Client & Market Development Manager

Company Description

Clifford Chance is one of the world's leading law firms, helping clients achieve their goals by combining the highest global standards with local expertise. The firm has unrivalled scale and depth of legal resources across the three key markets of the Americas, Asia Pacific and Europe and focuses on the core areas of commercial activity: global financial markets; corporate and M&A; real estate; tax; pensions and employment; litigation and dispute resolution. 

The purpose of this role is to support the business development function in the Global Financial Markets (GFM) practice in Hong Kong, in collaboration with our other APAC offices, through the delivery and execution of a diverse range of client, practice and marketing programs and initiatives. In this role you will work together with the local, regional and global business development and marketing teams, partners, lawyers and other stakeholders.

Job Description

In broad terms, your focus will be to:

• Operate as a trusted advisor to the fee earners
• Support the strategic development of practices, clients and sectors
• Ensure delivery against agreed business development plans
• Manage the pitch process
• Produce research on companies, industries and countries
• Coordinate submissions to the main legal directories and advise practices on promoting their capabilities to these directories
• Work with the fee earners to manage the production of bulletins and briefings from the conceptual stage through to distribution
• Manage junior CMD team members, as well as work in a matrix with the broader regional CMD team.

You will be a critical member the Hong Kong team and will liaise directly with partners, lawyers and other Business Professionals. You will work very closely with the Asia Pacific Client & Market Development (CMD) and Brand, Communications & Marketing (BCM) team.

This is a hands-on role that requires quick and accurate work. Key attributes are a genuine enthusiasm to be a part of a busy team, an ability to prioritise, willingness and ability to take ownership of tasks with strong attention to detail and a proactive and positive mindset.

You will be enthusiastic, engaging and considered, with the ability to build relationships across many levels of business. You must be a proven collaborator, a strong team player and be comfortable taking ownership of the tasks at hand.

The successful candidate would preferably have worked in a partnership or in professional services.

Relationship building

• Develop strong relationships with the fee earners in the GFM practice in Hong Kong and regionally.
• Develop equally strong relationships across the APAC (and global as appropriate) CMD and BCM team so that you can effectively connect with the wider network.
• Develop good relationships across all areas of Business Professionals.

Client and sector focus

• Proactively advise fee earners on targeting and client relationships in conjunction with client, sector and country focus teams.
• Help to drive the Firm's key sector program by feeding into regional/global initiatives.

Opportunity spotting

• Develop market knowledge, understanding and insights to identify potential business opportunities and expanding existing business, as well as raising the practice's profile via events, conferences and client seminars.
• Identify and co-ordinate cross-selling opportunities with other practices, sectors and client teams.
• Ensure correct information for all fee earners is correctly captured in the various trackers (pitch log, deal tracker etc.)

Marketing and communications

• Produce and maintain targeted client lists in the Firm's database (InterAction).
• Develop the Firm's reputation through targeted marketing communications, publications (newsletters, client briefings), and awards and directories submissions.
• Liaise with the BCM team on media and PR opportunities.

Events, seminars and conferences

• Manage and support on activities relating to client events (including guest list, coordination of slides, management of speakers and logistics).
• Work efficiently with the wider facilities and Business Professionals team on both internal and external events.

Proposals, pitches and capability statements

• Be proactively involved and able to work independently on complex proposals, pitches, capability statements with fee earners and other business functions to produce key materials in PowerPoint, Word, etc.
• Manage and contribute to cross-border pitch projects, liaising with the global CMD team.
• Manage and support the pitching process, delivering market analysis to assist partners to assess new opportunities.
• Maintain up to date Hong Kong and regional materials.
• Track pitch outcomes and produce win/loss reporting.

Qualifications

• Minimum of three years' experience working in a similar role.
• Experience in working on competitive proposals and pitches, ideally within the legal market.
• Strong writing skills; high levels of accuracy and attention to detail.
• Strong organisational skills and ability to prioritise.
• Proficiency with systems, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, InterAction.
• Practical, proactive, commercially minded and service driven with a "can do" and positive attitude.
• Sensitive to different business cultures.
• Well-developed influencing skills coupled with confidence, resilience and focus.
• Mandarin proficiency is a strong plus.

Additional Information

Equal Opportunities

At Clifford Chance we understand that our true asset is our people. We believe that each and every one of us should experience an equality of opportunity and an equality of experience here. We are always working to develop and deliver the best and most innovative approaches to make that happen. Inclusion is good for our team and their families, our firm
and society.

We are therefore committed to treating all employees and job applicants fairly and equally regardless of their gender, gender identity and expression, marital or civil partnership status, race, colour, national or ethnic origin, social or economic background, disability, religious belief, sexual orientation, or age. This applies to recruitment and selection, terms and
conditions of employment including pay, promotion, training, transfer and every other aspect of employment.

The firm will regularly review its procedures and selection criteria to ensure that individuals are selected, promoted and otherwise treated according to their relevant individual abilities and merits.

We have a number of initiatives and networks that support our aspiration to be the Global Law Firm of choice. These include our LGBT, Gender Parity, Ethnicity and Disability networks.