The danger of relying on a handful of rainmakers while failing to develop tomorrow’s business developers, and why every attorney should learn to create opportunities for themselves.
Weil, Gotshal & Manges should be a wake-up call for law firm management and attorneys alike.
When a law firm relies heavily on a handful of major rainmakers to generate business, while failing to develop the business development skills of its other attorneys, it creates a vulnerability that could ultimately threaten the firm itself.
But there’s another side to this story. For individual attorneys, the ability to generate business isn’t just about making partner, increasing compensation, or becoming more valuable to their firm. It’s about having choices. It’s about having some control over your own professional future rather than leaving it entirely in someone else’s hands.
And if you think Weil is an isolated example, think again.
Brobeck Phleger & Harrison. Heller Ehrman. Dewey & LeBoeuf. Howrey. These are just a few of the once-prominent law firms that have disappeared, leaving behind thousands of attorneys and staff members to figure out what comes next.
Now add Weil, Gotshal & Manges to that list.
Founded in 1931, Weil was hardly a struggling boutique firm. It was one of the most recognizable names in BigLaw, with approximately 1,200 lawyers and more than $2 billion in annual revenue. Its attorneys handled some of the country’s most significant corporate transactions, litigation, and bankruptcy matters.
Yet on October 28, 2026, the firm’s management committee announced that it was recommending an orderly wind-down of its operations.
Think about that for a moment. More than $2 billion in revenue. An extraordinary reputation. Significant institutional clients. Nearly a century of history. And now, the firm is facing the end of its operations.
So, what happened?
The immediate circumstances included a series of high-profile partner departures, uncertainty over leadership succession, and unsuccessful merger discussions with Willkie Farr & Gallagher.
Among the departures was Michael Aiello, Weil’s corporate department chair, who left for Cravath and took five other partners with him. Other prominent partners moved to competitors, and the departures made an already difficult situation increasingly challenging.
What is particularly interesting is that Weil was reportedly financially healthy. According to Reuters, its average profits per equity partner were approximately $5.4 million in 2025.
This wasn’t simply a firm running out of business or being unable to pay its bills. It was a firm that could no longer maintain the partnership’s confidence and cohesion.
And that brings us to a much bigger issue.
The Rainmaker Problem
Law firms have historically placed enormous value on their major rainmakers. These are the partners who bring in significant clients, generate substantial revenue, and often become the faces of the firm’s most important client relationships. And rightfully so. Bringing in business is essential to a law firm’s survival.
But here’s where I believe many firms get it wrong.
They spend considerable time, money, and effort recruiting established rainmakers from other firms, negotiating compensation packages, and celebrating the revenue those individuals generate. What they often fail to do is invest the same level of effort in teaching their own attorneys how to develop business.
In other words, they recruit rainmakers rather than create them. That’s a dangerous business strategy.
What Happens When Your Rainmakers Leave?
This isn’t just a theoretical concern. Academic research has examined why law firms collapse and identified some remarkably consistent patterns.
In a 2017 article published by Harvard Law School’s Center on the Legal Profession, based on research by Yale Law professor John Morley, the author examined recurring patterns of law firm failure.
One scenario Morley describes begins with the departure of a senior rainmaker, often accompanied by other partners and associates who serve that rainmaker’s clients. Those departures can trigger additional departures, reducing revenue, undermining confidence, and creating what Morley describes as a self-reinforcing spiral of partner withdrawals.
In other words, one departure can become many. And suddenly, a firm that appeared perfectly healthy can find itself in an existential crisis. The research is worth reading, particularly for anyone involved in law firm management.
That’s why developing rainmakers throughout an organization matters. Not because every associate needs to become a million-dollar business generator tomorrow. Not because everyone needs to become the next superstar partner. But because a firm’s future should never depend on the business development abilities of a handful of individuals.
Rainmaking Is Not an Inherited Trait. It Is a Learned Skill.
Attorneys need to understand that developing business doesn’t magically happen when they make partner. It isn’t something to leave to attorneys who are naturally outgoing, exceptionally well-connected, or particularly comfortable selling themselves. And it certainly isn’t something to address only when an attorney’s billable hours begin to decline, or the firm realizes it needs another rainmaker.
Business development should be part of an attorney’s professional development from the beginning.
