How to build a law firm event strategy that drives growth

Events are one of the most powerful tools in a law firm's business development arsenal, but without a clear strategy they can quickly become a drain on time and budget. So, how do you build an event strategy that drives growth for your firm?

We invited Sheenika Gandhi, Chief Marketing Officer at Greenberg Glusker, and Anne Heathcock, Founder of Heathcock Marketing Consulting and former Managing Director of Marketing at Winston & Strawn, to unpack the topic with Ed Lovatt, Senior Account Director at Nexl.  

Fill out the form below to watch the full conversation or scroll down to get some of the key takeaways.

Step one: an existential question

For many firms, the most common mistake with events is skipping a foundational question.

"For any event, you have to start with an existential question—why?," says Anne. "Why are we doing this event? What do we hope to accomplish? Are we trying to build visibility? Are we trying to attract a very specific type of client in an industry? Are we trying to announce a new service we previously didn't have?"

That question doesn't just apply at the planning stage. " You have to keep coming back to it because you can get off topic pretty easily,” says Anne. “It's very easy for an event to morph into something it wasn't intended to be."  

Don't neglect the edges

If the why is the most overlooked question, then the most overlooked work happens before and after an event.

There's so much energy poured into logistics and coordination. “But if you're not doing that intentional outreach beforehand, and there's no structured follow-up after, you've left a lot of value on the table,” says Sheenika.

Her team's pre-event process ranges from a quick email with background on who will be in the room, through to detailed attendee research for major industry conferences. For one recent conference, they used an email research tool to bulk-find attendee contact details, upload them into their CRM, and identify which attendees already had connections inside the firm.

"That way we have immediate low-hanging fruit for pre-event outreach," says Sheenika. "We can reach out ahead of the conference and say, we'll be there, and start those conversations before we even walk in the door."

Post-event follow-up is equally structured at Greenberg Glusker. After every event or sponsorship, an automated email goes to the attorneys involved with a set of concrete prompts: who did you meet, what are some interesting contacts, make sure they're in the CRM, connect on LinkedIn, send a follow-up within 48 hours. "We give them concrete things to do so attorneys can continue to stay in touch with these people," says Sheenika.

Winning isn't about the size of the room

There’s a pervasive assumption that bigger events are always better. However, for Anne, the question of scale should follow on directly from the why. "Do we need a big event because this is about building name visibility? Or do we need a small, targeted event because what we really want is to introduce someone new to our key clients, or connect with specific prospects? Sometimes an event that has 300 people is not as impactful as an event that has 30 of the right people," says Anne.  

Similarly, the formats that have worked best for Sheenika tend to be intimate, curated, and tied to something specific. "We haven't focused on large-scale events where we're hosting 100 to 200 people,” says Sheenika. “We've really focused on getting the right 12 to 15 people together for an intimate dinner."

Getting lawyer buy-in

Even the most carefully planned events can fall flat if the right attorneys aren't engaged. Sheenika's approach is to build events around what lawyers are genuinely passionate about, rather than asking them to show up to something they feel no connection to.

"None of your attorneys are going to do business development if they don't have some interest, passion, or excitement around it," she says. "I always tailor my pitches. I like to get to know the attorney, look at what boards they sit on, do they volunteer for things? Do they coach soccer? Do they love going to basketball games? Whatever they're passionate about, I build events around that."

Anne shared that getting a partner to be your internal champion for an idea is often more effective than presenting it as a marketing initiative. "Good marketers can convince partners that their idea was actually the partner's idea."

For partners who remain resistant, the best approach is to make participation feel low risk. "They don't have to invite 10 people to the event, start with inviting one person. Invite one contact and come to the event yourself so you can see how it's working for other partners,” says Anne.

Sponsoring versus hosting

Most firms do both, but the decision between sponsoring an existing event and hosting your own is worth making deliberately rather than by default.

The framework Sheenika uses is based on the goal of an event. "Are you looking for visibility? Are you looking to deepen relationships with a smaller group? Do you already have market awareness and you're now just trying to convert prospects?"

Sheenika’s goal with Greenberg Glusker’s 100+ annual sponsorships is to build market penetration in specific industries. Recently, they’d looked at growing their brand awareness for creators. "We wanted to show we were the right firm for the creator economy because we work at the intersection of entertainment, IP, and tech. So, we started looking for all the events where creators and their teams hang out. That's where we spent our time sponsoring."

Co-hosting is another lever firms can pull, and it comes with a practical advantage: you get the benefit of someone else's list alongside your own credibility. "I love partnering with another similar organization,” says Sheenika. “We bring our clients, they bring their clients, and now you're meeting people in an intimate setting that feels valuable and credible because both organizations have a reputation in that industry."

Beyond the credibility, there’s also cost benefits. "Sponsoring means you get to split the cost and sometimes get twice the impact for half the price," says Anne.

Why you need stories and spreadsheets to track ROI

Event ROI is notoriously hard to measure, so firms should focus on building systems that capture what's happening, rather than searching for a perfect metric.

"You go back to your why," says Anne. "If the event was about visibility, then the number of people who attended is relevant. If it was focused on bringing in new clients or educating existing ones, then 60 people in the room who aren't decision-makers isn't a win."

There are some hard metrics you can look at. “From a visibility standpoint, how did your social posts perform? Did your website traffic spike around the event?” says Anne. “Having a tagging process in your CRM allows you to identify your key contacts and people making buying decisions. That means you can track if you got the right people in the room.”

While hard metrics are useful for quantitative tracking, Sheenika’s found that structured anecdotes can be equally persuasive and revealing. "I live in an anecdote world. I want to know the stories behind that relationship or how that client came in."

To capture those stories systematically, her team uses an automated post-event prompt. After every event or sponsorship, an email goes to each attorney asking for feedback on who they met and what came of it. The follow-up checklist is specific and actionable: make sure contacts are in the CRM, connect on LinkedIn, and send a follow-up within 48 hours.

"I have a whole list of great anecdotes. An attorney told us a client had attended a CLE webinar, and it directly led to new work. After sporting suite events, the attorneys always come back with great conversations. We connect the dots, and that means we can close the loop."