Built for Law Firm BD Managers

The CRM BD managers coordinate pitches, pursuits, and practice group origination out of.

BD managers at 50 to 2,000 lawyer firms coordinate a BD team of 3 to 12 professionals across practice groups where each BD professional runs 15 to 40 active pursuits for seller-doer partners. Strkr holds the pitch, the pursuit, the practice group origination activity, and the lateral partner book integration on one workspace that complements (not replaces) the firm practice management system.

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Why buyers are here

Law Firms BD Managers: the daily pains.

A law firm BD manager is a different role than a BigLaw BD professional. The individual BD professional owns pitches and pursuits for 2 to 4 partners in a practice group. The BD manager coordinates a BD team of 3 to 12 BD professionals across practice groups (corporate, litigation, M and A, labor and employment, trusts and estates, intellectual property, real estate), runs the RFP response operation across the firm, manages lateral partner book integration when a lateral joins, and runs the quarterly pursuit review with the firm management committee. The typical stack lives across InterAction or LexisNexis InterAction or Foundation or OnePlace or ContactEase for the firm-wide CRM, Excel for the active pursuit tracker, SharePoint for the pitch and RFP archive, a conflict system (Intapp, Elite, Aderant) running in parallel, and the practice management system (Elite, Aderant, Centerbase, or Clio Manage for smaller firms) for post-engagement matter management. Honest version of the story: Strkr is not a replacement for the firm practice management system or the firm conflict system. Those systems handle billing, matter accounting, and formal conflict clearance that Strkr does not try to replicate. Strkr replaces the fragmented pre-engagement sales layer that lives across the firm-wide CRM, SharePoint, and Excel, and integrates with the practice management system and conflict system through native connectors.

BD team scorecard drought

I have 8 BD professionals and no scorecard view of what they are doing.

A BD manager with 8 BD professionals supporting 60 partners across 6 practice groups has no systematic view into which BD professionals are running active pursuit cadences, which practice groups are over-serviced versus under-serviced, and which BD professionals are performing against the firm BD standards. Strkr renders a BD professional roster scorecard with active pursuits per professional, pitch cycle time, RFP response turnaround, partner activity logged, and pursuit win rate. The quarterly BD team review runs on data instead of hearsay.

Partner activity invisibility

Partners will not log activity and I have no cross-practice view.

A BD manager cannot see cross-practice origination activity because partners will not log client calls, pre-RFP meetings, or shortlist interviews into the firm CRM. The pipeline lives in partner heads. The BD manager runs the quarterly management committee meeting on a hunch. Strkr ships native Microsoft 365 and Gmail sync that auto-logs email, calendar, and meeting activity on every account without a partner touching the CRM. The BD manager sees cross-practice coverage on the account record with every open opportunity across every practice group visible.

RFP response operation chaos

We get 15 to 40 RFPs a quarter and the response operation runs on heroics.

A regional firm or practice group boutique receives 15 to 40 formal RFPs and panel submission requests per quarter. The response operation runs on BD professional heroics with every response requiring a SharePoint hunt for firm overview, discipline experience statements, matter resumes, timekeeper biographies, diversity and inclusion statistics, and pricing boilerplate. Strkr renders the RFP response queue with assigned BD professional, due date, required components, and Strkr AI drafting the first-pass response from the account record and the practice group boilerplate.

Lateral partner onboarding gap

A lateral joins with 80 clients and 300 matters and we have no onboarding path.

A lateral partner joins the firm with a book of 80 institutional clients, 300 active matters, and a 15 year relationship history. The firm CRM has no path to onboard that book without a 3 month manual import. The BD manager loses 90 days of productive BD work on data entry. Strkr ships a lateral integration workflow with native import for contacts, accounts, matter history, and timekeeper time entries, plus a conflict-reconciliation layer that merges the lateral book against the firm existing client base before the lateral starts week one.

Practice group origination opacity

I do not know which practice groups are originating and which are not.

