GrowthLeaders is the 4 week AI leadership accelerator mid-to-senior lawyers choose to embed AI in finding, winning and converting new business. With tracked pipeline, commercial confidence and market visibility in weeks (not months).
Law Firms | Chambers | ALSPs | AI-Native | LegalTech | Fiduciary | Funds | Private Capital | Professional Services
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During periods of change - new leadership, expansion, promotion, M&A, investment - few mid-to-senior lawyers and partners have the confidence they can achieve their revenue goals. Many don't have the modern commercial behaviours to consistently originate. Even fewer apply AI to new business.
With GrowthLeaders, we fix this with a practical 4 week AI Growth Sprint - including baseline diagnostics using our GROWTH-AIQ Index, hands-on workshops, and 1-2-1 support - focused on using AI for live pipeline building across your fee-earners.
Designed and led by sector experts and ex-P&L owners (not trainers) who have lived in your shoes.
Most AI training teaches lawyers about AI. The Sprint has them winning work with it.
Rapid commercial impact tracking new pipeline, market visibility and commercial confidence to win work applying AI.
We show management exactly where revenue is leaking, what's holding it back, and how to fix it: management report, tracked ROI and 30/60/90-day roadmap.
Grant Thornton Channel Islands has chosen GrowthLeaders. From September 2026 we'll run a five-week AI Growth Sprint with their Associate Directors, Directors and Partners across audit, tax and advisory in Guernsey and Jersey, helping the firm widen its origination base and turn its AI investment, including Microsoft Copilot, into new business.
Designed for mid-to-senior fee-earners, practice leads, P&L owners, BD and Innovation teams who need to adopt AI and build pipeline more consistently (not just deliver work). We also recommend junior associates attending to learn best practices and start building pipeline now (rather than later).
Real evidence of measurable change
It has been really interesting to watch Andrew put an experienced group of our industry professionals through a focused growth sprint. It has been even more interesting to see the lightbulb moments that have led to clear and measurable changes in behaviours when approaching business development opportunities.
Head of Trust & FiduciaryI thought I was good at driving growth, but through working with Andrew I learned to become much more strategic and systematic. The Sprint enabled us to unlock new sectors and double-down on what was already working, tightening up positioning and commercial process.
Senior Counsel · UK Law FirmFollowing the Sprint I now approach BD conversations with a clear structure and purpose, rather than waiting for opportunities to come to me.
Client Service Director · Global Trust & Banking Group"This is the programme I wish I had access to when I was a lawyer"
Andrew Essa, Founder of GrowthLeaders
Key forces are exposing structural weaknesses in how firms generate and scale revenue beyond the few at the top. The readiness gap into growth leadership is real. The gap between AI ambition and adoption is increasing.
Only 22% of partners have the commercial behaviours that drive growth; the rest are technically excellent and commercially passive.
Harvard Business Review, 2023 · n=1,800 partners, 23 firms
Firms have invested in AI, but almost no fee-earner uses it to win work, and half of leaders say their organisations lack the skilled talent to manage it. Faster delivery without more origination is just capacity you can't fill.
Kyndryl People Readiness Report, 2025 · n=1,100
As one Managing Partner of a top 10 global law firm told us: "The current and next generation of talent is not ready to transition to the next level."
McKinsey State of Organizations, 2026 · n=10,018
Doing good work is no longer a defence against market volatility. With GrowthLeaders, these challenges are solvable.
Three phases: Define. Build. Embed.
From commercially hesitant. To commercially activated using AI.
Understand baseline confidence to build pipeline, win work, and use AI
Delivered in 1 week, our proprietary GROWTH-AIQ Index quantifies whether your fee-earners are confident to generate revenue and targets are actually achievable (or just hope).
It also identifies whether your operating model enables growth (or constrains it), whether teams can use AI to do it, surfaces new growth opportunities, and shows exactly where revenue is leaking. Captured in a board-level pack with insights, priorities and roadmap.
Commercially activate using AI tools
Following the GROWTH-AIQ, we deploy our flagship 4-6 week programme designed for mid-to-senior fee-earners and new partners, built on our 8C Growth Leadership Model. Weekly practical workshops build live pipeline, market visibility, a personal Growth Plan and Growth OS, with AI applied to real BD in every module.
Management report with roadmap to embed gains, maximise growth opportunities, and fix constraints.
Apply nowMeasure and track gains + ROI
Our faculty meet with the cohort for structured review sessions on progress and Q&A. This is often the best time for the cohort to share learnings, lessons and tips with the group to evidence Sprint gains.
At 90 days, the final GROWTH-AIQ Index diagnostic provides the insights both the cohort and management need to decide where to invest, support, or intervene next.
