Using Litigation Alerts to Support Business Development: A Strategic Guide for Law Firms

For law firms focused on strategic business development, litigation alerts are more than an information source—they’re a tool for identifying opportunities, building relationships, and staying ahead of the competition. But not all alerting systems are created equal. Traditional tools often fall short, limited by rigid search logic, lagging delivery times, or flimsy results that make it difficult to act with speed or confidence.

Law.com Radar offers a modern alternative. With real-time alerts, rich data, and flexible configuration options, Radar is designed to help firms use litigation activity as a strategic asset. This guide outlines three key business development use cases—and how to execute them effectively using Law.com Radar’s toolkit.

1. Identifying New Opportunities

For firms that want to uncover new matters and develop new client relationships, litigation alerts are a critical source of business intelligence. The most common strategy here is to cast a wide net—setting up alerts based on geographic regions, industries, and practice areas that align with the firm’s strengths.

But this approach brings a familiar challenge: unmanageable volume. Even a moderately configured alert can generate a flood of filings, many of which are low-value or off-topic. The real work becomes separating the signal from the noise.

Law.com Radar addresses this with tools designed for relevance. Precision claim tagging based on the SALI taxonomy allows users to filter and organize alerts based on standardized classifications, while AI-generated case summaries provide at-a-glance insight into what each filing is about—without needing to open every complaint. Users can also export data to spreadsheets or dashboards, making it easier to scan results and identify patterns over time.

The goal isn't just to surface more cases—it's to identify the right opportunities, faster.

2. Staying Top of Mind with Clients and Prospects

Monitoring litigation involving clients, prospects, or peer companies helps firms remain engaged and responsive. It opens the door for timely check-ins, insight-driven outreach, and informed conversations. Many firms configure alerts around specific parties—clients, competitors, targets—or around companies in the same market segment.

The challenge isn't in creating the alerts, but in acting promptly on what they reveal. Delays—whether due to extensive manual review or complex search platforms—can make the difference between a valuable touchpoint and a missed opportunity.

Radar simplifies this workflow. Alerts can be configured in minutes, and each case notification includes direct access to the complaint, saving time and streamlining your next steps. For firms with more bespoke systems, Law.com Radar's Case Data API allows updates to feed directly into CRMs, dashboards, or tracking tools—ensuring that key teams see filings as they happen, not days later.

In an environment where relationship-building hinges on timing and relevance, ease of use and reducing friction becomes essential.

3. Seeing What Others Miss—and Seizing First-Mover Advantage

The most competitive firms don’t just respond to new litigation—they anticipate shifts in the legal and business landscape. By tracking emerging industries, novel legal theories, or changes in regulatory enforcement, firms can position themselves as early movers in developing markets.

This strategy is more exploratory, often requiring a creative and custom set of alerts. The challenge here is connection: seeing patterns across disconnected filings, jurisdictions, and time periods that might not yet be making headlines.

Radar supports this approach by offering unlimited alerts, allowing users to monitor niche or speculative areas without penalty and with full-text search across complaints which enables professionals to find relevant cases based on key themes and phrases found deep in source documents 

Law.com Radar also offers unmatched trend detection features, a cutting edge system designed to expose shifts and patterns in case filings before they become visible to the human eye. Together, these tools give legal professionals the ability to surface signals—early indicators of where litigation may be headed—before competitors catch on.

By empowering attorneys and business development teams to connect the dots early, Radar helps firms be first to offer insight, guidance, or representation in fast-changing areas of law.

Conclusion

Business development in legal services increasingly depends on horizon-scanning and being able to provide clients with timely, relevant information. But information alone isn’t enough. To turn alerts into action, firms need tools that are flexible, precise, and aligned with the way legal professionals work today.

Law.com Radar was designed with these needs in mind and supports the full spectrum of litigation intelligence strategies, from identifying new business to strengthening client ties and uncovering emerging opportunities.

For firms looking to elevate their approach to litigation alerting, the tool is here. Choose Law.com Radar over outdated solutions and get ready to move faster than the competition.