A BD manager running across 6 to 12 practice groups has no clean view of which practice groups are originating new client relationships, which practice groups are expanding on existing clients, which practice groups are declining due to market shift, and which practice groups are drafting on partner relationships that will retire. Strkr renders practice group origination trends on the dashboard with trailing 4 quarter origination by practice group, cross-practice referral patterns, and the specific partner relationships driving each practice group book.

Management committee reporting

Monthly reporting to the management committee is a 2-day rebuild.

A BD manager at a mid-size firm spends 2 days a month rebuilding the pipeline report, the pursuit retrospective, the practice group origination trends, and the lateral partner integration status for the firm management committee. The firm CRM does not render the view the committee wants. Strkr builds the monthly management committee report automatically off live pipeline and pursuit data, and the BD manager edits narrative and ships the deck in an afternoon instead of 2 full days.

How Strkr fits the BD manager week

The primitives law firm BD managers actually run on.

Strkr for law firm BD managers ships the same CRM every other role at the firm runs, with role-aware views shaped around the BD manager coordinating a BD team across practice groups. The primitives below map to the BD manager week: BD professional scorecards for team coaching, cross-practice origination view for management committee reporting, RFP response queue for operational coordination, lateral partner integration workflow for onboarding, pursuit pipeline across practice groups, and partner activity visibility from native email and calendar sync.

BD professional scorecard

Every BD professional on one view.

The BD professional roster scorecard renders each BD professional with active pursuits, pitch cycle time, RFP response turnaround, partner activity logged, pursuit win rate, and cross-practice referral count. The BD manager coaches on data, runs the quarterly BD team review grounded in a shared record, and makes staffing decisions on evidence rather than hearsay.

Cross-practice origination

The firm origination picture on one dashboard.

The cross-practice origination view renders trailing 4 quarter origination by practice group, cross-practice referral patterns, the specific partner relationships driving each practice group book, and the pursuit pipeline by practice group. The BD manager walks into the management committee meeting with the firm origination picture on one view instead of a 2 day rebuild.

RFP response queue

Panel submissions and RFPs on one board.

The RFP response queue renders every active RFP and panel submission with assigned BD professional, due date, required components, current status, and Strkr AI first-pass draft readiness. The BD manager sees the operation on one board with the capacity constraint visible, and routes rush responses to the BD professionals with available bandwidth.

Lateral partner integration

Lateral book onboarding as a workflow.

The lateral partner integration workflow runs the lateral book onboarding as a native workflow with contact import, account import, matter history import, timekeeper time entry import, conflict reconciliation against the firm existing client base, and the specific institutional client relationships flagged for firm partner introduction. The lateral partner is productive from week one instead of month four.

Pursuit pipeline

Pursuits across practice groups on one board.

The pursuit pipeline renders every active pursuit across every practice group with originating partner, BD professional lead, practice group, matter type, fee basis, pursuit stage, and expected close. The BD manager filters by practice group, by partner, by BD professional, or by matter type to run the weekly coordination with the right lens.

Partner activity visibility

Email and calendar sync without partner cooperation.

Native Microsoft 365 and Gmail sync lands every partner email, meeting, and calendar activity against the account record. The BD manager sees cross-practice coverage on every account with every open opportunity across every practice group visible. The partners never touch the CRM to make it work.

Management committee report

Monthly reporting that builds itself.

The monthly management committee report assembles from the pipeline data, pursuit outcomes, practice group origination trends, lateral partner integration status, and BD team scorecard. The BD manager edits narrative and ships the deck in an afternoon instead of 2 days of SharePoint archaeology.

How Strkr sits next to the practice management system

Pre-engagement on Strkr, post-engagement on Elite or Aderant.

Most law firms are not retiring Elite, Aderant, Centerbase, or Clio Manage. The matter management, the time entry, the billing, the trust accounting, and the regulatory compliance live in the practice management system because the finance and risk functions require it. The honest version of the story is that Strkr covers the pre-engagement BD motion (pitch, pursuit, origination activity, lateral integration, RFP response) and hands off clean to the practice management system at Closed Won. The sections below show the handoff pattern.

Elite 3E integration

Matter creation on Closed Won.

