The financial health of most professional services firms, including law, relies on the efforts of a few rainmakers – lawyers who are able to keep the new-business pipeline flowing while their colleagues focus on the practice of law. We may be left with one nagging question: who will make the rain fall at these firms when it comes time for the traditional rainmakers to retire or move on?

Often, a gap exists between the generation of lawyers who has developed the firm's current business, and the upcoming generations that have no experience in this area. For law firms functioning in an ever-more competitive environment, this generation gap can have serious business consequences.

Mark Maraia and John Mitchell discussed the development of a law firm's next generation of rainmakers at a meeting of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Legal Marketing Association, held April 11 in Denver.

Maraia, a lawyer and business development coach to lawyers, is the author of Rainmaking Made Simple. Mitchell, also a lawyer, specializes in working with leaders to accelerate the pace of their personal and professional development within law firms. Together, they offered the following thoughts on developing rainmakers in your firm, as well as specific actions you can take.

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