Business Development Manager

This is a great opportunity to join our high performing and welcoming BD & Marketing team. Our team of 17 is headed up by our Chief Marketing Officer. The BD team of 11 is led by our Head of BD, and we also have a central marketing team of three, as well as a Client Service Director and a team assistant.

Role Specification

Our Private Client & Tax team brings together all the services that a private client might need. We support (often ultra) high net worth individuals and families in the UK and abroad, including some of the world's wealthiest families, family offices, and dynamic entrepreneurs. The team advises on all aspects of wealth structuring and transfer, family law and private wealth disputes, as well as on tax and immigration issues. Alongside this is Walgate Family Office, a non-legal offering which provides professional management services to address the personal and domestic needs of wealthy families. This is an exciting role as the teams within our Private Client & Tax practice have only recently been brought together under one combined offering, so there is a real opportunity to make a mark. To date, BD and marketing efforts have focused on raising the profile of the team externally and, while this remains a crucial aspect of the role (involving management of collateral, website content, events, directories and awards submissions), we are also now looking to drive client focused initiatives including intermediaries targeting, service delivery and relationship management. The BD Manager works closely with the Head of Department, Marketing Partner and other partner leads. The role is supported by a shared BD Executive.

Key Responsibilities

• Encourage and galvanise the Private Client & Tax practice to collaborate and go to market as one.
• Develop and implement our newly created BD plans in line with firm-wide objectives, working closely with our Marketing Partner and Head of Department, including suggesting BD activities that will help us achieve our goals.
• Understand and articulate the firm’s strategy, priorities and brand guidelines and ensure these are reflected and adhered to within the team.
• Manage (on a shared basis) a BD Executive, including around day-to-day workload and career development, mentoring and training as needed.
• Support and operationally manage our intermediaries programme (focused on both key relationships and prospects), including leading on events management, coordinating client intelligence, managing BD plans for each identified organisation, and tracking activities and referrals.
• Identify and maximise opportunities for internal cross-selling, profile raising and collaboration.
• Continue to elevate our external market presence through impactful initiatives and campaigns, including content production (such as our quarterly newsletter), events and PR, working with our communications agency as needed.
• Identify ways in which our existing activities could be modernised or made more effective and efficient.
• Lead on coordinating and managing directory and awards submissions in support of raising the profile and brand of the practice, seeking to achieve premium level rankings and award wins.
• Work with key stakeholders to identify the right places for our lawyers to be in order to attract our target work types, such as market leading conferences.
• Chair BD meetings for the Private Client & Tax practice and report or present to the wider business as needed on recent and upcoming activities and strategies.
• Lead on (formal and informal) pitch processes.
• Work with the firm’s lawyers to ensure the capture of deals information for external announcements and/or future use in credentials documents.
• Oversee budget allocation and reporting, ensuring optimal use of resources.
• Manage relationships with certain external market participants such as key publications and networking associations.
• Work with the associate group to identify and implement ‘Next Gen’ initiatives.
• Work with the BD Executive to manage administrative processes that support our BD activity, including through the proactive use of our CRM system.
• Establish efficient and robust BD processes across the team, working with the wider BD & Marketing team to establish and implement best practice consistently.
• Assess and report on ROI across all activities, communicating key learnings.
• Develop and maintain a working knowledge of the private client market through reading and attending external events, developing your own network of contacts in the industry.

For the Wider Firm:

• Work alongside the Head of BD, Chief Marketing Officer and wider team to meet firm-wide KPIs.
• Help and support others in the team on priority firm projects such as our Key Client Programme, our CRM initiative, our Private Capital campaign and our associates BD programme, as well as in relation to process improvements generally.
• Take lead responsibility for one or more of the firm’s international desks.

Person Specification

Our ideal candidate will possess the following attributes:

• At least 7 years’ experience in a professional services environment within a partnerships structure, ideally with knowledge of the Private Client & Tax sector.
• Credibility and influence, instilling a sense of trust and confidence from stakeholders.
• Successful line management experience.
• Highly organised and able to deal with multiple priorities and urgent situations which may require a temporary shift in focus.
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal.
• Confidence working with all levels of seniority, with the ability to develop strong professional relationships.
• Proactive and assertive, with a determination to get things done.
• A positive attitude and energy.
• A strategic and creative thinker, especially when presented with a challenge.
• Reliability – does what they say they’ll do.
• Able to remain calm under pressure, working to deadlines as needed.
• Excellent project management skills with a track record of seeing projects through to completion, bringing stakeholders with them.
• A desire to support, mentor and develop more junior team members, through education around best practice and coaching on soft skills.
• Commercially aware and sensitive to the needs of internal and external stakeholders.
• A team player who is willing to roll their sleeves up and help others as needed.
• Excellent understanding of Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
• Knowledge and experience of using CRM systems (such as InterAction) and EMS (such as Vuture).

You will be a confident communicator with a positive work ethic and the ability to build credible relationships with clients both internal and external. We are looking for an individual who presents themselves with professionalism and polish, who will inspire the confidence of clients and colleagues.