Vinson & Elkins Is Training Associates To Think Like Business People

When Vinson & Elkins LLP partner and international construction head Roberta Downey became a lawyer 34 years ago, business development training for attorneys was something she never heard discussed.

But Downey, who is based in London, said recently it’s no longer enough just to focus on legal skills.

“What clients want is businesspeople with legal skills, rather than lawyers,” she said. “They want us to understand the business. They want us to think like a businessperson. And that’s really a very hard thing to teach.”

But V&E is doing just that with BD Lab, a firmwide program for associates. BD Lab was launched in January 2024 and features quarterly training programs on networking, cross-selling, personal branding and client engagement — all tailored to each lawyer’s level and style….

Randi M. Revisore, the firm’s Houston-based chief business development officer, said that while V&E previously had business development programming in the past, associates had been expressing that they were hungry for content beyond traditional one-hour sessions of continuing legal education, and so BD Lab was born.

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