Facilitated By: Howard Rosenberg, Partner and Head of Talent Intelligence + Acquisitions, Baretz+Brunelle
The Legal Sales and Service Organization (LSSO) is pleased to recognize Angela Bolzonello, Senior Director of Business Development and Marketing (and BizQuest team leader) at Fasken LLP, as the recipient of the 2026 Law Practice Improvement & Innovation Award.
What does it take to actually change how lawyers develop business – not just for a week, but durably? One firm's answer: make it a game.
Fasken’s BizQuest program, led by Angela Bolzonello, is a six-week, firmwide gamified business development challenge built to embed practical BD habits into lawyers' daily work. The premise is straightforward – lawyers log real client and marketing activities on a purpose-built platform, earn points, and track progress on a live leaderboard filterable by region and practice group. But the outcomes were anything but ordinary.
Over six weeks, 190 legal professionals completed more than 3,100 tracked activities spanning networking, client outreach, content creation, and strategic partnerships. The numbers behind those activities tell the real story: 108 personalized client emails sent, 193 referral-contact engagements, 132 new LinkedIn connections made, and 139 original LinkedIn posts created. Participants also generated 99 new content ideas for bulletins, seminars, and thought leadership – a pipeline of market presence that will outlast the challenge itself.
What made BizQuest stand out wasn't just participation volume. It was design intentionality. The program opens with a preparation week, moves through four themed weeks, and closes with a sprint that revisits all themes – a structure built for repetition, which is how habits actually form. Unlike passive workshops that ask lawyers to absorb a framework and apply it later, BizQuest embedded the activity into the work itself.
The firm was careful not to overstate revenue attribution, but qualitative feedback was clear: multiple participants reported new matters, live opportunities, and follow-up conversations that traced directly to BizQuest activities. Post-challenge, the marketing and BD team used participation data to build targeted, individualized coaching recommendations – meaning BizQuest didn't end when the leaderboard went dark.
The lesson is both practical and philosophical. Changing lawyer behavior requires more than compelling content – it requires a structure that makes the right behaviors visible, rewarding, and repeatable. Gamification, done well, isn't a gimmick. It's an accountability engine. Fasken’s BizQuest program proves that when you lower the friction and raise the visibility, lawyers will show up – and the relationships they build along the way are real.