Raya is an innovator in the legal sales and business development field, leading Bird & Bird’s Global BD and Sales team, helping the firm to win work from new clients, grow existing relationships as well as providing BD best practices, training and coaching. Originally from the US, Raya began her career as a litigator, handling complex civil and white collar criminal disputes before following her passion for work winning and establishing and growing client relationships into legal BD. Raya is a certified DCMi Activator facilitator and leads the Activator program for Bird & Bird. This is her first year on the LSSO Advisory Board and she was previously their 2023 Rising Star Award winner.
- You’ve spent nearly two decades in the legal profession – even some time as a lawyer – and over 14 years focused on BD—what drew you in, and what’s kept you energized?
I actually went to law school because I wanted to be a prosecutor and put bad guys away! Although I was lucky enough to do a very cool summer stint at the US Attorney’s Office in New Jersey, when I graduated from law school I ended up taking a path into Big Law as a commercial and white collar criminal defence litigator, so a little different than I had imagined. While there was a lot that I loved about my years practicing, I found my true passion was in business development. Since making the switch, I’ve found that embracing the sales side of legal BD has been the thing that energizes me the most. From helping our lawyers to embrace selling and growing the sales culture at our firm, to building our sales team, showing the pivotal role in work winning that BD can play – that’s what keeps me absolutely loving my career!
- You’ve built a strong internal business development training culture through practical workshops, coaching, and ongoing support—what’s been key to making that successful?
When I started to have a bigger role with our BD training curriculum, most of the sessions were being delivered by external trainers. I prioritized relationships with those who would collaborate with us, both on content but also bringing our MBD team members into sessions, helping them learn facilitation skills and allowing them to have a role in the programming. In addition to positioning our team as BD experts and helping them to develop new skills, the sessions were more tailored to our lawyers allowing us to capitalize on BD opportunities and build relationships with participants. Over time, this has allowed us to do more of the BD training sessions in-house, offering a more substantial and tailored BD training experience throughout the firm.
Another resource that contributes to our strong BD training culture is our Bird & Bird Sales App. We created and launched last the App year, giving everyone in the firm on-demand access to BD training, tools, templates, inspiration and more!
- Oh, tell us more about the Bird & Bird Sales App. How did that idea arise and how did you go about making it happen?
The idea of the sales app originated from our BD training work with KWC Legal. They always follow up with great resources after each program, but that required our lawyers to remember a link and password. I wanted to eliminate that barrier, so that our lawyers & BD team could access the helpful tips and tools whenever they needed them. We worked with KWC to include some of their great content, and added loads of our own, including BD planning templates, pitching videos, and prompts for reaching out to clients. We tagged everything, so it’s easy to find exactly what you need. The app is available to everyone in our firm, on all firm devices. We launched last year with a big comms campaign, including a commercial for the app, sharing case studies of our lawyers using the content for their BD projects. We’ve got some great usage stats so far and try to keep adding fresh content and interactive features to drive engagement.
- What’s something you think is often misunderstood about what it takes to win work and grow client relationships?
I think there are two big misconceptions. The first is that BD has to be big – think of a massive pitch to a high-profile company – to be successful. But that’s not where work winning starts. It starts with creating your habits and systems to ensure you are doing BD regularly and consistently. Small actions that others often forget or get too busy to do (sending that follow up email, reaching out with an invite), especially when they are tailored and helpful, create momentum and ensure you stay top of mind for when opportunities arise. The best business developers create opportunity by being consistently in the right place at the right time!
The second misconception is that winning work and growing client relationships is just for partners. Associates (and of course BD team members) have a huge part to play! Associates who start developing their BD skills early on have more confidence and have an easier time developing a robust and diverse network, which will grow as they progress in their career and have corresponding influence with them.
- Tell us about your experience with DCMi’s Activator approach. How have you seen that framework yield results at your firm?
We’ve been lucky to have been involved with DCMi from the beginning of the Activator program, including participating in the original research. It is a truly impactful program, and basing it on powerful data allows us to overcome any natural scepticism that our lawyer may have. We opted for a train-the-trainer program, so we are teaching the majority of the sessions, which brings us all of the advantages I’ve outlined above. We’ve seen some great results at our firm, partners who have been through the program are generating more revenue, opening more matters and pursuing more opportunities than those who have not.
Perhaps even more importantly, they are developing more confidence and better BD habits! Alongside the workshops and measurement, another key factor in the program’s success for us has been our internal comms campaign. Celebrating successes and sharing tips and tricks from our Activator partners has really helped us generate momentum and engagement for the program.
- What’s one small shift in behavior or mindset that you think delivers outsized BD results?
Be more empathetic! Everyone says they are client-centric but so few of us actually demonstrate it. It is easier to talk about ourselves, our firms, and our services. But when we truly put ourselves into the shoes of our clients and really focus on their perspective, what they want and need and how what we can help or benefit them, that is when the BD magic happens.
- What’s something you’re currently exploring or excited to push forward in your BD work this year?
This year I’m really excited to see how we can take the momentum from the Activator program to not just drive growth, but also to start institutionalizing its methods into the way we teach and do BD. We’ll explore how tech will enable us to do that and be more effective and efficient. It also gives us an amazing opportunity to show the strategic value BD can offer, helping us to redefine the role by spending more time on high impact activities that align with our strategy, and less time on those things that don’t! A lot to accomplish but I love that challenge!
About Raya:
While Raya’s roots are in New Jersey, she’s spent the last 10 years living outside of London. She still gets a kick out of her kids’ English accents. While she has accepted their love of football (aka soccer), she is hoping to turn their cricket skills into baseball one of these days. She does her best BD strategizing while spinning or running, and loves any excuse to dance or listen to house music.
