Business Development Manager, Singapore

Who We Are

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 and Europe and focuses on the core areas of commercial activity: capital markets; corporate and M&A; finance and banking; real estate; tax; pensions and employment; litigation and dispute resolution.

The purpose of this role is to support the business development and marketing of key Practice Areas for South East Asia in Singapore, 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 Client & Market Development and Brand, Communications & Marketing teams, partners, lawyers and other stakeholders.

The Client & Market Development team is responsible for helping partners to develop the firm’s business, build its relationships with existing and potential clients and to manage the firm’s market profile. Your focus will be to deliver the highest client value through client and market strategies as well as brand, communications and marketing. There will be a sector or client focus in the role.

You will be a critical member of a seven-person South East Asia team and will liaise directly with partners, lawyers and other business professional colleagues. You will work very closely with the Asia Pacific Client & Market Development and Brand, Communications and Marketing team which consists of over 35 members across our eight Asia Pacific offices.

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. You must be driven, resilient, genuine and committed.

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

Ability to innovate and improve existing processes is highly valued.

The Role

Key Responsibilities

Relationship building

• Develop strong relationships with the fee earners in the appointed practice areas in Singapore.
• 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 Services.

Business planning

• Understanding the external forces that shape the clients' industries and the legal profession. Assisting with the preparation of BD practice plans based on comprehensive market research (region and country macroeconomics, clients, competitors)
• Advising partners on targeting and client relationships in conjunction with client, sector and country focus teams.
• Conduct matter reviews and secondee debriefs to extract client insights, identify cross-selling opportunities, and feed into strategic BD planning and relationship management efforts.

Client and sector focus

• Support the Firm's key sector program by feeding into regional/global initiatives.
• Support the Global Strategic Client program by contributing to engagement tracking and coordination of initiatives that enhance relationships with priority clients across APAC.
• Advise partners on targeting and client relationships in conjunction with client, sector and country focus teams.
• Institutionalising the client feedback process across the appointed practice areas.
• Work with partners and Business Professional teams to maximise the return on investment from our significant BD and brand investments.

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.

Proposals, pitches and capability statements

• Proactively project manage pitches, capability statements with fee earners and other business functions to produce key materials in PowerPoint, Word, etc.
• Contribute to cross-border pitch projects, liaising with the global CMD team.
• Support the pitching process, delivering market analysis to assist partners to assess new opportunities.
• Maintain up to date Singapore marketing materials.
• Track pitch outcomes and produce win/loss reporting.

Marketing and communications

• Works with fee earners and secretaries to maintain up-to-date records of practice group activities
• 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), awards and directories submissions.
• Liaise with the BCM team on media and PR opportunities.

Events, seminars and conferences

• Leads the planning and execution of client events with a strong focus on business development objectives, including identifying strategic invitees, shaping event content, and ensuring the right internal stakeholders are engaged for introductions and networking.
• Collaborates closely with the Events and Hospitality teams, as well as the wider Business Professional teams, to deliver seamless external events that align with client engagement goals and firm-wide BD strategies.
• Identifies and evaluates conference sponsorship opportunities, assessing strategic alignment, audience relevance, and potential ROI to inform decisions on firm participation and presence.

Team support and management:

• Contributes to developing junior team colleagues as applicable to ensure they are providing consistent and quality support to the appointed practice areas by setting clear expectations, providing regular feedback and evaluating performance.
• Encourage a culture of innovation and curiosity. Work with team members to develop new or enhance existing ways of working.
• Create a fun and fulfilling team environment focused on high performance, value delivery and optimization.

Your Experience

• Minimum requirement of five years in a similar position, as well as over eight years in professional services and/or similar industry. Big Four consulting experience is strongly preferred.
• Experience in working on competitive proposals and pitches, ideally within the legal market.
• Experience in developing and implementing programmes in relation to client portfolios whether in a marketing or business development context.
• Experience in managing internal and external events.
• Strong writing skills; high levels of accuracy and attention to detail.
• Ability to read and speak Chinese or a Southeast Asian language is an advantage but not mandatory.
• Strong organisational skills and ability to prioritise.
• Ability to interact with, and engender confidence in, senior stakeholders such as partners and business management; well-developed influencing and presentation skills and be confident, resilient and focused.
• Proficiency with systems, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, InterAction.
• Practical, proactive, commercially minded and service driven with a "can do" and positive attitude.
• Builds strong effective relationships with partners and BD & Marketing colleagues across the firm.
• Sensitive to different business cultures, familiarity with the Southeast Asian business context is preferred.
• Well-developed influencing skills coupled with confidence, resilience and focus.

Equal Opportunities

At Clifford Chance, we understand that our true asset is our people. Inclusion is good for our team and their families, our firm and society.

We are committed to treating all employees and 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.

We have a variety of flourishing employee networks. These networks are a place for colleagues to share experiences and advocate for change wherever they see an opportunity for improvement.

Our goal is to deliver an equality of opportunity, an equality of aspiration and an equality of experience to everyone who works in our firm. 

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