BD that actually sticks.
We help lawyers build BD habits that work in real life - not just in theory, and not just during a training session.
About GFC
The problem
We built GFC because we kept seeing the same thing: lawyers who were capable, motivated, and still not doing BD. The problem was rarely that they lacked the skills. It was that nobody had given them a plan that was honest about the time they actually had, or addressed the beliefs that were getting in the way — the sense that BD was not really for them, or that they needed to be a certain type of person to do it well.
A training day can cover a lot of ground. What it cannot do on its own is change how someone thinks about BD, or build the kind of habit that survives a difficult week. That is why we build in follow-through from the start — not as an afterthought, but as a core part of how every programme is designed.
Our approach
We don’t go straight to tools and techniques. We start further back with what is actually getting in the way. Then we build habits that are realistic enough to survive a busy week, and specific enough to make a difference.
Mindset before method
Before we talk about what to do, we look at what is getting in the way. The barrier is usually a belief — about what BD should look like, about whether someone is the right kind of person for it, about what 'enough' actually means at their stage of career.
Embedded, not delivered
We do not deliver and disappear. Whether we are running a training programme, supporting a coaching client, or working on a directories campaign, we are invested in whether the work actually changes something — not just whether the session went well. That means building in follow-through from the start.
Simplified, not scaled down
BD gets abandoned when it gets overengineered. We have built our methodology — including frameworks like Minimum Viable BD Planning — around simplicity. A plan that is too complex to use in a busy week is not a plan. We help lawyers build something they will actually come back to.
What we do
GFC works with law firms and individual lawyers across four areas. Some clients come to us for one; others work with us across several over time.
Momentum — our associate BD training programme, built from the ground up for where associates actually are in their career. The only dedicated programme of its kind.
One-to-one BD coaching — for senior lawyers at pressure points: a new role, a push for partnership, or a practice that needs to grow.
Legal directories strategy and support — planned, structured work that reduces last-minute strain and improves results over time.
Fractional BD support — strategic BD input at firm level, for firms that need experienced resource without a full-time hire.
Momentum
Associate BD training
Most BD training treats associates as a secondary audience – a smaller version of what gets delivered to partners. Momentum was built differently. It is designed specifically for associates: where they are in their career, what BD looks like at their level, and what a realistic plan means when you are building a practice from scratch.
Meet the team
The team behind GFC was not assembled by accident. Between us, we bring experience as former lawyers, in-house BD professionals, Legal 500 researchers, and specialists who have worked across professional services beyond law. Each person has a distinct area of focus — and together we cover a range that most practices of our size do not.
What ties all of it together is a shared belief: that BD does not have to be this hard, and that the right support – specific, embedded, and honest about what actually works – makes a measurable difference.
Gemma Francis
Founder
I started my career as a Legal 500 researcher, which gave me an unusual vantage point: I could see, in granular detail, how firms positioned their work and their people — and how rarely the two matched. I moved in-house to run BD at an international law firm in London, and later at a patent attorney firm, before founding GFC. Today I work across the full range of what GFC does: training, one-to-one coaching, BD strategy and planning, and fractional support for firms that need senior BD thinking without a full-time hire. Running my own business has also changed how I think about BD — I have had to do it myself, find clients, build relationships, earn trust. That experience is in everything I bring to client work.
Megan Churchill
BD & Marketing Advisor
I practised as a Property Litigation Solicitor at a Top 100 firm for seven years before making the move into BD and marketing. That background means I understand the pressures fee-earners are under — the billable hours targets, the competing demands, the instinct to treat BD as something for later. My focus at GFC sits across training, legal directories strategy and support, and fractional in-house coverage — stepping in when a firm needs experienced BD resource on the ground, without the overhead of a permanent hire. I understand both sides of the table, and that shapes how I work.
Olivia James
BD & Marketing Executive
My background is in BD and marketing within asset management, where I spent over a decade working on pitches and campaigns before moving to the legal sector. I am also a former Legal 500 researcher and hold a law degree — so I came to GFC with both the technical knowledge and the sector grounding already in place. I work across training, legal directories, and fractional project support — including campaigns, content and marketing initiatives where firms need external resource for a defined piece of work rather than an ongoing retainer. The cross-sector perspective I bring tends to surface ideas that pure legal experience sometimes misses.