unless OP has a history of doing this already, in which case they should probably find a firm to promote them to partner early).

That said, frankly, most associates are strikingly disinterested in business development because it requires non-billable expenditures of time. They don't volunteer for (or try to avoid) pitches; they wouldn't write an article or spend time working a networking event if it hit them over the head. An associate who is generally interested in helping with these tasks and who'd volunteer for them with enthusiasm would be a positive in my book. And I totally disagree with the idea that a junior associate's job has nothing to do with business development or that they have nothing to offer on that front (heaven help me if I had to finalize a pitch submission without juniors...) Even if that were true (it is not), today's juniors are tomorrow's seniors, and all too soon, firms will expect them to have not just an interest in, but demonstrated proficiency in, business development if they want to remain in firm practice.

I wouldn't overdo it in your cover letter, OP. If you have a track record of contributing to successful BD, a sentence or two will do. "I am passionate about business development, have participated in three successful pitches to date for [significant type of matter], and would look forward to supporting the partners' business generation efforts" would be plenty in my book. That'd be a positive if I saw it in a cover letter. Otherwise, you can raise it during your interview. I don't think it needs to be in your cover letter or will make a massive difference if it is. But I think it's fine to ask about during interviews. I'm just having a hard time picturing partners having a negative reaction to an associate candidate sincerely expressing interest in contributing to the practice group's business development efforts, unless the person comes across as totally clueless about business development and/or having an outsize view of their immediate potential contributions.

I would take what junior partner is saying with a grain of salt. You’d be a goldmine for a junior partner trying to build a book of business. A lot of firms don’t allow junior associates any share in earnings from business development (just some bonus situation). So, if you have a junior (presumably non-equity) partner trying to build his own book as your mentor, he may take your hard earned work.

I could be wrong, but the junior partners I work with are thirsty for that BD.

[Anonymous User]

I would take what junior partner is saying with a grain of salt. You’d be a goldmine for a junior partner trying to build a book of business. A lot of firms don’t allow junior associates any share in earnings from business development (just some bonus situation). So, if you have a junior (presumably non-equity) partner trying to build his own book as your mentor, he may take your hard earned work.

I could be wrong, but the junior partners I work with are thirsty for that BD.

I'm the previous junior partner. This post reflects a couple of recurring incorrect assumptions on TLS. First, the practice of assuming that posters (especially posters with any degree of seniority) are male and/or defaulting to male pronouns, especially for those in positions of authority (partners, judges, etc.) is sexist and needs to stop yesterday. I happen to be female. More broadly, partner != male.

Less problematic, but still inaccurate: "junior partner" is not necessarily synonymous with "non-equity partner." I am an equity partner. Based on the conventional wisdom, I assumed even when I made partner that my firm was an outlier in promoting directly to equity partner, but after comparing notes with my friends at other firms, I've learned that several other firms within the top 25-30 firms (measuring by AmLaw/Vault) also promote straight to equity. I mention this because it's generally good, but potentially surprising, news for people interested in biglaw partnership.

As for the substance of 2013's post, it is absolutely true that any junior associate that wants to work on BD would be a resource ("goldmine" is significantly overselling it) for a partner working on building their book of business. I frankly am not aware of a single top-shelf biglaw firm that gives associates (let alone junior associates) a share in earnings from business development, as opposed to a bump in bonus. So if the OP's question had been "How can I ensure that I receive an equity reward for my work on business development?" then 2013's response would be on point. Likewise, if OP's question was, "How can I ensure that no partner ever benefits from (or takes any level of ownership of) business development work I contribute as an associate?" then I suppose 2013's response would be on point, although it doesn't really offer a solution. Of course, if OP had asked either of those things, the other posters in this thread would have pilloried him or her for being truly naive.

But OP's question was how to convey in a cover letter that he or she is interested in business development, while still making clear that they are happy to support senior associates and partners. A junior associate who wants to convey this presumably is trying to impress the people participating in the hiring decision favorably (and junior partners who are "thirsty for that BD" definitely are within the demographic participating in hiring decisions). So my advice stands. If OP instead was seeking to make sure that they were the only (or primary) beneficiary of their business development hours in the first few years of practice, then the advice would have to be to hang out a shingle or go to a small law, EWYK firm.

[Npret]

Junior partner your advice is exactly what we said. If you have business development - show it. Otherwise leave it out of your cover letter.

[nixy]

I think junior partner was responding specifically to 2013, not challenging the advice everyone else had been giving.

[2013]

I think junior partner was responding specifically to 2013, not challenging the advice everyone else had been giving.

Agreed.