A law firm's investment in knowledge-led business development (KLBD) is unlikely to generate an appropriate return unless it is closely aligned to and supports the firm's strategic objectives. Typically, the non-fee earning teams, such as KM, PSLs and business development (BD), which are involved in KLBD will have limited resources. Where fee earners are involved, the impact on their fee-earning hours brings with it a considerable opportunity cost, so it is important to prioritise activities that will support the law firm's business goals. This requires engaging with the law firm's strategy, something that is not always shared with PSLs. It is important that the PSLs are clear about the clients, markets and sectors that the law firm is prioritising. Without this insight it will be almost impossible for them to focus their KLBD activities appropriately or to identify content that will resonate with clients.

It is also important that strategy is shared with the wider KM team. Increasingly, information and library staff are delivering business and market information to partners and others. If they understand the law firm's strategic objectives, they will be better placed not only to circulate more focused material but also to provide market context to PSLs, who can then use this to judge the likely impact on key clients of legal and regulatory developments.

Apart from the most widely targeted profile-raising material, KLBD is unlikely to deliver returns unless it is targeted at specific client needs. Getting this right will start with an understanding of the client's particular perspective. This may be a group of clients in a particular sector or market, or a small number of individual clients that are likely to be particularly affected by, or interested in, a specific issue.

It is enormously important that the BD, KM and PSL teams work together well. The best relationships are symbiotic, where each understands the other's needs and expectations. For example, the BD team should rely on the PSLs for ideas and content and the PSLs should rely on the BD team to include them when BD initiatives are discussed. There should be a regular exchange of ideas. However, developing a productive relationship of this nature will need support and encouragement at partner and director level.

Thought leadership is a specific area to which law firms are devoting increasing amounts of time. Larger law firms, in particular, are increasingly adopting tactics that the leading management consultancies and "Big Four" accountancy firms have successfully used over the last 15 years to build and broaden their brands, and putting global programmes in place to support their relationships with corporate clients. If performed well, thought leadership can be an effective tool in reaching the board and other high-level stakeholders who are crucial to the development of key client relationships. The following four elements are essential to a successful campaign: planning; choosing a topic; partner and fee earner engagement; and agreeing measurable outcomes.

Planning. Law firms that engage in successful thought leadership activities tend to do so as part of a programme of well thought out KLBD activities. In these law firms, an annual programme will typically include a mix of:

Choosing a topic. In law firms where there is a regular, productive dialogue between the BD and KM teams, topics for effective KLBD should be surfacing regularly. For a really good thought leadership campaign, the chosen topic should be one on which the law firm can offer either the first or a novel view, which will be of practical interest to clients. Ideally, the law firm should identify a number of possible topics which can be tested both with partners and clients that are operating in the relevant sector in order to make sure that there will be enough interest in the firm's conclusions to generate a sufficient level of return. Some analysis of competitors' activities is also advisable at this stage, to make sure that the topic is not one on which everyone has already had their say.

Partner and fee earner engagement. Partners and other fee earners involved in producing the report, or delivering its conclusions to clients, must have engaged with the topic and understood both the expected output and the process by which it will be produced. Once the process is complete, the results and conclusions must be fully shared with everyone who may be involved in conversations with clients.

Agreeing measurable outcomes. The objectives of the campaign need to be clearly expressed. Ideally, the law firm should agree one or more tangible outcomes, beyond a general aspiration to raise brand awareness, against which success can be measured. Although these outcomes should be more challenging than simply listing the number of reports despatched to clients, they need not be complex. For example, they might include the number of meetings or conversations with clients based around the report.

Some firms may wish to capture the number of actual instructions received as a result of the report but, for most firms, immediate work generation will be a secondary objective. The primary goal is to create opportunities for positive client contact.

Identifying appropriate content and matching it to client and law firm needs is often challenging. PSLs' breadth of knowledge about developments in law and practice, and their overview of activity within the law firm across practice groups, sectors and offices means that they are ideally placed to identify content and upcoming developments that are likely to affect clients' activities.

Ideally, PSLs should attend sector and practice area BD and key client discussions as a matter of course. Where lack of time makes this difficult, busy PSL and BD teams may prefer to meet less often and to set up a regular group email in which the BD team shares strategic client and market priorities and the PSL team, in turn, identifies recent and upcoming developments from which the firm may be able to generate opportunities for client contact.

As with any communication, whether internal or external, the key to form, tone and content is to identify the goal. The approach will differ depending on whether this is to generate work directly, build a client relationship with a view to generating work in future, raise the profile of the law firm or an individual lawyer.

The goal should identify both the immediate aim of the particular KLBD activity and its intended outcome. For example, the aim might be to explain the practical impact of a legislative change to clients in a particular sector and the anticipated outcome might be that clients contacted about the change will instruct the firm to advise them on amendments to documents and contracts affected by the change.

Increasingly, law firms are turning to more innovative methods of delivery such as podcasts, videos and social media. However, there is little research to date on the effectiveness of social media in a business-focused, as opposed to consumer-focused, professional services context. Unless the aim is to raise the law firm's profile in the broadest sense, as a general rule, the more personal the contact, the better. This is particularly so where work generation is the immediate aim. Approaches might include a direct phone call or personal email, where a PSL might script or provide explanatory background material to support the partner or other fee earner who will actually make the call or send the email.