Reports To: Partner in Charge of Business Development and
Marketing
Direct Reports:
Key Strategic Relationships: DLA Piper Key Clients’ Lead
DLA Piper Africa Business Development & Marketing Team Leads
Managing Partner
Partner in charge of Knowledge Management
Key Operational Relationships:
Director/Legal Directors
Practice Group Head (PGH)
Practice Group Lead (PGL)
People and Culture Manager
Role Purpose:To provide strategic and business planning support to the firm ensuring the preparation and delivery of effective, dynamic marketing and business development plans across practice groups, clients and sectors.
Plan, coordinate, and implement the firm’s, practice groups’, and lawyer’s activities with respect
to marketing, business development, public relations and client services, and
Increase the firm and lawyers’ visibility in the target market
1. Strategic Planning
Provide strategic direction with regard to all marketing, business development and communications activities;
Develop, define and disseminate clear positioning and messaging for the firm and practice groups and lawyers;
Support and facilitate development, implementation and tracking of business development/marketing plans for the firm’s practice groups and individual lawyers consistently with the firm’s plan;
Participate in the firm’s strategic planning activities with respect to evaluation and improvement of present client relations and services and future business development opportunities and activities;
Review practice group business development plans to ensure alignment with the firm wide strategy;
Develop firm-wide, PG, Sector and lawyer BD plans.
2. Profile Raising
Manage practice group awards and league table rankings, including oversight of submission to high-profile publications, assist practice groups in articulating key messages for directory submissions and share best practices in the submissions process;
Work to embed a business development culture providing critical business development skills training to lawyers and staff as required.
3. Client Development
Conceptualize and manage client functions, seminar and events
Embark on new BD activities to grow existing business; cross-sell and bring in new clients
Keep abreast of developments with identified sectors and clients
Collaborate with the Partner in charge of Client Development and Client Pillar Sponsors to enable practice groups to develop more work from existing and new clients for the firm.
Work with partners, and PGLs to conduct and promote post transaction reviews in order to obtain client feedback and assist in improving client service.
Support the preparation of responses to client's request for proposals or information on the firm’s practice groups
Support lawyers in preparing for business development meetings with clients and prospects including follow up
4. Analysis and Research
Monitor, analyse and communicate market, industry and competitive trends for the firm and practice groups
Develop a clean sweep method of identifying, analysing and engaging with the PGs on client development opportunities from media, business forums e.g. chamber of commerce and portals, relationships and market intelligence
5. Management and Coordination
Liaison between partners and BD team – develop and maintain relationships with all levels of staff
Work to enhance BD & Marketing functions at IKM
Support, mentor and oversee the BD & marketing employees
Ensure all aspects of professional service are compliant with risk management requirements (conflict policies, new clients, awareness)
Provide management and direction to direct reports
Coordinate information sharing with the other DLA Piper and DLA Piper Africa
marketing teams with a view to sharing best practice and coordinating the roll out of initiatives within the firmDevelop and build key client and industry relationships as required, organising and participating in client reviews when necessary
Develop and manage the firm’s business development and client services annual budget, which includes marketing expenditures for the firm, practice groups, and individual lawyers
6. Tracking and reporting
Maintain the firm database utilized for marketing, business development, public relations and client services and generate reports as requested.
7. Directories and Awards
Manage the firm’s profiles on online directories and referral sites, submit information for lawyer and firm awards, promote awards and determine which directories should be launched and maintained.
8. Firm Memberships
Support lawyers on maintenance and development of relations with domestic and international law firms and other professional service providers
Develop means to leverage successfully memberships
9. Proposals and Resumes
Participate in planning and presentation efforts as appropriate (including presentation packets, slides, etc.).
Assist lawyers in developing and maintaining resumes
10. Event planning/coordination and gifts
Manage business development/client services functions, events, and opportunities for the
firm, including:
developing organizing and providing support for firm receptions, conferences, seminars, and other special firm-sponsored events; and
holiday cards, gifts, and thank you gifts for clients or referral sources.
11. Coaching and training
Tracks progress and encourage tailored business development opportunities for each lawyer and practice group
Develop training and learning support facilities for BD.
12. Service delivery & quality
DLA Piper and DLA Piper Africa
Generate high quality content and material
Attributes
Challenge courageously, question, scrutinize any decision with strategic impact for the firm
Be professional with a high client service orientation - internal and external
Demonstrate exemplary leadership capabilities i.e.
o Model the way
o Inspire a shared vision
o Challenge the process
o Enabling others to act
o Encourage the heart
Have a consistently positive attitude with a "can-do" approach as well as being able to work well on own initiative and also as part of a wider team; a collaborative working style
Be experienced in dealing with demanding workloads and conflicting priorities
Must be able to multi-task and work to deadlines, be methodical and logical as well as thrive in a robust and fast-paced environment
Take pride in their work with strong attention to detail and follow through
Have the ability to stay calm and composed in stressful and demanding situations
Have great interpersonal skills with the ability to exercise tact, diplomacy and empathy
Be able to deal effectively with people at all levels
Be commercially minded
Have the proven ability to deal with confidential and sensitive information
Technical Skills
Excellent project management and organizational skills). Must have strong probing, consultative listening skills coupled with the ability to negotiate and persuade clients and colleagues.
Strong sales techniques and coaching skills
Experience with digital marketing platforms
Strong influencing and negotiation skills
Excellent business and report writing skills
IT literate - experience of Excel, Word, Powerpoint and Outlook is
Experience and familiarity with Interaction or another
Essential Competencies Teamwork - Actively seeks to develop positive working relationships and works in cooperative partnership with colleagues in your team; strives to build positive working relationships within and outside own team; makes selfaccessible to colleagues and assists in solving problems for colleagues inside and outside the team; encourages others to work as a team; easily gains support and trust of colleagues; demonstrates commitment to the firm's values through actions, behaviour and results.
Client Care - Demonstrates reliability in meeting agreed deadlines; delivers work to the required standard; incurs no unnecessary costs and identifies most cost effective solutions, exhibits analytical skills required to assess information, consistently delivers quality service and responds to client and customer needs, makes self-available to clients, returns calls and emails promptly, handles more complex internal customer queries, builds rapport, trust and credibility with clients, customers and colleagues, represents the firm positively and professional in all situations.
Commercial Approach - Understands the firm’s structure and processes, understand the firm's policies on appropriate use of firm-provided technology and systems e.g. internet, email, demonstrates cost-effective utilisation of resources, understands the importance of profit to the firm, understands and adheres to the firm's policies and procedures.
Collaboration - Plans and manages work to balance multiple demands and competing priorities; accurately and methodically maintains records, reviews own work for completeness and accuracy, demonstrates capacity to work effectively , actively collaborates with peers to produce innovative solutions for internal and external clients, actively participates in meetings, listens actively; asks questions to gain greater understanding of client's issues and concerns.
Learning - Demonstrates a commitment to positive learning, participates in training and applies learning on the job, regularly reviews own performance and seeks feedback on progress from supervisor, demonstrates adaptability when dealing with problems, shares information, exchanges ideas and keeps others up to date, participates in and responds well to workplace changes processes.