Practical AI support for partners, BD and marketing teams who want stronger commercial outcomes – not simply more noise about tools.
Wilson Levy helps law firms turn AI into better business development, sharper client messaging and more confident partner decision-making – treating BD and marketing as the practical entry point for AI adoption across the firm.
Work is structured across three connected offers: fractional BD and AI enablement on retainer, the AI-Enabled BD & Marketing Acceleration Workshop, and Catching Up – a practical AI confidence series with books, workshops and 1:1 advisory calls for professionals at any stage of adoption.
Retainer-based support is available for upper-mid law firms that want to modernise business development with AI – without hiring a full-time transformation team.
The gap between firms that apply AI to BD and those that don't is already visible in pitch outcomes and panel decisions.
Availability is intentionally limited. Wilson Levy works with a small number of firms at any one time so that every engagement remains senior, direct and commercially useful.
Why this matters now
AI is no longer just a literacy issue. In many firms, the real gap is between knowing about AI and applying it confidently in partner, BD and marketing workflows that affect revenue.
AI is changing how clients buy legal services and what they expect from their lawyers. Wilson Levy provides the practical advisory and workshops to help your firm respond – building the AI-led thinking and workflows that drive revenue, retain clients and keep pace with the firms setting the new standard.
They need a practical way to apply AI to live commercial work – from partner conversations and client development to pitches, proposals and internal decision-making.
Some partners need a confidential space to think clearly about AI and its impact on clients, pricing and their own standing in the firm. BD and marketing teams need structured, hands-on support to use AI in the work they already do every day, safely and commercially.
"I understand the headlines, but I have not really used AI myself."
"We have tools, but usage is inconsistent and no one is quite sure what good looks like."
"I need to understand where AI can genuinely improve client development and where it does not belong."
"I need something more practical than broad AI awareness."
Wilson Levy is built to close that gap: confidential AI and BD advisory for partners and senior leaders, practical workshops for BD and marketing teams, and a structured capability layer through Catching Up – books, workshops and 1:1 AI Clarity Calls for professionals at any stage of adoption.
Shaped by a law-firm perspective, not an IT one. Wilson Levy helps firms embed AI where it can improve client development, commercial judgement and day-to-day execution. Work is structured in layers so firms can begin at a sensible point of entry rather than being pushed into a large programme too early.
01
Retained, senior-level support that strengthens BD strategy, sharpens client messaging, improves pursuit quality and embeds AI into day-to-day revenue activity. Includes confidential 1:1 and small-group advisory for partners, practice leaders and senior business professionals. Engagements are selective and kept deliberately small.
02
A practical, hands-on workshop for BD and marketing teams, focused on applying AI to real workflows – pitches, pursuits, client targeting, thought leadership and partner support. The core entry point into Wilson Levy for many firms.
03
A practical AI confidence series for professionals who want to begin applying AI in their real work. The series includes editions for the workplace, law firm BD and marketing, charity leaders, managers and small business owners, alongside in-house workshops and the AI Clarity Call – a 1:1 working session bookable directly. Books are available on Amazon; full details at catchingup.wilsonlevy.net.
For partners, BD leaders, marketing teams and senior business professionals in law firms who want to use AI with greater confidence, judgement and commercial relevance.
Wilson Levy's work is built around three connected layers: fractional BD and AI enablement on retainer for senior leaders and firms, the AI-Enabled BD & Marketing Acceleration Workshop for teams, and Catching Up – books, workshops and the AI Clarity Call – for wider capability-building and individual adoption. Each can stand alone, but together they create a clear path from individual confidence to firm-level commercial application.
Wilson Levy frameworks and materials are proprietary to the practice. Unauthorised use or reproduction is prohibited.
Wilson Levy does not require a large programme to begin. Work can start at the level that fits your current need, team readiness and available time.
Introductory Advisory Session
A single 60–90 minute working session on a live AI question affecting your practice, BD approach, client conversations or team priorities – designed to give immediate clarity and sensible next steps.
AI-Enabled BD & Marketing Acceleration Workshop
A 2–3 hour interactive workshop, delivered virtually or in person, using real BD and marketing scenarios from your firm. Workshop dates are released in limited slots.
Fractional BD & AI Enablement
Retained, senior-level advisory for partners or senior leaders who want more than a one-off discussion. Engagements are confidential, tailored and scheduled around live commercial issues. For structured, phased retainer support, see the Retainers section.
Catching Up – Books, Workshops & the AI Clarity Call
A practical AI confidence series available to individuals, teams and organisations. Eight editions cover the workplace, law firm BD and marketing, charity leaders, managers and more. The AI Clarity Call is a 60-minute 1:1 working session bookable directly from £245. Workshops are available for in-house delivery. Full details and booking at catchingup.wilsonlevy.net.
Catching Up for Law Firms
A capability-building package for mid-tier firms who want practical, firm-wide AI confidence without a major transformation programme – built for partners who are stretched and BD teams that are lean. A natural step up from a single Clarity Call or team workshop, and a step before a full retainer engagement. From £3,250. Full details at catchingup.wilsonlevy.net.
