By: Laura Gutierrez, Director of Referral Partnerships, JD Supra
Plenty of firms buy a CRM. Few get the lawyers in their firm to use it, let alone profit from it.
Mike Beswick, former Director of Business Development & Marketing and Communications at Taylor Wessing, won this year's Intelligence in Action Award for that very thing. Taylor Wessing implemented Intapp DealCloud and then did the impossible: made the data worth entering. And that is why he is LSSO’s 2026 Intelligence in Action Award recipient.
Beswick and his team organized the initiative around four priorities: more transparency into plans and progress, targeted interventions where activity and results don't match, fewer data silos, and a tighter connection between knowledge management and BD.
What that looks like day to day:
- Business plans for the fiscal year live in DealCloud, open to the firm, and teams run meetings from them.
- Lawyers see relationship strength scores next to the number of days since a contact was last approached, so clients are neither forgotten nor over-contacted.
- New opportunities trigger automatic notifications, so lawyers add what they know while they still remember it.
- Client data now originates in BD and flows through risk, onboarding, and conflicts with no rekeying.
- Relationship maps point to smart introductions, not just more of them.
Lawyer business development activity (meetings, calls, networking) is tracked against billable work and reviewed by firm leadership, including HR. The team learned that:
- Extensive BD activity with thin delivery can signal a stalled market.
- Thin numbers on both sides can signal someone needs coaching or support.
- That same data shows up in remuneration memos as proof of what BD produced.
The numbers
Firm revenue is up 80% since launch. The client investment program has seen a sixfold revenue increase. One technology client raised its recommendation rating from 95% to 98%, citing collaboration, technology, efficiency, and client service. The firm's global client program was recognized at the 2025 British Legal Awards, with data and client management named as the driver.
Ideas worth stealing
Adoption is the whole game. Data going in is what makes data coming out worth anything. Lawyers enter data when they get something back the same week.
Share BD data outside the department. Once leadership and HR read the same activity reports, business development starts looking like evidence rather than overhead.
Ask who owns client data. Beswick challenged the assumption that client information starts and ends with risk and intake. Moving the origin point changed what everyone downstream could see.
Fewer, better introductions. Matching one lawyer's expertise to one real client need beats volume. A tax lawyer finding the two other groups chasing the same industry is worth more than a directory of names.
*Mike Beswick is now Director of BD, Marketing & Communications for Winston Taylor.
