Business Development Manager, Dispute Resolution

The role

Howard Kennedy is a successful, well-known and ambitious mid-tier law firm looking to extend its footprint and grow across all areas of the business. The firm has enjoyed strong financial growth and improvement in its profile and reputation over recent years. It has recently developed a new three-year business plan which will see it grow to around £80 million revenue, including through the recruitment of a number of new partners. We expect our plans to see us grow faster than the market over this period and there is no reason why we should not be in the top-50 UK law firms in the years ahead.

While this growth is planned in each of the firm's departments, Dispute Resolution is a key component of our firm. The department's growth in the last three years has been unprecedented and the support of a strong and effective business development programme will be crucial to maintaining the current trajectory.  

Our Dispute Resolution practice comprises 16 partners and a further 34 fee earners. Our focus is clearly defined and is on Commercial Dispute resolution (particularly on Civil Fraud, International Arbitration and contentious insolvency), Business Crime and Regulatory, Media Litigation and Restructuring and Insolvency (a cross-practice team which encompasses individuals from various areas within of the firm). The role will also support our activities within the Media & Entertainment sector too. 

We require a Dispute Resolution Business Development Manager (BDM) whose principal role will be in developing and implementing business development initiatives aimed at building client relationships, identifying new business opportunities, helping to win new work and positioning and profiling the firm in our chosen markets.

The BDM must have a proactive approach to their work and have strong influencing skills in order to advise effectively at partner level. The role sits within the Business Development & Marketing team but will also work very closely with the Dispute Resolution Department management team. They will have line management responsibility for an assistant and will work closely with other members of the 17-strong team who will provide communications and digital marketing support.

Role responsibility

Advisory level support

• Develops a strong working knowledge of the practice's services as well as an understanding of the revenue priorities, clients and prospects
• Leads the support of business development and marketing planning for the Department's go-to-market groups
• Works with the PSL team to undertake horizon scanning to understand competitor strategies so as to help define our unique selling points and to identify and develop relevant opportunities to exploit these
• Takes a lead role in identifying business development opportunities with new clients and, with the designated partner(s), leads the pursuit and conversion of these
• Takes a lead role in maintaining and growing existing client and intermediary relationships, using relevant data to inform ongoing focus
• Drafts, tracks and evaluates business development plans and efforts on an ongoing basis
• Conducts client / prospective client research and analysis using our Knowledge and Finance team resources

Reactive, doing support

• Develops innovative and creative practice related materials (practice group toolkits, presentations, profiles, deal lists, case studies, etc.)
• Develops responses to requests for proposals, tenders and developing credential documents
• Develops the profile of the practice by leading on the tracking and dissemination of key activities, proposals, new business wins, etc.
• Works with the marketing communications team to drive marketing initiatives and campaigns associated with profile raising
• Assists fee-earners with optimising their personal brands and enhancing their profiles  
• Leads on the identification of brand building opportunities and the preparation of directory and award submissions
• Proactively keeps abreast of trends in the market in order to identify potential hot topics and ideas for content and lead on the creation and distribution of this
• Leads on the creation and management of relevant distribution lists and regularly report on readership
• Collaborates with BD peers on cross-selling opportunities across the firm, joining the dots and spotting opportunities from activity across the firm
• Drives collection and collation of data to inform ongoing BD focus. This includes promoting fee-earner engagement with tools used to collect information
• Provides progress/ status reports to the department's leadership team

About you

• Confidence and gravitas to encourage doing the right thing
• Creative, proactive and enthusiastic, bringing new ideas to the table
•  Able to present ideas and views clearly and with confidence to people at all levels, including partners and clients
• Proactive and tenacious, capable of identifying, developing and gaining support for marketing and business development initiatives
• High level of attention to detail
• Flexible, adaptable and a good team player

You will be able to demonstrate;

• An excellent level of understanding of dispute resolution services
• An excellent understanding of the professional services sales process
• Expertise of pitching and tendering and the ability to advise on the process and project manage opportunities
• Good writing skills, able to write persuasive and succinct prose
• Experience of developing profile building activities and supporting others in their awareness raising efforts
• Experience of working within a professional services team
• Experience of managing budgets and articulating ROI for the team's activities

Benefits

• Competitive salary
• 25 days annual holiday
• Permanent Health Insurance
• Life Assurance
• Interest free Season Ticket Loan
• Private Healthcare
• Pension Scheme
• Staff Introductory Scheme
• Employee Assistance Programme

About us

We are a London based, full-service law firm, specialising in providing straightforward advice to entrepreneurial businesses and individuals on domestic and international matters.

We have grown substantially in recent years, including two mergers and an office move. We’ve also matured in terms of our approach to providing advice to our clients, seeking to simplify and improve the experience of working with a modern, independent law firm.

We’re proud of our journey. Without losing sight of where we’ve come from, we are focused on where we’re going. We are evolving and growing every day. And just like our clients, we are ambitious and moving forward. Many of our clients are entrepreneurial, ambitious enterprises who are often privately or family owned, or private equity backed. We are one of the only London based law firms with a large private wealth offering alongside significant business law capability.

The firm also advises major corporates on particular specialist legal matters who find our straightforward approach a compelling alternative to larger, less personal firms.