All work is scoped individually and fees are agreed based on role and context. This keeps the advisory genuinely bespoke.
Wilson Levy works with firms on a retainer basis to build AI-enabled BD capability in a deliberate, practical way. The work is structured in phases, grounded in live commercial situations and designed to leave something lasting behind.
A three-month retainer for BD and marketing teams ready to move from AI awareness to AI-enabled commercial practice.
AI in Pitches and Proposals
Map the current process, define AI-assisted workflows and identify where AI delivers the most meaningful gains in time and quality. Outputs are practical and immediately usable.
AI-Assisted BD Content
Simple, repeatable recipes for repurposing existing material and creating new client-facing content. Built around what the team already produces, not a separate content strategy.
Confidence and Skills
Short, focused sessions for BD teams and partners, built around Catching Up. Designed to move people from occasional use to working habit, at a pace that fits alongside live client commitments. The Catching Up books are also available individually on Amazon – details at catchingup.wilsonlevy.net.
AI in BD Playbook
A clear, firm-specific guide for ongoing use – covering workflows, content recipes and team guidance. Written for the people who will use it, not for a shelf.
Retainer over three months. Two to three days per month, combining workshops, live support and review sessions. Scoped to firm size, team readiness and available time.
A continuing, confidential advisory relationship for firms or senior leaders who want regular access to a trusted sounding board as commercial AI questions continue to emerge.
Available to a small number of firms at any one time, where there is a strong fit and sufficient capacity. Scope and frequency agreed individually.
Fees are agreed based on firm size, team context and scope. A typical three-month engagement is a material but focused investment. Exact scope and terms are confirmed before any commitment is made.
Discuss the programmeWe work with equity and senior partners, managing partners and ExCom members, as well as BD, marketing, strategy, innovation and other senior business professionals in law firms.
For some firms, the right starting point is a confidential conversation with a partner or practice leader. For others, BD and marketing teams are the most practical entry point – they can begin applying AI immediately in revenue-supporting work and create visible internal momentum.
"I need something more practical than broad AI awareness."
"I want my team to use AI more confidently in real BD and marketing work."
"I do not want to overinvest before we know where the value is."
Wilson Levy is a deliberately lean, senior-only practice. You work directly with an experienced BD interim who uses AI and practical playbooks to amplify your existing BD and marketing team – not replace them. The result is big-firm BD and AI enablement capability without big-firm overhead.
The focus is straightforward: AI-enabled revenue growth in real client work. Wilson Levy supports law firms through three connected layers: fractional BD and AI enablement on retainer, which strengthens BD strategy, sharpens client messaging, improves pursuit quality and embeds AI into day-to-day revenue activity; practical workshops that help BD and marketing teams apply AI immediately across pitches, targeting, thought leadership and partner support; and Catching Up, a practical AI confidence series – books, workshops and the AI Clarity Call – available to individuals independently of a firm engagement.
The work is grounded in the commercial realities of partnership firms: client relationships, fee growth, positioning and internal decision-making. Wilson Levy works with equity and senior partners, managing partners and ExCom members, BD and marketing leaders and their teams, and senior professionals across strategy, innovation and growth. Some firms begin with a confidential partner conversation. Others start with a workshop to create visible momentum inside BD and marketing teams.
The practice is led by Odette Hutchinson, a senior BD and marketing leader with experience across Herbert Smith Freehills, Accenture, EY and Barclays. Engagements are intentionally limited, ensuring support stays senior, direct and commercially focused.
Short articles on the commercial and behavioural side of AI adoption in professional services – written for practitioners, not technologists.
The barrier is rarely intellectual. For experienced professionals, it is uncertainty about how to begin safely and usefully in real work – and that is a very different problem to solve.
Read articleTraining gives people understanding. What actually changes behaviour is something more specific: applying AI to real tasks, under real conditions, in the work people are already doing.
Read articleAwareness and performance are not the same thing, and the gap between them is where most organisations are stuck. The shift requires something more specific than training or exposure.
Read articleMost thinking about AI adoption rests on a single assumption: that the main barrier is understanding. If people knew enough about what AI could do, they would naturally begin to use it. That logic underpins most training, content and organisational messaging.
But that is not what is happening in practice.
In practice, the pattern is consistent. The barrier is rarely intellectual. It is hesitation – uncertainty about how to begin in a way that feels safe, relevant and immediately useful in real work.
For experienced professionals, this matters more than it might first appear. Most careers are built on a sense of competence – knowing how work gets done and trusting your judgement in doing it.
AI disrupts that slightly. Not because it is inherently difficult, but because it introduces a space where people are unsure about the output, unsure about the risk and unsure whether they are using it correctly. So even capable professionals often delay starting – not because they doubt the value of AI, but because they have not yet found a simple, low-risk way in.
