Business Development Executive

Shoosmiths - UK Law Firm of the Year Winner at the Legal Week British Legal Awards 2015.

A leading UK law firm with a network of offices from the South Coast to Scotland, working together as one national team. An innovative practice and the first top 100 law firm to achieve “Gold Standard” Investors in People, our values and culture are not just words on our website but are the heartbeat of the firm. The lack of barriers between departments, a real lack of hierarchy, zero tolerance for arrogance and pomposity makes Shoosmiths a fantastic place to work.

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Business Development Execuitve to join our Events team. The role can be based out of the Milton Keynes, Reading or Birmingham offices but travel will be required as part of this role with emphasis on Southern region.

Purpose of role

To co-ordinate and manage a wide range of event and campaign activity as part of the firm’s outreach programme,  designed to generate dialogue with clients and decision makers (relationships) and build Shoosmiths’ profile in key buying groups (reputation).

• To understand the business development (“BD”) team’s strategy and the firmwide/practice area strategies and the need to increase proactive and co-operative engagement on a number of initiatives simultaneously
• To understand and apply the firm’s event filters in response to requests for BD help to ensure the fair allocation of resources
• Where a BD event is requested, arrange a scoping meeting with the Sponsor, the aim of which will be to understand the objectives that the legal adviser is trying to achieve and supplying them with the right advice and tools which will deliver the best result
• Work with Event Sponsor  to agree outputs for the proposed initiative and budget limits, together with appropriate levels of support, timelines and division of responsibilities
• Use the pre-defined event processes to ensure the event is managed in line with the agreed parameters and that support is offered in line with the expected commercial return from the event
• To employ an approach of continuous review, ensuring any feedback/improvement suggestions are flagged with the National Events Manager to ensure the events processes in place continue to deliver high quality events
• For the duration of each event, create and lead a team of Partners, PAs, and Facilities Managers such that, where elements of support beyond BD is required, it is done happily and in full agreement with the division of responsibility and enables the BD Executive to manage multiple events
• To run and manage the subsequent events, advertising, promotions and mailings ‘end to end’ both efficiently and to a professional standard that behoves the Shoosmiths brand, within the framework provided by the above, flagging any issues to National Events Manager as appropriate
• To build excellent working relationships with colleagues across the BD team, in particular
  • To work closely with the relationship team in order to include as many clients and target relationships in events and mailings as possible, and to proactively notify the relationship team when clients or key relationships respond
  • To work closely with the Comms team to scope opportunities for external and internal PR and Comms activity for each event, relative to its merits
• To revisit the objectives set at the start of the event regularly to check that they are on track and to proactively recommend the adaptation of tactics where necessary to keep them uppermost
• To report on deliverables at the end of each event via the central events database spreadsheet, to ensure the results of the event contribute to the overall outputs of the BD team
• To work collaboratively and non-competitively with other BD Executives to share experiences and success of respective approaches or techniques, to drive continuous efficiency from this part of BD
• Seek feedback from PAs and the business to update the self help suite of event tools held on the intranet and update the calendar of events to achieve a high level of visibility for BD activity across the firm
• To work with the data team to build client-centred mailing lists on our CRM system (InterAction) for each tactic and to help foster a culture of information sharing internally

Key skills

• Team player who can meet deadlines, prioritise workloads and manage multiple projects
• Knowledge of Microsoft packages (Word, Excel and Powerpoint)
• Accuracy and attention to detail, commensurate with working for a top UK national law firm committed to delivering the highest standards of client service
• Knowledge of InterAction (the ability to add contacts, build lists, and share knowledge/skills with PAs) and of the Data Protection Act
• Commercial nous – the ability to identify a business case and elicit support from stakeholders that is centred around that
• Good communications skills and highly personable – the ability to express requests concisely and courteously by email and by phone, to elicit the results and co-operation required
• Good front of house skills ensuring an easily identifiable Shoosmiths event can be delivered within the relevant market place

Experience

• The successful candidate will have a minimum of 3 years’ experience in a similar role in a professional services firm

Shoosmiths is a committed Equal Opportunities employer promoting equality of opportunity. This means that everyone who either applies to or works for the firm is treated equally, whatever their gender, age, ethnic origin, nationality, marital status, disability, sexual orientation or religious beliefs.