Business Development Manager - Commercial Litigation

We will offer you a place where you can be yourself and where there are no limits on what you can achieve. With us, you can take ownership of your career and have honest conversations throughout. You would join an ambitions firm with a clear strategy for profitable growth where you can get early responsibility and early involvement in growing the business. Here you can expect a competitive and fair reward as well as recognition based on all round performance. This forms part of our internal promise to you, The Deal, between the firm and its employees.

Team Structure

BD team - The BD team is responsible for practice group BD, client development (including events), brand and online marketing, and communications and PR. This role sits within the practice group BD team. The practice group you will be responsible for will be Commercial Litigation. You will be the BD lead for this group, and will be the line manager for a senior executive as well as a BD manager.

This role will be focusing on providing strategic business development support to the Commercial Litigation practice group, which, with 35 partners in the London office, is the largest in the firm. You will be working as a key part of the Commercial Litigation BD team (made up of another BD manager and a Senior Executive) helping them to grow revenue and their profile in the market. You will be the primary point of contact for a number of specialist teams within Commercial Litigation, building relationships with the key stakeholders and leading on strategic projects.

The department's expertise covers a wide range of practice areas, including:

• Corporate and Commercial litigation


• Fraud and asset tracing


• Restructuring & Insolvency


• International arbitration


• Regulatory litigation and Investigations


• Group actions and Competition


• Construction and Engineering dispute resolution


• Aviation litigation


• Insurance disputes, Work with the practice area leaders to draft their business plans and take the lead on delivering on the BD aspects of the plan


• Work with partners to define how they can differentiate their practices in the market and develop key selling messages for the partners and groups as a whole


• Develop and help execute client relationship plans and act as the account manager for key clients of the practice groups and carry out feedback on these clients to continuously improve our service


• Manage key tender and panel opportunities, working with the partners on specific selling messages and enhancing the content by editing persuasive and accurate content with tailored messages, often to tight deadline


• Create customised credentials documents highlighting our expertise across all practice area


• Take responsibility for understanding the different practice group offerings within the firm, and look at ways to cross sell the work of the finance, real estate and projects into other areas of the firm (and vice versa)


• Provide BD mentoring support to participants on the 'High Potential' Senior Associate Programme by thoroughly reviewing and supporting their personal BD plan


• Review Legal 500 and Chambers submissions for agreed practice areas in London to ensure there is consistent messaging and that the submissions are of a high quality


• Work with the events team/BD executive to produce and deliver outstanding client events, suggesting opportunities to co-host events with relevant market bodies and other industry stakeholders, reviewing budget and ensuring return on investment


• Consistently look for ways to improve BD practices and outcomes to ensure that we maximise value from everything we do


• Identify themes in the market and review and share relevant competitor activity


• Liaise with the communications team on the media plan for each practice group


• Manage, mentor and support the BD manager and senior executive, responsible for their quality of service and output


Most of our roles are hybrid, meaning that colleagues benefit from working in our office and remotely. We are happy to discuss this and other flexible working arrangements with you as part of the application and interview process.


• Demonstrates the Stephenson Harwood values of individuality, commitment, teamwork and straight talking


• Able to influence senior stakeholders and provide strategic advice whilst at the same time being willing to get on with regular BD tasks


• Ability to drive initiatives and projects forward


• Proactive and enthusiastic with a positive attitude


• A skilled written communicator with a good eye for detail


• Well organised and someone who delivers what they promise to a consistently high standard of quality


• Confident, resilient and pragmatic


• A supportive and committed team player able to demonstrate experience of building a collaborative environment


• Innovative and open to new ideas, with the ability to challenge where necessary


• Commercially aware and knowledgeable and able to demonstrate that you consistently add value to business development thinking and activities


• Experience of line management and previous experience of working with Commercial litigation would be preferable
  
  With 8 offices worldwide and with our headquarters based in London, Stephenson Harwood is a law firm where our people are committed to achieving the goals of our clients - listed and private companies, institutions and individuals across the globe. Our mix of expertise and culture results in a combination of deep local insight and the capability to provide a seamless international service.


Our experience encompasses corporate, commercial litigation and arbitration, employment, pensions and private wealth, finance, marine and international trade, and real estate and projects.

We assemble teams of bright thinkers to match our clients' needs and give the right advice from the right person at the right time. Dedicating the highest calibre of legal talent to overcome the most complex issues, we deliver pragmatic, expert advice that is set squarely in the real world.

We understand the power of diversity in delivering that high calibre advice to our clients. We want to attract diverse talent and we particularly encourage applications from underrepresented demographics.

Our values

Individuality
We encourage creativity and develop talent.

Commitment
To be the best and deliver the highest standard.

Teamwork
We work together to build close, long-term relationships

Straight talking
We say what we mean and do what we say.

These values express the personality of the individuals within our firm. They are the behaviours we encourage in our people and the standards which inform our decisions and actions.

Our vision into 2026
To be a successful firm where talented people work together in an entrepreneurial environment, building long term client relationships.

This vision is about who we want to be, as well as who we are. It is as much about our values as about our character - the attributes we want to see from all of our people. It also reflects the importance of remaining independent - a clear sign that we are confident in our own future.
That's how we unlock our entrepreneurial spirit, advising our clients with top performing teams.

A key part of the 2026 strategy is to focus on five core sectors: decarbonisation, life sciences, private capital & funds, technology, and transportation & trade. These have been identified as crucial in the drive for accelerated profitable growth.