By Mitchell Schuckman, PCC | Executive Coach + Founder, The Schuckman Group LLC
A few weeks ago, I was invited to a strategy meeting with the leadership of a professional services firm to help shape its 2027 growth plan. Sitting with the CEO and several senior executives, we debated the best strategy for delivering next year's growth. Did we have the right business developers? Did our pipeline have enough qualified leads? Could we get better information from the CRM, and what could we do to improve conversion rates?
These were all important questions, and we had some productive discussions about them. Yet throughout the meeting, I kept coming back to something I believed deserved considerably more attention: What were we doing to make business development part of everyone's job?
It's a subject I've written about extensively in The Builder Mindset series and one I've been discussing with professional services audiences throughout the past year. Then, last week, the industry witnessed an extraordinary event that brought this issue into sharp focus: the stunning collapse of the major law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges.
How Does a $2 Billion Law Firm Unravel?
On October 28, Weil's management committee recommended winding down the 95-year-old law firm, an institution with approximately 1,200 lawyers, offices around the world, and more than $2 billion in annual revenue.
I read the reports that a significant number of the firm's top partners, several of them rainmakers, left for competitors. Departures accelerated, merger discussions failed, leadership succession became uncertain, and one of America's most prestigious law firms found itself preparing to close its doors.
I want to be careful about drawing conclusions here because I don't know the inner workings of Weil, and I'm certainly not qualified to diagnose everything that went wrong. Still, the impact that the departure of key talent had, and the lack of bench strength to withstand that, raises a question that every professional services leader should be considering.
The Risk of Relying on Rainmakers
Throughout my career, I've seen professional services firms celebrate their rainmakers, and deservedly so. These are the individuals who develop extraordinary client relationships, generate significant revenue, and create opportunities for hundreds of colleagues. Every firm needs people with those capabilities, and the more the better.
The vulnerability emerges when too much of the firm's business development capability, and too many of its most important client relationships, become concentrated in the hands of a relatively small group.
In many organizations, business development is largely the responsibility of senior partners and dedicated sales professionals, while everyone else is expected to deliver excellent work, keep clients satisfied, and meet utilization targets. Over time, an unspoken division develops between those who build the business and those who deliver the work, with relatively little attention devoted to developing the next generation of business generators.
When major rainmakers leave, and the less tenured emerging leaders lack the experience and confidence to develop new business, replacing lost revenue can become an enormous challenge.
I have no way of knowing the extent to which these conditions existed at Weil, but I've seen enough professional services organizations to know that the underlying risk is very real.
Everyone Can Become a Builder
One of the central ideas I've written about in The Builder Mindset is that business development should be a responsibility shared across the organization. That doesn't mean everyone needs to become a rainmaker, and it certainly doesn't mean turning brilliant lawyers, accountants, consultants, and engineers into “used car salespersons”.
It means helping professionals develop the curiosity, awareness, and confidence to recognize opportunities to create additional value for their clients.
Consider the professional who asks a client an additional question about the challenges facing their business, recognizes an emerging issue and offers a useful observation, or introduces a colleague whose expertise could help address a problem outside the current engagement. None of these activities requires a formal sales pitch, yet each strengthens a relationship and creates an opportunity to contribute something meaningful.
These interactions happen every day, during ordinary client conversations, project meetings, and follow-up calls. When professionals begin approaching those conversations with a broader understanding of the client's business, they become more valuable advisers while developing the instincts and relationships that may eventually make them successful business generators.
Now imagine the cumulative impact if hundreds or thousands of professionals throughout an organization approached their client relationships with that mindset. Beyond the immediate opportunities for growth, think about the depth of business development talent the organization would be building for the future.
Hunt in Packs, Protect Client Relationships
There are two principles I've emphasized throughout my career that are particularly relevant to this discussion: first, hunting in packs wins more clients; and second, treat existing clients like cherished possessions.
Professional services firms possess extraordinary expertise, often spread across multiple practices, geographies, and disciplines, yet too many clients experience only a fraction of what their advisers can offer. When professionals collaborate to understand a client's business, share insights across disciplines, and bring the right colleagues into important relationships, they create opportunities to deliver greater value while strengthening the connection between the client and the broader organization.
That last point is especially important because a relationship built around one extraordinary individual can become vulnerable when that person decides to leave. A client who knows and trusts several senior professionals, values the contributions of an entire team, and regularly benefits from the firm's broader capabilities has more reasons to maintain the relationship through a leadership transition.
The same thinking applies to protecting existing clients, something I believe deserves as much attention as pursuing new ones. I've seen organizations devote enormous energy to winning new business while assuming their longstanding relationships are secure because the client is satisfied, likes the relationship leader, and continues to renew its engagements.
But client loyalty requires ongoing investment, including fresh ideas, meaningful conversations about emerging priorities, and deliberate efforts to develop relationships across multiple people in both organizations. These activities strengthen the relationship today while helping protect the organization against the inevitable changes in people and leadership that occur over time.
The Question Every CEO Should Ask
I keep thinking about that 2027 growth planning session I attended a few weeks ago and the questions we were asking about pipelines, conversion rates, CRM information, and the effectiveness of our business developers. Those are essential elements of any serious growth plan, and organizations should absolutely be investing in them.
But I wonder how many leadership teams spend comparable time discussing how to develop the business development capabilities of the hundreds or thousands of professionals who interact with their clients every day. How many are deliberately building the next generation of rainmakers, encouraging professionals to hunt in packs, and making sure their most important client relationships extend well beyond a single individual?
Here's a question I'd encourage every CEO and managing partner to consider: What would happen if some of our very best rainmakers left tomorrow?
How many others could step forward to help protect and grow the business? How deeply connected are your most important clients to the broader firm, and how many of your rising professionals are already developing the relationships and instincts they'll need to become future business generators?
The events at Weil should prompt every professional services leader to examine those questions, regardless of the circumstances that ultimately led to the firm's collapse.
An organization can spend decades building an extraordinary reputation, recruiting exceptional talent, serving prestigious clients, and generating billions in revenue. Yet when too much of its future depends on too few people, that organization may be considerably more fragile than anyone realizes.
And by the time that fragility becomes apparent, it may be too late.
Sources
Reuters, October 28, 2026: Weil Gotshal law firm plans to dissolve, capping dizzying fall
Reuters, October 29, 2026: What’s next for law firm Weil Gotshal as it plans dissolution
Further Reading
The Builder Mindset: Winning the War for Clients in Professional Services
A collection of 15 articles exploring how professionals develop stronger client relationships, create value, and contribute to business growth.
Explore The Builder Mindset series
The e-book is available for free just by sending me a personal email: mitchell@theschuckmangroup.com
The views expressed in this article are my own. My observations regarding Weil, Gotshal & Manges are based on publicly available reporting. I have no inside knowledge of the firm’s management, finances, client relationships, or internal decision-making, and I do not suggest that any particular business development practice caused its decision to wind down. The firm’s circumstances are discussed to illustrate broader risks and considerations relevant to professional services organizations.
Mitchell Schuckman is the Founder and CEO of The Schuckman Group LLC. He is a Professional Certified Coach credentialed by the International Coaching Federation and the author of I'll Tell You a Great Story. theschuckmangroup.com
Note on privacy: Names and identifying details have been changed. The experiences described are drawn from multiple client engagements and do not represent any single individual.