By Steve Fretzin and Randi Cohen

Building a Rainmaking Practice Through Authentic Relationships

The lawyers who build the strongest books of business are not always the ones who attend the most networking events, collect the most business cards, or perfect the most sophisticated sales scripts. Often, they are the lawyers who become genuinely interested in other people and consistently find ways to be helpful. For Randi Cohen, business development has never been about “working the room.” It has been about authenticity, curiosity, generosity, and building relationships that become stronger over time.

Randi Cohen has built a successful employment law practice by taking that approach seriously. Her experience demonstrates that lawyers do not have to become someone they are not to become effective rainmakers. Instead, they can use the qualities that already make them good lawyers, listening, asking thoughtful questions, understanding problems, and building trust—to create relationships that generate meaningful business and referrals.

Stop Thinking About Networking as Networking

One of Randi’s most important lessons is that lawyers should stop thinking about networking as a separate activity they have to perform. When networking becomes a task, conversations can quickly feel transactional. Lawyers start thinking about what they can get from the person standing in front of them rather than becoming interested in who that person actually is.

Randi takes the opposite approach. Her philosophy is simple: be authentic and genuinely curious. Instead of entering a room thinking about how many contacts she can make or whether someone can become a client, she focuses on learning about people. What do they do? What matters to them? What are they working toward? What challenges are they facing? Those conversations create the foundation for relationships that can develop naturally over months and years.

That mindset also removes much of the pressure lawyers feel around business development. You do not need to “sell” yourself in every conversation. You need to be memorable, trustworthy, and interested in other people. When those qualities are consistent, opportunities tend to emerge naturally.

Generosity Is a Business Development Strategy

Randi’s approach to rainmaking is also built around generosity. That means making introductions, sharing resources, referring opportunities, and helping people even when there is no immediate financial benefit.

This can feel counterintuitive in a profession where lawyers are often measured by their billable hours and revenue. But relationships rarely operate on an immediate return-on-investment timeline. Someone you help today may remember that interaction years later when a client needs an employment lawyer, a colleague is looking for counsel, or an opportunity emerges that fits your practice perfectly.

Generosity also changes how people perceive you. When you consistently help others without immediately asking for something in return, you become associated with being useful and trustworthy. That reputation can become one of the most powerful assets a lawyer has when building a referral network.

Your Clients, Competitors, and Adversaries Can Become Referral Sources

One of the most interesting aspects of Randi’s approach is that she does not limit relationship-building to obvious sources of business. Clients can become referral sources, but so can competitors and even attorneys on the other side of a case.

That requires lawyers to think beyond the immediate matter. A competitor today may know someone who needs your particular expertise tomorrow. An opposing lawyer may encounter a client who needs a different kind of representation. A former client may move into a new company or industry and eventually need legal counsel again.

The relationship matters even when the current matter ends. Lawyers who treat every interaction as an opportunity to demonstrate professionalism, kindness, and competence build a much larger network than those who only cultivate relationships with people who can send them work immediately.

Small Follow-Ups Create Big Relationships

Strong professional relationships rarely develop from one meeting. They are built through repeated touchpoints that demonstrate you remember people and care about maintaining the relationship.

That could mean sending a relevant article, checking in after a major career change, congratulating someone on an accomplishment, making an introduction, or simply reaching out because something reminded you of them. These actions may take only a few minutes, but over time they create familiarity and trust.

For lawyers trying to develop business, this is one of the most practical lessons to take away. You do not need to completely reinvent your calendar. You need to create a habit of staying connected with the people who matter to your practice. Consistency turns individual interactions into relationships, and relationships create the foundation for sustainable rainmaking.

Protect Relationships When Money Gets Complicated

Business development does not end once a client hires you. How you manage the relationship throughout the representation can determine whether that client becomes a long-term advocate for your firm.

Randi highlights the importance of handling billing and financial conversations carefully. Lawyers can become overly focused on capturing every possible billable increment, but protecting trust can be far more valuable than squeezing every last fraction of an hour from a relationship.

Clients remember how they were treated. They remember whether their lawyer was reasonable, responsive, and focused on solving their problems. A billing decision that might produce a small short-term gain can sometimes damage a relationship that could otherwise generate years of future work and referrals.