Strkr Flow pushes the signed engagement matter into Elite 3E on Closed Won with the client reference, the originating partner, the practice group, the fee arrangement, the staffing plan, and the scope summary from the Products module. The practice management system becomes the matter system of record from day one of engagement instead of after a 2 week manual intake delay.

Aderant Expert integration

Same pattern for Aderant firms.

For firms on Aderant Expert instead of Elite, Strkr ships the same connector pattern against the Aderant API. Clients, contacts, matters, and timekeeper assignments sync both directions. The BD motion lives in Strkr, the matter management lives in Aderant, and the firm stops asking partners to maintain two client contact lists.

Centerbase integration

Mid-size firm handoff.

For firms on Centerbase instead of Elite or Aderant, Strkr ships the Centerbase connector pattern. The matter creation on Closed Won fires through the API with the same scope context carried over. The mid-size firm stops running the pre-engagement motion on InterAction and the matter management on Centerbase with no handshake between the two.

Clio Manage integration

Smaller firm handoff.

For firms on Clio Manage (common at the under-50 lawyer band), Strkr ships the Clio connector. The honest conversation on the sales cycle is that smaller firms often use Clio Grow as the BD system of record and may not need Strkr if they are below the 10 lawyer band. Above 10 lawyers with 2 or more BD professionals, the Strkr BD surface starts earning its seat.

Conflict system handshake

Intapp Open or Elite conflict pre-check.

The firm conflict system (Intapp Open, Elite, Aderant conflict module) handles the formal conflict clearance that is a regulatory requirement. Strkr does not replace that. Strkr fires a conflict pre-check against the conflict system at Qualification stage entry so the obvious dead-end conflicts kill the pursuit before the partner invests 20 hours in a pitch. The formal clearance at engagement letter time still runs through the firm conflict system.

Flows for the BD manager motion

Automations across pursuit, RFP, lateral, and management committee prep.

The best law firm BD managers automate the administrative drag between stages and spend their hours on strategic BD team coaching, cross-practice referral activation, and lateral partner integration. Strkr Flows cover the automations every BD team should run as native triggers with no webhook plumbing. The pattern below compounds into a cleaner BD motion, faster RFP turnaround, better lateral onboarding, and management committee reporting that does not consume 2 days a month.

Pursuit stage entry

Entry criteria enforce at every stage.

A pursuit moving from Lead to Qualification needs a referral source, a decision maker, a practice group tag, and a conflict pre-check. Qualification to Proposal needs a Products matter scope, a close date estimate, a staffing confirmation from the practice group lead, and cleared conflict. Strkr enforces entry criteria at every stage transition. The BD manager stops hearing partners complain about pursuits that got miscoded.

RFP assignment

New RFP routes to the capacity-available BD professional.

When a new RFP lands and the BD manager marks it for response, the flow reads BD professional capacity (active RFP count, trailing 30 day RFP volume, practice group alignment), recommends the assignment, and routes the RFP to the BD professional queue with the required components checklist. The BD manager approves and the response starts within 2 hours of receipt.

RFP draft

Strkr AI drafts the first pass.

When a BD professional accepts an RFP assignment, Strkr AI reads the RFP, the firm boilerplate, the practice group experience statement, the diversity and inclusion statistics, the matter list for the relevant practice, and the biography slides for the proposed matter team, and drafts a first-pass response. The BD professional edits for client fit instead of hunting SharePoint for the most recent version of every component.

Partner activity nudge

Stale pursuits surface for partner outreach.

Daily flow checks pursuit activity on every open deal. If no partner activity has landed in 10 days on an active Proposal stage pursuit, the record surfaces on the BD manager triage view. The BD manager coordinates with the originating partner on a check-in call or confirms the matter is dead instead of letting it rot through 2 forecast cycles.

Lateral partner workflow

Lateral onboarding runs as a defined workflow.

When a lateral partner joins the firm, the lateral partner workflow fires with contact import from the lateral prior firm export, account import, matter history import, conflict reconciliation against the firm existing client base, the institutional client relationships flagged for firm partner introduction, and the specific client thank-you outreach scheduled for week one. The BD manager coordinates the onboarding against a defined checklist instead of a 90 day improvisation.

