I attended The Law Society of Western Australia’s Emerging Lawyers Conference on Friday, 20 March 2026.
Over the course of the day, we engaged in various panels, talks and workshops discussing topics such as burnout and boundaries, the art of negotiation, ethical dilemmas, how to make your mark without losing who you are, business development and courtroom practice and etiquette.
One particularly interesting workshop was the ‘Converting relationships into instructions and business development early on’ session.
This workshop was centred around how to market yourself and nurture business relationships to convert them into instructions.
The speakers that led this workshop were:
- Tony Chong, Managing Partner (Perth) and Partner and Head of Corporate and Asia Desk (Australia), Squire Patton Boggs;
- Kelly Brand, General Manager, Brand Barristers and Solicitors; and
- Alison Heppenstall, Founder and Managing Director, b2b partnerships Ltd UK.
I found this workshop particularly insightful, especially for emerging lawyers, as business development is a critical part of being a lawyer. Being good at business development can give you a competitive edge in the industry.
The speakers at this workshop helpfully broke down what business development is, and gave some key tips that emerging lawyers can implement to improve their networking and business development skillset.
What is business development?
Business development is a process of creating and adding value to a business by identifying new opportunities, forming new relationships, and fostering existing relationships to make the business more successful.
Business development is not only important for businesses as a whole, but also for individuals.
Tony Chong outlined two key components of business development, these being (1) gaining new business and (2) delivering on that business.
Helpful advice for networking
Business development is not something law students are ever taught in law school and, for many young lawyers, the idea of business development or attending a networking event full of people they don’t know can be daunting.
The speakers provided some helpful tips on how to get more out of your next networking event:
- don’t be afraid to approach someone and have a chat. Your conversation doesn’t have to be centred around law.
- make sure you stay true to yourself and be genuine.
- ask questions and be interested in what the other person has to say.
- be positive and kind. Remember people prefer to work with people they actually like.
- if you are nervous about what to say prior to your networking event, think about what your ‘elevator pitch’ is.
Key takeaways from the workshop
This workshop was full of great tips and tricks and provided a great insight into how to improve your business development. It was not only helpful for emerging lawyers, but provided handy reminders for experienced lawyers too. Business development is continual and ever evolving.
Some of my key takeaways from this workshop were:
- Business development is a conscious choice and a learned skill.
- Business development opportunities don’t stop after your 9am to 5pm job finishes. They can arise at any time.
- ‘Winning’ business isn’t everything. It is just as important to ensure you keep the business you have won.
- Think about how you can help your existing clients in other ways and identify new opportunities in those existing clients.
- Building and maintaining trust with potential clients and existing clients is essential. You must do what you say you are going to do and ensure you can properly deliver and execute what needs to be done.
- Business development is not just networking in a traditional sense and comes in many forms, such as presenting at seminars and writing papers.
- Business development and networking won’t always go your way. You must remain resilient and be prepared to hear ‘no’ sometimes.
Finally, when it comes to business development, there are three key points to remember:
- win the business;
- sustain the business; and
- grow the business.
Image courtesy of sandraleevisuals.
