The brief

A top 100 UK law firm approached me to carry out a structured review of its events function and produce a comprehensive Event Playbook to support the firm’s business development and marketing operation going forward.

The firm runs an estimated 80 to 100 webinars a year alongside a growing programme of in-person events, roundtables, client dinners, seminars, and conference activity. Its events programme was already delivering genuinely impressive results in some areas, with flagship webinar sessions drawing attendance figures of 1,400 to 1,800, well above sector norms. But there were also significant gaps: roles and responsibilities were unclear, follow-up was inconsistent, and there was no framework for measuring what events were actually producing commercially.

What I did

I began with a structured stakeholder review, conducting in-depth interviews across four functional areas of the firm’s marketing and BD operation: the leadership team, the events team, the CRM team, the marketing and communications function, and the wider Clients and Markets team. In total I spoke with more than fourteen people, from highly experienced operators who had developed sophisticated personal practices, to recent joiners whose fresh-eyes perspective gave a useful independent benchmark against the firm’s current approach.

Consistent framework

Each conversation followed a consistent framework covering event types, process experience, roles and responsibilities, CRM and systems use, measurement and follow-up, and views on what good looks like. I reviewed transcripts in full before drawing any conclusions, ensuring the recommendations reflected what people actually said rather than what I expected to hear.

Recommendations report

From those conversations I produced a detailed Recommendations Report covering the firm’s key strengths, the gaps that were holding it back, and a consolidated set of recommendations split betweenquick wins and strategic improvements. The report also included a cross-team synthesis covering six overarching themes, from resourcing to shadow systems to the content opportunity being left on the table.

The main playbook

I then used the report as the foundation for building the Event Playbook itself, a nine-section operational document covering everything from event objectives and audience targeting through to measurement, governance, physical asset management, and onboarding. The playbook was written to be ready to use from day one rather than requiring further scoping before anything could move.

Playbook light for fee earners

Alongside the main playbook I produced a Playbook Light for partners and fee earners, a concise six-section guide setting out their responsibilities at each stage of the event lifecycle, the deadlines that cannot move, and what good follow-up looks like in practical terms including outreach templates and guidance on logging outcomes in the CRM.

What the worked covered

• Fourteen-plus stakeholder interviews across all levels of the marketing and BD function
• Detailed recommendations report with actionable recommendations
• A nine-section Event Playbook covering process, roles, governance, measurement, and onboarding
• A tiered metrics framework spanning immediate Tier 1 metrics through to CRM-to-finance integration
• An attendee segmentation model and follow-up protocol for BD managers and fee earners
• A full escalation framework covering the most common failure scenarios with named decision points
• A speaker briefing checklist and invitation copy workflow
• A six-section Playbook Light for partners and fee earners

The result

The firm now has a comprehensive, firm-specific operational standard for its events function, built from evidence gathered across the team rather than imposed from the outside. The playbook is designed to grow with the firm: it includes a named owner for each section, an annual review commitment, and a development roadmap for the CRM infrastructure that will unlock the next tier of commercial measurement.

How I can help

I work with professional services firms on the marketing and BD challenges that matter most, from function reviews and playbooks to interim support and strategic projects. If you’d like to talk through what that could look like for your firm, I’d be happy to have a no-obligation conversation.