John Grimley
I specialize in providing comprehensive business development services to professional service providers from throughout the world, including law firms, legal practice groups, individual legal practitioners, financial services and governmental relations professionals. I assist clients develop and implement comprehensive new business development initiatives aimed at securing new client engagements in both domestic and international markets.
My experience includes establishing and directing the European Representative Office of US law firm Patton Boggs LLP, where I worked closely with firm partners from a broad range of practice areas to identify and secure new clients ranging from CEO’s of major European publicly held corporations to heads of foreign sovereign governments. My experience also includes developing new international business for a European public affairs consultancy sufficient to establish a Brussels office to serve the EU public procurement and public affairs needs of those clients. Additionally, I worked as Managing Director of an American boutique investment bank, where I oversaw new business development including proprietary deal origination among middle market public and privately held companies, and referral relationship development among private equity groups, law firms, accounting firms and other professional service providers both domestically and internationally.
I have successfully assisted public and privately held companies, foreign sovereign governments, non-governmental organizations, national trade associations, real estate investment trusts and others from throughout the world secure sophisticated advisory services from capital raising to senior level governmental relations to legal and management consulting services.
Before focusing my career on international professional services business development, I held senior level roles in government and public affairs consulting. Most recently, I worked as Campaign Director for New Europe, headed by former British Foreign Secretary David Owen, which opposed UK membership of the euro currency zone while remaining constructively engaged in the European Union. Prior to this I worked as a senior public affairs consultant to a broad range of private and publicly held companies and non-governmental organizations on US federal, state and local regulatory and legislative issues. I previously served in senior legislative and communications staff roles in the California Legislature and as a writer to the President of the United States in the White House. I began my career with an American commercial real estate partnership where I identified and helped acquire and manage a profitable portfolio of commercial, multi-family residential and light industrial income properties.
A licensed attorney in the District of Columbia, I hold a Juris Doctor from the University of San Diego School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Loyola Marymount University. I also hold a certificate in European Union Studies from the Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) in Paris, France. I am a dual British and American national and an active member of the Alliance of Merger & Acquisition Advisors (AM&AA), the Inter-Pacific Bar Association (IPBA) and the Legal Marketing Association (LMA).
Speaking Engagements & Publications:
+Interviewed by Lee Pacchia of Bloomberg Law: “Consultant: BigLaw Growth is NOT Dead!”, March 14, 2013.
+Panelist, American Bar Association (ABA) Young Advocates Committee Roundtable “Launching the Young Litigator: How to Develop an Effective Business Development Plan”, February 14, 2013.
+My article of December 23rd, 2012 entitled: “Will your law firm survive 2013?”, International Business Development Blog, was included in the Continuing Legal Education (CLE) materials at: The Fordham Corporate Law Center and The Stein Center for Law and Ethics Continuing Legal Education (CLE) Program, “The Business and Ethics of Managing a 21st Century Law Firm: Lessons Learned and Reflections on the State of ‘Big Law’ in 2013” on January 23, 2013.
+My opinions on legal business development were outlined by Dr. Silvia Hodges, Adjunct Professor, Fordham Law School, in the book entitled: Best Practices in Legal Marketing, Ed. Kate Clifton, Ark Group, London, 2011.
+Colorado Bar Association, CLE Legal Connection: Your Legal Business Development Plan Should Fit on a Single Sheet of Paper, August 31, 2011
+The Lawyer: Don’t distance yourself: So you think you need an overseas office to land overseas clients? Think again. May 16, 2005
+Panelist, Martindale Hubbell Counsel to Counsel Series: Best Practices in Identifying, Valuing and Defending Your Intellectual Property, Lanesborough Hotel, London, England, October 11, 2005
+Wall Street Journal Europe: Dos and Don’ts of Working the EU, September 3, 2001
+Panelist, 100 Days of the Bush Administration, Moderated by Mr. Jim Bitterman, CNN, May 21, 2001 at France-Ameriques, Paris, France