Business Development interview prep.

Behavioural questions to expect

1. Walk me through your career.
2. Tell me about your most significant BD win.
3. Tell me about a weakness, a failure, or feedback you have received and worked on.
4. Why legal business development - vs in-house corporate marketing, consulting, or agency BD?
5. Why the firm?
6. Why this move now in your career?
7. How do you see the firm's practice + BD function vs the market?
8. If you joined, what do you think the biggest BD priority would be in year one?

Technical concepts to master

• Pitch + RFP mechanics

  Capture plan · Win themes · Alternative fee arrangements (AFAs) · Oral defence + beauty parade · Win / loss debrief

• Directory rankings + league tables

  Chambers + Legal 500 cycle · Matter selection · Referee management · Researcher interview prep · League tables

• Partner influence + activation

  Service mindset + commercial credibility · Origination credit + partner economics · Picking battles · Sceptic-to-advocate journey

• Client + sector intelligence

  In-house counsel mapping · Panel reviews · Key account programme · Client listening programme

Practical drills

• An equity partner walks into your office: a target client has issued an RFP for a strategic mandate, response due in three weeks. Walk me through how you run the pitch.
• You have inherited coverage of a senior equity partner who is famously BD-sceptic and routinely cancels pitch prep sessions. The firm needs his practice to grow. Walk me through your 90-day plan.
• The Managing Partner has asked you to build a 12-month plan to grow the firm's position in a target sector (e.g. life sciences, energy transition, financial services). Walk me through your approach, including a rough prioritisation of the top 10-15 target clients and what success looks like at the 12-month mark.

Smart-question anchors

• BD function structure - central vs practice-aligned, reporting line, partner sponsorship
• Pitch win-rate + KPI ownership - what BD is measured on at {firm_name}
• Directory + league table ambition - current standing, target bands, named cycles
• Key account + sector programmes - which clients + sectors are the strategic priorities
• BD tech + experience management - CRM, experience capture, proposal tools, dashboards

Sourced from

Legal Marketing Association (LMA) - Body of Knowledge · Chambers and Partners + The Legal 500 - directory methodology · PM Forum + Managing Partners Forum - legal BD practice content · Above the Law + Law.com - legal industry coverage · Indeed + Glassdoor - Legal BD interview prep