- Associates should learn how to build relationships, understand their clients’ businesses, recognize opportunities, develop their professional networks, and maintain meaningful connections with the people who can become clients and referral sources.
- Mid-level attorneys should be learning how to expand those relationships and become trusted advisors.
- Senior attorneys should be developing their own books of business while mentoring and introducing younger attorneys to their networks.
- Partners should do more than generate business themselves. They should be helping build the next generation of rainmakers.
Because that’s what makes a firm sustainable.
But This Isn’t Just About the Firm. It’s About Your Career.
For individual attorneys, becoming a rainmaker is about something much bigger than making partner, increasing your compensation, or becoming one of the firm’s most valuable lawyers.
It’s about having choices.
Think about it. If you are an exceptionally talented attorney who does outstanding legal work but have never developed the ability to generate business, how much control do you really have over your professional future? Your career may depend on the firm you work for, the partners who assign you work, the rainmakers who bring in your clients, and the firm’s willingness and ability to keep giving you opportunities.
What happens if the partner who feeds you work leaves? What happens if your practice group is dismantled? What happens if the firm merges, restructures, or, as we’re seeing with Weil, winds down its operations? You may be an outstanding attorney, but legal talent alone doesn’t necessarily give you control over where your career goes next.
Now consider the alternative.
An attorney who has developed their own client relationships, cultivated a professional network, established a reputation in their area of practice, and learned how to generate business has options that other attorneys may not have.
They can create new opportunities within their current firm. They can strengthen their position within the partnership. They can become less reliant on others for work and opportunities. Additionally, if circumstances change, they will possess valuable skills to offer to another firm or even have the foundation to explore a different career path.
That’s not to suggest that every attorney needs to build a multimillion-dollar book of business or become the next superstar rainmaker. Nor does developing business mean that clients belong to an individual attorney rather than the firm. Client relationships and client choice are more complicated than that.
But every attorney should understand that developing business is one of the most valuable professional skills they can acquire. It creates independence. It creates leverage. And perhaps most importantly, it creates choices.
Don’t leave your professional future entirely in someone else’s hands. Learn how to create opportunities for yourself.
A Law Firm’s Greatest Business Development Asset Shouldn’t Be Its Biggest Rainmaker. It Should Be Its Collective Ability to Develop Business.
This is also where firm leadership needs to take a hard look at its own responsibilities.
If your firm’s business development strategy relies primarily on hoping your most successful partners keep bringing in business, you don’t have a business development strategy. You have a dependency. And dependencies create risk.
What would happen if your top three rainmakers left tomorrow? How much of your firm’s revenue would walk out the door with them? How many client relationships belong to the firm, as opposed to the individual attorney? And how many other attorneys have the skills, confidence, and experience to develop new business?
These are not hypothetical questions for a rainy day. Law firm management should be asking them now.
And individual attorneys should be asking themselves some questions, too.
If the partner responsible for bringing in your work left tomorrow, what would happen to your practice? If you had to find another position, what relationships and business development skills would you bring with you? Are you actively developing your own professional network, or are you simply relying on the network someone else has built?
The ability to develop business shouldn’t be viewed as an optional extra for attorneys who aspire to become equity partners. It should be considered an essential component of being a successful attorney at every level.
The Lesson Isn’t Simply to Retain Your Rainmakers. It’s to Develop More of Them.
Compensation, succession planning, leadership, firm culture, and client relationships all matter. Weil’s circumstances are complicated, and it would be unfair to suggest that a lack of rainmaking training alone brought the firm down. But its demise highlights a vulnerability that every law firm should examine.
You cannot control whether a major rainmaker decides to leave. You cannot control what a competitor offers that individual. And you cannot guarantee that every client relationship will remain with your firm. What you can control is whether you have invested in developing the business development skills of the attorneys who will be responsible for your firm’s future.
And as an individual attorney, you can control whether you invest in developing those same skills for your own future.
Because the best time to develop your next generation of rainmakers isn’t when your current generation starts walking out the door. It’s long before that.
And the best time for an attorney to learn how to generate business isn’t when they suddenly find themselves without enough work, without a mentor, or without a firm. It’s now.
Whether you’re managing a law firm or building your own legal career, the message is the same.
Rainmakers Are Not Born. They Are Taught.
And the future of your firm, and perhaps your own career, may depend on whether you believe that.
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