Senior Business Development Manager, ESG & Climate Change, UK, US & EMEA

The Opportunity

Key internal relationships:

• Global Chair of ESG
• ESG Leads for UK, US and EMEA
• Global ESG leadership team
• ESG & Climate Change Partners and wider Partnership
• BD Director, UK, US & EMEA
• Global HSF BD team
• Internal and External Communications teams

Key external relationships:

• Key clients
• Relevant external organisations and consultants

Primary objective:

• To support the growth of, and the generation of profitable revenue by, the ESG and Climate Change Practice Groups, including through targeted pursuits and enhancing the client experience.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategy and planning:

• Provide strategic and tactical advice to drive growth, working closely with regional leads for the UK, US and EMEA and global ESG Chair to deliver on key priorities. Evaluate progress against plans and monitor the implementation of key initiatives.
• Work with relevant partners to concentrate efforts on focused business and action plans for their areas of practice and direct client engagement activity.
• Work with the ESG associates to develop their personal plans in alignment with the wider strategy and strengthen their BD skills.
• Work closely with the Global Chair to set ESG Leadership Team meeting and strategy offsite agendas, supporting the drafting and collation of papers and action outputs from the meeting.
• Work with regional leads to support on the delivery of team strategy offsites.
• Working closely with the internal communications team to update the business on key ESG priorities and developments.

Pitches, proposals and tender submissions:

• Lead on the preparation of pitch documents and capability statements for ESG and Climate Change matters or contributing the ESG and Climate Change component to firm-wide pitches.

CRM & key client activities:

• Act as ESG and Climate Change liaison with all Client Relationship Managers for priority clients of the firm.
• Work with the CRPs and client teams to develop and maintain an understanding of our wider ESG and Climate Change offering across the "E", "S" and "G" pillars and identify ESG and Climate Change opportunities for the Practice Groups and Sectors to drive profitable revenue.
• Engage in and encourage active support of the firm's Client Listening Programme, conducting matter debriefs, secondments and pitch debriefs, continually looking for ways to improve the client experience.

Targeting:

• Research and provide market intelligence to identify product and industry trends for client targeting initiatives.
• Co-ordinate growth opportunities with other practice areas and sector specialists.
• Work with key stakeholders to identify products/services to introduce to target clients and to sell to others.

Reputation enhancement, brand & profile:

• In conjunction with the Brand and Marketing and Communications teams, deliver on profile raising initiatives including a content strategy and thought leadership.
• Prepare legal directories and award submissions.
• In conjunction with the Events team, facilitate client events, roundtables and webinars across jurisdictions ensuring activities reflect best return on investment for the practice.
• Working with the relevant teams and third parties to deliver on key ESG and Climate Change event sponsorships, ensuring return on investment is at the forefront of activity and delivery.
• Working closely with the external communications team to promote and identify ESG opportunities in the market.

Management of information, projects and budgets:

• Maintain robust BD Infrastructure for the ESG and Climate Change Practice Groups, including ensuring accurate reporting of projects and pitches and maintaining standard form materials to be used as base for different types of pitches and capability statements.
• Facilitate the adoption of the global credentials database (Foundation).
• Maintain and scrutinise best practice firm materials, playbooks and other materials in support of the ESG practice.

Key Performance Indicators:

• Demonstrated ability to establish key relationships with, and influence behaviours of, key partners of the practices.
• High level of responsiveness to day-to-day demands from key internal stakeholders and exemplary delivery of work.
• Identification and conversion of new opportunities to grow profitable revenue for the practices.
• Development and delivery of business development plans for nominated areas of the ESG and Climate Change Practice Groups and implementation of practice/product business development activities.
• Ability to operate at both strategic and operational levels as required.
• Quality & effectiveness of ideas/input to strategic issues.
• Successful execution of pitches and proposals for ESG matters and delivery of infrastructure and processes to support pitching activity.
• Shares knowledge, insights and suggestions to colleagues to help their profile contribute to collective success.

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

• Bachelor's degree (or similar) preferred.
• 5+ years' experience in a business development role in a corporate or partnership environment, with a particular focus on practice development and strategic selling.
• At a minimum, working knowledge of ESG topics and issues, ideally experience in the subject area.
• Demonstrated expertise in influencing a diverse range of stakeholders.
• Strong interpersonal skills, with a proven ability to build trusting relationships with the partnership and business services alike.
• Experience project managing key pitches and pursuing new business opportunities.
• Strong project management skills, sound organisational, planning and project administrative skills.
• Demonstrates commercial awareness.
• Ability to navigate complex matrix organisations.
• Inherent drive to succeed, and proven ability to develop and execute solutions to short term barriers and setbacks.
• High level of personal integrity, common sense and resilience.

Team
Business Development, London BD Sharanjit Panesar Level 2

Working Pattern

Full time

Location
London

Contract type
Permanent Contract

Diversity & Inclusion

At Herbert Smith Freehills you will be part of a diverse, innovative culture where high performance, client focus and highly engaged people are our differentiator. People at our firm come from a range of backgrounds and bring a wide variety of experiences and perspectives to their work with us. We strive to ensure that our inclusive environment means you feel valued and able to perform at your best by being your authentic self at work. We know that our future success not only depends on being innovative and progressive in the changing legal market but, most importantly, on our people feeling highly engaged in meaningful work.

We understand that you have commitments and personal interests outside of work and we strive to create a working environment based on mutual trust and respect, in which you can perform at your best whilst maintaining sustainable balance across your life.