Rainmaking is therefore not simply about getting clients. It is about creating experiences that make clients comfortable recommending you to someone else.

Overcoming Imposter Syndrome as a Lawyer

Another important part of Randi’s story is the role that confidence plays in professional growth. Even highly accomplished lawyers can experience imposter syndrome, particularly when they take on a difficult case, move into a new role, or find themselves operating outside their comfort zone.

The temptation can be to interpret fear as evidence that you are not ready. But some of the most important professional growth happens when lawyers take on challenges that initially make them uncomfortable and discover that their preparation and judgment are stronger than they realized.

High-stakes cases can become turning points. When lawyers prepare thoroughly, trust their training, and work through uncertainty, they develop confidence that cannot be created through theory alone. That confidence eventually carries over into business development, leadership, and client relationships.

Authenticity Makes You More Memorable

Lawyers often receive advice to develop a “personal brand,” but Randi’s experience suggests that personal branding does not have to mean creating a carefully manufactured persona. The strongest personal brand may simply be the consistent reputation you build through your interactions with other people.

If clients know you as someone who listens, colleagues know you as someone who makes thoughtful introductions, and referral partners know you as someone who follows through, you have already built a powerful brand.

Authenticity works because people can recognize when a relationship feels transactional. When lawyers stop trying to perform what they think networking is supposed to look like and instead focus on being genuinely interested in others, conversations become more natural and relationships become more durable.

As Randi put it, “My entire approach to networking is not to think of it as networking. It’s just authenticity.”

Build Your Book of Business One Relationship at a Time

Randi Cohen’s approach is a reminder that sustainable legal business development is rarely about one big networking event, one perfect pitch, or one lucky referral. It is the cumulative result of hundreds of small interactions that establish trust and demonstrate value.

The lawyers who consistently ask good questions, help others, follow up, make introductions, protect relationships, and stay connected create a network that continues working for them throughout their careers. Over time, those relationships can become clients, referral sources, mentors, collaborators, and advocates.

For lawyers who dislike traditional sales, this approach offers a different path. You do not have to become a salesperson to become a rainmaker. You can become someone people trust, remember, and feel comfortable recommending. That is not only a more authentic approach to business development, it can also be one of the most effective.

About Randi Cohen

Randi M. Cohen, Esq. is a labor and employment counselor and litigator at Kalmanson Cohen PLLC with nearly 20 years of experience representing individuals and businesses. She focuses on practical, personalized problem-solving and specializes in resolving workplace issues through strategic counseling and negotiation while maintaining a strong litigation practice in federal, state, and administrative tribunals across New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

Randi is widely sought after by small and medium-sized businesses and individuals and is an active author and member of the American Bar Association and New York City Bar Association. She has been recognized as a New York Metro Super Lawyer and earned her J.D., cum laude, from New York Law School and her B.A. from Muhlenberg College.

Connect with Randi Cohen

Website: https://kalmansoncohen.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/randimcohen-employmentlawyer/

Connect with Steve Fretzin

LinkedIn: Steve Fretzin
Twitter: @stevefretzin
Instagram: @fretzinsteve
Facebook: Fretzin, Inc.
Website: BETHATLAWYER.com
Email: Steve@Fretzin.com
Book: Legal Business Development Isn’t Rocket Science and more
YouTube: Steve Fretzin
Call Steve directly at 847-602-6911

Ready to Grow Your Law Practice?

If you are ready to grow your law practice without selling or chasing, schedule your free 30-minute strategy session with Steve Fretzin. The goal is to build a business development approach that feels natural, consistent, and aligned with the way you want to practice law.

You can also join the BE THAT LAWYER Community to connect with ambitious lawyers who are serious about growing their book of business, strengthening their brand, and becoming confident, consistent rainmakers.

Be sure to check out BE THAT LAWYER Coaches Corner for the strategies Steve uses with his clients to win more business and love their careers again.

And if you are ready to go from good to GOAT in your legal marketing game, don’t miss PIMCON, where the brightest minds in professional services gather to share what really works.

Thank you to LEX Reception, Rankings.io, and Lawyer.com for supporting the legal community.

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