Your questions, answered

Associates and senior associates who are serious about where their career goes next, whether that's making partner, building a book of business, or working out what you actually want from your legal career.

The Forge is an initiative from Gemma Francis Consulting (GFC), a business development consultancy that works with mid-sized law firms. It's built on GFC's work helping lawyers approach BD in a way that feels practical and authentic, not salesy.

If you're already thinking about this, you're exactly who The Forge is for. Most of what matters (reputation, relationships, visibility) is built long before anyone expects you to have it figured out.

Not yet, but you're not forgotten. We're focused on associates and senior associates for now, with more to come for senior counsel and legal directors in future.

• Forge Event tickets
• Access to Forge Roundtables
• The Vault: BD resources, frameworks and templates
• Fortnightly live Q&As
• A peer network and community platform
• Priority access to new events and cohorts

Members can also book 1:1 BD coaching sessions at a discounted member rate.

Membership and our community platform go live in January 2027. Before then, you can join us at our first Forge Event in November and register your interest to be among the first to hear about founding membership.

No. There's no prescribed way to be a member. Some people come for the events and the resources and that's it. Others get properly stuck into the community, ask questions, and connect with other members regularly. Both are completely fine.

Drop in when you need something, whether that's a resource, an answer or a conversation, and don't feel any pressure to be "active" beyond that. Everyone uses The Forge differently, and it's built to work either way.

Forge Events are held in person in London. Much of the rest of membership, including The Vault, live Q&As and the community platform, is online, so you can make the most of it wherever you're based.

Our first Forge Event, The Referral Economy, is in London on Tuesday 17th November. Register for the event here.

Yes. Individual event tickets are available to non-members. It's often how people discover The Forge before joining properly.

Yes. If you join as a founding member within 30 days of our November event, the full ticket price is credited against your membership. From 2027, if you join within 30 days of attending a Forge Event, that ticket becomes one of the events included in your membership.

You'll find full details of individual and corporate pricing on our membership page. Founding membership is available at a launch rate for a limited number of early members.

Yes. Most people put The Forge through their firm's BD or L&D budget. We've written the business case for you, covering the reasoning and the ask, ready to copy, personalise, and send to whoever signs off on spend. Get the business case.

Yes. Our corporate packages cover several named associates, with a lower price per head the more people you include. Firms with a corporate membership become a Forge Partner Firm, and the cost can be split across BD and L&D budgets. Email us at info@theforgemembership.com to talk it through.