The result is a pattern that organisations rarely acknowledge: the people who stand to benefit most from AI are often the least likely to begin using it early.
This is where AI awareness reaches its limit. Understanding what AI is capable of does not remove hesitation. Confidence tends to come from small, practical attempts rather than more explanation. Once people use AI in their own work – even in a very small way – the dynamic often changes quickly. AI stops feeling abstract and starts feeling usable.
The aim is not to add more information. It is to make starting feel achievable. Because in most cases, the barrier is not knowledge. It is the moment before the first attempt.
Why haven't I started using AI yet?
Because the barrier is often confidence and uncertainty, not lack of understanding. Most professionals who haven't started know enough – they simply haven't found a low-risk way in.
What is the biggest barrier to AI adoption?
Not knowing how to start applying it safely and practically in real work – rather than any shortage of information about what AI can do.
How do you start using AI at work?
By applying it to small, familiar tasks rather than trying to learn everything at once. A single practical attempt changes the dynamic more reliably than further explanation.
Most AI training in organisations follows a familiar pattern. It introduces the tools, explains the concepts and demonstrates what is possible. People often leave better informed.
But a few weeks later, very little has changed in how work is actually done.
That is rarely because the training is poor. It is because something important is missing between understanding and application.
What people take away is often conceptual. What they need is practical integration into day-to-day work. In most professional environments, work is time-pressured, context-specific and outcome-driven. People do not have time to experiment extensively. They need tools that help them do their job immediately.
Without that connection, AI remains something people understand but do not use consistently.
The organisations that see stronger adoption tend to take a different approach. They start not with the tool, but with a task – a real piece of work someone is already doing. And they ask a simple question: what happens if we apply AI here?
That shift is subtle but important. It moves AI from something abstract into something practical. Once that happens, people stop thinking about AI as something to learn about and start seeing it as something that helps them work. That is the point at which adoption begins to take hold – not through more explanation, but through usefulness in context.
The challenge is not awareness or access to tools. It is the gap between understanding and doing. And that gap is only closed when AI is applied directly to real work, in small and meaningful ways, until it becomes part of everyday behaviour.
Why does AI training fail in organisations?
Because it focuses on understanding tools rather than applying them in real workflows. Behaviour changes when AI is used in practice, not when it is explained in principle.
What actually drives AI adoption?
Using AI on real tasks that people already do in their jobs. Application in context is more effective than any amount of additional training.
How can organisations improve AI adoption?
By embedding AI into daily workflows rather than treating it as a standalone training exercise – starting with familiar tasks and building from there.
There is a growing gap in how organisations talk about artificial intelligence. On one side is awareness. On the other is performance. They are often treated as if they are the same thing – they are not.
AI awareness is now relatively easy to achieve. Most professionals will have attended a session, read something or experimented with a tool. They understand broadly what AI can do.
But that does not necessarily change how they work.
AI-enabled performance is something else entirely. It is visible in outcomes – speed, quality, consistency and decision-making. It shows up in behaviour, not in knowledge.
Many organisations assume they are further along the adoption curve than they actually are, because they confuse exposure with adoption. They are not the same thing.
The shift from awareness to performance requires something more specific: integration into real work. Not demonstrations. Not examples. Repeated use in everyday tasks. Once AI becomes part of how someone completes familiar work, the relationship changes. It stops being something external and occasional and becomes part of how work is actually done.
At that point, the value becomes clearer: time saved, better outputs, improved decisions and more options in play. This is where AI starts to matter in a commercial sense – not as a topic of discussion, but as part of operational capability.
The challenge for most organisations is not access to tools. It is the gap between awareness and performance. And that gap is not technical. It is behavioural – it depends on confidence, context and the opportunity to apply AI in real work where the benefit is immediately visible.
Without that transition, AI remains something organisations know about. With it, it becomes something they actually use – and the difference between those two states is where real commercial impact lies.
What is the difference between AI awareness and AI performance?
Awareness is understanding what AI can do. Performance is using it effectively in real work. Most organisations have achieved the first; far fewer have achieved the second.
Why do organisations struggle with AI adoption?
Because they stop at awareness rather than embedding AI into daily workflows. Exposure to AI is often mistaken for meaningful adoption.
How do you move from AI awareness to performance?
By applying AI repeatedly to real tasks until it becomes part of normal work – not through further training or explanation, but through usefulness in context.
Practical guides and frameworks for professionals who want to move from AI awareness to confident, day-to-day application.
Eight practical editions written for specific professional audiences – from the workplace and charity leaders to law firm BD teams and small business owners. The series also includes in-house workshops and the AI Clarity Call, a 60-minute 1:1 working session for individuals. Books are available on Amazon across all editions.
Explore the full series →Whether you are a partner looking for confidential advisory support, or a BD or marketing leader exploring a workshop for your team, the first step is a brief discussion to see what is useful now.
Engagements are scoped carefully and availability is limited. The aim is not to sell a large programme too early, but to identify the most sensible point of entry and build from there only where there is clear value in doing so.
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