In The Corner Office, we ask Managing Partners at law firms across Central and Eastern Europe about their backgrounds, strategies, and responsibilities. This time around, we asked: What is the ratio between business development activities and billable hours for Partners within your team, on average?
Mykola Stetsenko, Avellum, Ukraine: Most of our partners roughly spend 30% of their time on business development efforts. The billable hours of partners are normally double the time spent on business development.
Kostadin Sirleshtov, CMS, Bulgaria: At Harvard Business School, they call this “the manager–producer dilemma,” and it is a dilemma because there is no solution. The famous “minders/finders/grinders” distinction is still very much in place in most law firms, with some clear distinction between the partners who are “externally oriented” (rainmakers) and the ones who are more “introverted” (grinders and minders). In a leading global law firm such as CMS, you need to take care of both the billable and business development elements of your practice.
The billable element varies between a firmwide minimum and a desirable level that allows for a healthy gross margin. Our team is very much in line with the roster of 1,000+ Partners globally, with billables between 1,000-2,000 hours (average of 1,400 hours). The business development activities are a bit more difficult to measure, but taking into consideration that some of the busiest partners in our team have 3,500-3,700 hours of annual time commitment, it varies between 200-1,000 hours. This includes pitches, attendance, and speaking at conferences, webinars, our own Law-Now blog, and other articles, guides, brochures, CSR campaigns, trade missions, publications, social media campaigns, etc.
Nenad Popovic, JPM & Partners, Serbia: The ballpark estimate would be 20% of the time at most, but not nearly enough. To be honest, there is no precise and reliable metric for me to get the precise number. On one hand, not all the work we do is based on billable hours, and trying to convert alternative earnings into billable hours would present an unnecessary burden. On the other hand, given the size of our markets, there is only so much business development activity that is practical and applicable from the cost-benefit perspective.
Thus, our approach to the analysis of this is quite different from the straightforward billable hours versus BD hours approach. We take into consideration quite a few more factors when reviewing this issue and the results of the Partners from all our offices. Even between them, due to different market factors and conditions, there are differences that must be considered and accepted when looking into the time dedicated by each of our Partners to BD activities.
Ivana Ruzicic, PR Legal, Serbia: On average, the ratio between business development activities and billable hours for Partners in our team is approximately 30% to 70%, respectively. Our Partners remain actively involved in client work, which is essential for maintaining strong, hands-on relationships and ensuring high-quality service. At the same time, they are expected to contribute meaningfully to the firm’s business development efforts, whether through client relationship management, networking, thought leadership, or participation in conferences and industry events.
For Managing Partners, this ratio naturally shifts more in favor of business development and strategic work. In my own case, the balance is closer to 50% BD and 50% billable, as I’m more heavily involved in firm-wide initiatives, key client relationships, and long-term growth planning.
We believe that maintaining a healthy balance between billable work and BD efforts is essential, not only for the firm’s sustainability but also for the individual professional development of our Partners.
Istvan Szatmary, Oppenheim, Hungary: At Oppenheim, we believe that everything our Partners do is, to a certain extent, business development. While the ratio of business development activities to billable hours may vary depending on an individual’s practice area and seniority, we do not apply strict rules regarding the expected number of billable hours or the amount of time spent on business development.
Nevertheless, business development is a key priority for all our partners and is integral to our long-term success.
Many of our Partners invest significant time in client relationship management, thought leadership, mentoring, and participating in industry events – activities that are not immediately billable, yet essential for sustaining and growing our client base. As a general rule, Partners are expected to dedicate as much time as necessary to cover their team’s capacities and to provide team members with meaningful and challenging tasks.
At the same time, we encourage a flexible approach tailored to the Partner’s role, the lifecycle of client matters, and market opportunities. In short, while billable work remains essential, our model places a strong emphasis on long-term business development as a core partnership function.
Oleksiy Didkovskiy, Asters, Ukraine: The firm-wide statistics without reference to a specific Partner show that, in 2024, every hour dedicated to business development equated to seven billable hours. In 2021, the year before the outbreak of the full-scale war, this ratio was 1 to 5.5.
While there is a positive trend in business development efforts and overall financial performance, both business development and billable hours have suffered a decline. This decline is primarily due to the ongoing war in Ukraine and its consequences, such as the economic downturn and a challenging investment, business, and legal environment.
In addition, many companies have had to cut their budgets for legal services, suspend or cancel projects until the war is over, and international business development initiatives have been largely hampered by restrictions on crossing the country’s border.
Milos Velimirovic, SOG in cooperation with Kinstellar, Serbia: Our firm takes a distinctive, entrepreneurial approach to business development that extends opportunities to all attorneys and staff, regardless of position. We recognize that when our lawyers develop their expertise and pursue their passions, the firm naturally grows alongside them. While we embrace flexibility, we do maintain baseline expectations. Partners are expected to allocate between 15% and 30% of their time to business development activities in some capacity, ensuring the firm’s continued growth trajectory.
This entrepreneurial approach creates a culture where business development becomes a shared responsibility rather than solely a partner’s obligation. It develops future rainmakers among Associates, diversifies our client development channels, and builds stronger client relationships through multiple attorney touchpoints. By moving away from traditional billable hour formulas and embracing individual strengths with an entrepreneurial mindset, we’ve created a sustainable model that benefits both our attorneys and our clients while driving consistent firm growth.
Pal Jalsovszky, Jalsovszky, Hungary: Among the Equity Partners, the average is 65/35, meaning 65% billable work and 35% business development. The ratio is, however, somewhat different at the level of the Managing Partner, where the proportion of billable work is substantially lower.
Christoph Mager, DLA Piper, Austria: In the competitive landscape of law firms, Partners face the challenge of balancing business development activities with billable hours. While business development is key for attracting new clients and retaining existing ones, our Partners need to ensure that they are working enough on client files to preserve our clients’ trust, but also to meet financial targets and support our profitability.
On average, the ratio between business development activities and billable work for Partners at DLA Piper in Austria is roughly 80:20. This means that Partners spend around 80 percent of their time on client advisory and 20 percent on activities such as networking, PR activities, practice development, seminars, and client development. A sufficient focus on business development activities is essential to grow and sustain our operations. However, it can also be quite time-consuming, and the time our Partners dedicate to these activities varies depending on their role and seniority.
I am a strong believer that one of the best business development tools for Partners is to deliver daily high-quality (billable) service to clients. Ultimately, balancing business development and billable hours is essential for our long-term success.
Djura Mijatovic, Zivko Mijatovic & Partners, Serbia: We treat business development as a core responsibility of a Partner, not a side activity. On average, the ratio of business development to billable hours for Partners on our team is approximately 30:70. We believe BD should be structured just like billable work: planned, tracked, and executed consistently. That’s why we encourage a set number of BD hours per week, rather than per month – it builds regularity and prevents the last-minute rush that often undermines BD effectiveness.
We also aim to maintain a 1:2 Sales-to-Marketing ratio to avoid the common pitfall of overinvesting in content and visibility while underperforming in actual client outreach. Tracking BD as a KPI – and treating it with the same importance as billable work – drives both accountability and results.
This article was originally published in Issue 12.5 of the CEE Legal Matters Magazine. If you would like to receive a hard copy of the magazine, you can subscribe here.
