"I did not go to law school to be a salesperson."

The last place most lawyers thought they would be in after law school was in the position of selling their services, though the key to building a prosperous practice is to attract new clients and retain the ones you have.

For ages now, those of us in legal services have debated whether lawyers should be expected to "sell" to grow their client base. For many, the very word "sales" is an untenable reference. That is why in many law firms today we use the semantical reference "business development." Call it what you will, but there's no getting around the fact that in order to grow a legal practice, lawyers must be retained by new clients.