Cross-practice referral alert

Open opportunity in one practice flags cross-practice relevance.

When a new opportunity opens in one practice group, a flow checks the account for institutional client relationships that could benefit from cross-practice coverage. If the account has prior corporate work and a new litigation pursuit opens, the flow surfaces the cross-practice relevance on the deal and alerts the corporate practice group lead for coordination.

Engagement letter return

Signed engagement letter fires practice management handoff.

DocuSign or Adobe Sign returns the signed engagement letter. The flow stores the artifact, flips the stage to Closed Won, creates the matter in the practice management system (Elite 3E, Aderant Expert, Centerbase, Clio Manage), maps the Products scope components to the matter budget, auto-generates the matter number and billing codes, assigns the matter team per the staffing plan, and pings the originating partner, the matter billing attorney, and the firm intake team.

Management committee prep

Monthly report assembles the week before the meeting.

One week before the monthly management committee meeting, a flow assembles the pipeline report, the pursuit retrospective, the practice group origination trends, the lateral partner integration status, and the BD team scorecard into a draft deck. The BD manager edits the narrative on top of pre-populated data and ships in an afternoon.

Head-to-head

Strkr vs the InterAction + SharePoint + Excel BD stack.

A typical law firm BD manager stack runs InterAction, Foundation, OnePlace, or ContactEase for the firm-wide CRM, Excel for the active pursuit tracker and BD team roster, SharePoint for the pitch and RFP archive, a conflict system (Intapp, Elite, Aderant) running in parallel, and the practice management system (Elite, Aderant, Centerbase, Clio Manage) for post-engagement matter management. Strkr collapses the pre-engagement layer into one workspace with the practice management system and conflict system preserved as the matter and compliance systems of record.

What matters Strkr InterAction + SharePoint + Excel + conflict system
BD professional scorecard Native, trailing performance across BD team Excel rebuild per quarter, no real-time rollup
Cross-practice origination view Native, every open opportunity across practice groups Partner heads, no systematic cross-practice view
RFP response operation Queue with capacity routing and Strkr AI first-pass draft SharePoint archaeology, BD professional heroics
Lateral partner integration Native workflow with import and conflict reconciliation 3 month manual import, 90 days of lost productivity
Partner activity logging Auto-logged via native Microsoft 365 and Gmail sync Partners refuse to log, pipeline lives in partner head
Pursuit pipeline across practice groups Native, filterable by practice, partner, BD professional Excel pursuit tracker per practice group
Practice management handoff Native flow creates matter in Elite, Aderant, Centerbase, Clio Manual retype by intake team
Conflict system handshake Pre-check at Qualification stage entry Conflict runs at engagement letter stage only
Management committee reporting Auto-generated monthly packet from live data 2-day manual rebuild from 4 sources
Admin changes to BD process Self-serve for BD manager inside the permission matrix InterAction admin queue, firm IT prioritization

See the CRM law firm BD managers coordinate pitches and pursuits in.

Start a 14 day trial with the full law firm BD manager stack enabled: pursuit pipeline across practice groups, BD professional roster scorecard, RFP response queue with Strkr AI first-pass drafting, lateral partner integration workflow, cross-practice origination dashboard, DocuSign and Adobe Sign for engagement letter signature, native integrations for Elite, Aderant, Centerbase, and Clio Manage, conflict pre-check at Qualification against Intapp Open, Elite, or Aderant, and Flows for every stage from pursuit entry through practice management handoff. The pricing page lays out the per-seat line in full.

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Common questions

Law Firms BD Managers buyer FAQ.

Is Strkr a replacement for Elite, Aderant, Centerbase, or Clio Manage?

No, and that is important to be honest about. The practice management systems (Elite 3E, Aderant Expert, Centerbase, Clio Manage) handle matter management, time entry, billing, trust accounting, and regulatory compliance that Strkr does not try to replicate. Strkr is a general CRM positioned at the pre-engagement BD motion (pitch, pursuit, origination activity, lateral integration, RFP response). Strkr integrates with the practice management system through native connectors and hands off at Closed Won. The firm consolidates the fragmented pre-engagement layer (InterAction, SharePoint, Excel, Outlook) into one workspace. The practice management system stays as the matter and billing system of record.

