A&O Shearman
BD Manager - IP Litigation
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BD Manager - IP Litigation
Marketing team - London
Our Marketing team helps the firm win and grow the right clients and work. We drive client development across the firm - deepening priority relationships, increasing share of wallet, and converting strategic opportunities into profitable revenue. We equip partners with effective go-to-market strategies, tactics, and processes, differentiated insights, and disciplined execution. Alongside this, we strengthen the firm’s market profile and reputation to support client acquisition, retention, and growth. We work as one integrated global team, aligning central support and expertise with local knowledge and execution to maximize impact across offices, practice groups, sectors, and client programs.
This role sits in the business development (BD) team. The BD team is focused on practice group strategy, implementing practice group business plans, winning new clients, winning more work from existing clients, and profile raising.
You will support day-to-day business development for the IP Litigation practice in London by converting strategy into tactical plans that you deliver in an efficient, disciplined, and collaborative way. You will provide both reactive and proactive support to lawyers and the business to help pursue growth opportunities. The role will involve the full spectrum of marketing and BD activities for the group, including support on pitches, events, directories, campaigns, and thought leadership, and other profile-raising activities both internally and externally, ensuring that best practice is followed in terms of systems, technology, and processes.
What You Will Do
Market profile, content, and campaigns
- Manage directories and awards submissions for the group and coordinate associated interviews and follow-up.
- Coordinate client newsletters, internal newsletters, and internal deal alerts.
- Working with our Marketing Services team (MST), management of all logistics and marketing/promotion events, in addition to assessing external event opportunities for the group.
- Actively seek opportunities to raise the profile of the practice group's capabilities within the firm by engaging with firm-wide initiatives and proactively suggesting joint marketing activities with other practice groups.
- Ensure consistent, evidence-based messaging in all market-facing materials.
Pitch excellence
- Coordinate pitches and proposals, working in conjunction with the central pitch team, pricing, and lawyers to create compelling, compliant submissions.
- Tailor credentials and case studies to client needs; responsibility for creating and updating marketing collateral.
- Support rehearsals and Q&A preparation.
- Maintain pipeline hygiene and data completeness; run basic go/no-go checklists.
Strategic planning and execution
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- Contribute to the development of approved business plans and translate into tactical execution.
- Track spend and return on investment against activities.
- Provide status reports using Dynamics (our CRM system) and pipeline data to inform partner discussions.
- Monitor market and client news; summarize implications and feed intelligence into wider marketing activities.
Client development
- Assist partners, associates, and BD colleagues in the management of strategic client relationships and coordinate client targeting efforts.
- Work on the development of client plans, contact maps, and meeting records, ensuring that Dynamics is populated with high data quality.
- Coordinate client briefings and events; prepare targeted follow-up so that we capitalize on client interactions.
- Capture client feedback and post-matter insights; log themes and flag opportunities to the senior BD manager.
- Assemble client and decision-maker profiles using approved research tools to support cross-selling.
- Track coverage, contacts, and actions for priority client accounts.
AI and technology
- Use approved marketing function AI tools, including the function’s agents for designated tasks, in line with the firm’s AI usage policy.
- Complete the marketing function’s mandatory AI capability program and develop applied AI skills relevant to the role, including the function’s agents for designated tasks (in line with the firm’s AI usage policy).
- Demonstrate progression in applied AI skills through tangible contribution to personal and team output.
Collaboration, integration, and change
- Work closely with colleagues across regions, practices, sectors, and central teams.
- Promote consistent use of firm systems and templates; maintain file hygiene and naming/version standards.
- Actively participate in change initiatives; share ideas and help embed new ways of working.
- Escalate blockers and propose practical fixes.
- Adhere to agreed service levels and briefing templates with central teams.
Team leadership and development
- Support resourcing across competing priorities and time zones.
- Contribute to onboarding new team members by sharing best practice for common BD tasks.
- Support BD training for associates in your practice.
Key Relationships
- Senior BD Manager for Global IP Litigation
- Global Head of Business Development - Disputes
- Sector BD teams, notably Life Sciences and Technology
- Practice BD for aligned practice groups, for example DDIT, Employment, L&I
- All partners, associates, knowledge lawyers, and PAs across the London IP litigation group
- IP litigation partners in the wider network
- Peers across the wider business development, marketing, and communications team
What You Will Have
- Strong communication skills, both written and oral. Can persuade and influence senior stakeholders.
- Proven experience executing business development activities in professional services preferred.
- Enthusiasm to develop an in-depth understanding of the global IP litigation practice (in terms of the market, the key players, the competition, and our legal offering). Previous IP, technology, or life sciences market experience would be a plus, but is not essential.
- Intellectual curiosity about market trends and client needs combined with a proactive instinct to shape business development activities in line with these insights.
- Strong project management and stakeholder skills; clear, persuasive writing with a focus on client needs.
- Comfortable with data and research; confident using client data management systems (e.g., Dynamics), experience, and pipeline systems.
- Highly organized, proactive, and resilient; strong attention to detail, ability to work to deadlines, and follow-through across multiple priorities.
- Strong client focus and ability to work well with busy lawyers while balancing deadlines.
- We welcome applications from Managers, or those looking to take a step up.
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Additional Information
Should you require additional support at any stage of the recruitment process due to a disability or a health condition, please do not hesitate to contact a member of our recruitment team who will work with you to provide any adjustments as required.
We are an equal opportunities recruiter and do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, or any other protected characteristic.
We recognize that our people are our most valuable asset, which is reflected in the wide range of benefits that are available to our employees. Some of these benefits include: our occupational pension scheme, group income protection cover, private medical insurance, mental health resources and free apps, health and wellbeing services encompassing an onsite gym, wellbeing center, and GP service, emergency back-up care support, parental and special leave, holiday entitlement increasing with length of service, holiday trading, season ticket loans, and online discounts and lifestyle management services.
Our approach to hybrid working seeks to combine and maximize the benefits of effective remote working with the benefits of being in the office. Our current hybrid working arrangements require office-based working for a minimum of 60% of your time (i.e., three days per week for a full-time role) in accordance with our hybrid working policy.
NO AGENCIES PLEASE - A&O Shearman does not accept unsolicited CVs. For further information, please see our UK Recruitment Agency Policy and our commitment to direct sourcing here.
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