Optional extra: hands-on execution support for management: operating models, AI enablement, talent and growth strategy.
Launching January 2027, all GrowthLeaders Sprint cohort attendees will be invited to join the GrowthLeaders community — consisting of a newsletter, podcast, and VIP dinners — to share learnings, network, and build new relationships.
Just have 1 day? Get GrowthLab for a high-energy day of best practice AI for Growth Leadership.
Not every firm wants a multi-week programme. Sometimes the moment is a partner off-site, an away day, a leadership retreat or a conference, and it deserves more than a guest speaker and a slide deck. GrowthLab is built for exactly that moment.
A half-day or one-day intensive practical workshop and activation experience that condenses the GrowthLeaders Sprint: diagnostics, working sessions, live activities and guest speakers, all applied to your firm's real clients and opportunities.
Your team leaves with sharper commercial habits, first-hand AI-for-BD experience, and actions they can run the next morning, not just a good day out.
Shorter still? We also run a free 1-hour Lunch 'n Learn to introduce modern growth leadership and AI for new business to your team.
For Practice Leads, BD, AI & Innovation, and Talent teams to keep building growth leaders long after we leave.
Growth doesn't stop when the Sprint ends. GrowthEnabler equips your HR, L&D, practice heads and team leaders with the frameworks, session guides, GROWTH-AIQ pulse tools and playbooks to keep upskilling fee-earners themselves.
It answers the question every Managing Partner asks: what happens after the programme? With GrowthEnabler, your leaders carry it on. No sales background required.
Apply nowScale pipeline beyond a few rainmakers, improve performance visibility, and build a more reliable AI-enabled growth engine.
Shifting from technical expert to confident, market-visible growth leader.
More predictable growth with less reliance on a few individuals.
More consistent pipeline from existing clients and new opportunities.
Clearer link between activity, pipeline, and revenue.
Help your people move from doing the work to winning the work.
Revenue won is a longer-term KPI given typical sales cycles. All measures tracked at baseline, Sprint end and 90 days with the GROWTH-AIQ Index.
GrowthLeaders works best when something has changed, and commercial progress has to show in the next 90-180 days, not the next planning cycle. In almost every one of these moments, the same AI question surfaces: "We have the AI tools. Now how do we get more of the team winning work with them - at pace, at scale, and with ROI?"
A new Managing Partner or CEO with a growth mandate to deliver, and an AI strategy to prove.
Before or after promotion, the pressure is on to shift into growth mode.
The AI investment is made; the commercial return still has to show, at pace, scale and ROI.
The deal is done. Now organic growth and AI adoption have to keep pace.
Accelerating for new investment or post-deal value-creation and exit readiness.
Rainmakers nearing exit, with no next generation ready to carry origination.
Pipeline flat, the same names on every deal, momentum gone.
Growing quickly. New and existing hires must become commercially effective, fast.
Sound familiar? You've invested in training, coaching or consultants, and it hasn't translated into pipeline or revenue. That's usually when we get the call.
We support VC/PE funds looking to accelerate growth and AI adoption in their Legal & Business Services portfolios, as well as adjacent sectors with similar challenges.
Andrew Essa
Founder & CEO
Fairhaven Growth Partners
Andrew is a former IT/M&A lawyer (Australia) turned growth and transformation leader at leading consulting firms including Accenture (UK). He has held P&L, commercial and board advisory roles across the UK, EU, Channel Islands, US and APAC.
He publishes DISRUPT AI, a newsletter, and hosts Legal DISRUPTORS, a podcast interviewing the hottest legal AI start-ups and AI-enabled GCs. Since 2024 he has served on the IoD Guernsey committee focused on Leadership, Skills & AI.
For each engagement we hand-pick the right practitioners for your context. Sample guest faculty below from a recent offshore trust and fiduciary client.
Business building specialist across commercial growth, product innovation and risk. Ex-KPMG.
Ex-Praxis (HK) and Herbert Smith. Barrister and solicitor in New Zealand, Hong Kong, England & Wales.
"One of the world's leading private client lawyers" (Chambers 500). Ex-Allen & Overy.
The external guests were really thought-provoking and inspiring — it was great hearing their insights and how they put the relevant subjects and skills into practice.
Client Service DirectorRead latest thinking from our founder, Andrew Essa. Follow him on LinkedIn or sign up to DISRUPT, his monthly AI newsletter.
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Read moreGet GrowthLeaders for you, your team or your firm. Or tell us what you are interested in and we'll be in touch for a chat.
GrowthLeaders is built and delivered by Fairhaven Growth Partners, which provides growth advisory, capital and support for scaling LegalTechs and transforming legal & professional services firms. fairhavengrowthpartners.com