Is Strkr a replacement for the firm conflict system?

No. The firm conflict system (Intapp Open, Elite conflict module, Aderant conflict module) handles the formal conflict clearance that is a regulatory requirement under the Rules of Professional Conduct. Strkr does not replace that. What Strkr does is fire a conflict pre-check against the firm conflict system at Qualification stage entry, so the obvious dead-end conflicts kill the pursuit before the originating partner invests 20 hours in a pitch. The formal clearance at engagement letter time still runs through the firm conflict system. The pre-check is advisory and designed to be a time-saver for the BD team, not a substitute for the regulatory clearance process.

How does Strkr handle the BD team scorecard for a 10-professional BD team?

The BD professional roster scorecard renders each BD professional with active pursuits, pitch cycle time, RFP response turnaround, partner activity logged on their supported partners, pursuit win rate, and cross-practice referral count. The BD manager runs the weekly BD team coordination and the quarterly BD team review grounded in a shared record. For firms with specialized BD roles (practice group BD professional, firm-wide BD coordinator, lateral integration specialist, RFP response specialist), the scorecard admin allows per-role metric configuration so the firm BD operating standards apply fairly across role types.

How does the lateral partner onboarding workflow actually work?

When a lateral partner joins the firm, the BD manager initiates the lateral partner workflow with the lateral prior firm export (typically a CSV or Excel from InterAction or another firm CRM). Strkr imports contacts, accounts, matter history, and timekeeper time entries. The conflict reconciliation layer compares the lateral book against the firm existing client base and surfaces institutional client overlaps, adverse representations, and ethical-wall requirements. The institutional client relationships flagged for firm partner introduction get routed to the appropriate firm partner for coordinated outreach. The specific client thank-you outreach for the lateral prior firm clients gets scheduled for week one. The lateral partner is productive on the firm CRM from week one instead of month four.

What about firms running HubSpot, Salesforce, or Microsoft Dynamics for BD?

HubSpot and Salesforce were built for SaaS and B2B sales motion with primitives (lifecycle stages, lead score, nurture emails, MQL to SQL funnel) that do not match matter origination. Microsoft Dynamics is closer but still requires 6 to 12 months of implementation to layer a law-firm-shaped data model on top. A 50 to 2,000 lawyer firm with a 3 to 12 person BD team does not have the admin bandwidth or the willingness to run a 12 month Salesforce implementation. Strkr is sales-first with the Products module built for matter scope and fee arrangement, Flows self-serve for the BD manager and BD professional, conflict-aware intake, and native integrations for DocuSign, Adobe Sign, Intapp Open, Elite, Aderant, Centerbase, and Clio Manage. The firm ships a working BD workspace in weeks, not quarters. The honest caveat is that very large BigLaw firms with 2,000 plus lawyers and dedicated firm CRM admin teams may continue to prefer the InterAction platform depth for firm-wide relationship management, though the pre-engagement pursuit motion still benefits from Strkr alongside.

What is the right starting point for a law firm BD manager evaluating Strkr?

Start with the pursuit pipeline board, the Microsoft 365 or Gmail sync for partner activity auto-logging, and the BD professional scorecard view. Those three primitives alone resolve the three most expensive pains the role carries, which are pursuit visibility, partner activity invisibility, and BD team coaching on hunch instead of data. Layer in the RFP response queue in week two to tighten the operation. Turn on the practice management system connector (Elite, Aderant, Centerbase, or Clio) in week three to automate the Closed Won handoff. Turn on Strkr AI in week four for RFP first-pass drafts and interview briefing preparation. The pricing page lays out the per-seat line at Starter 29 dollars per seat per month, Pro 59, and Scale 119, plus the AI 49 dollar add-on. Law firm BD team installs typically run Pro seats for BD professionals and Scale seats for the BD manager.

Also considering

Related combinations.

Law Firm Business Development Law Firm Partners Law Firm Marketing Managers Law Firm Practice Managers Professional Services Sales Managers Consulting Firm Managing Partners

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