Business Development Lead Corporate

Overview

Chaberton Professionals, the division of Chaberton Partners specializing in the recruitment of Middle Management profiles, is currently seeking, on behalf of our client – an international law firm – a Business Development Lead – Corporate.

Your role will be to drive and oversee the execution of business development strategies for Corporate (focusing on M&A) in Italy and align local Corporate BD efforts with global priorities, using data-driven insights to identify and drive opportunities, drive client relationship development, oversee pitches, and manage relationships with partners.

You will play a central role in connecting local and global strategies, supporting the firm\'s client-centric growth ambitions, and championing the use of tools, systems, and best practices to deliver efficient and impactful business development outcomes.

You will also act as the point of contact for partners in Italy and as the central point of contact for BDM resources within the country.

Your Responsibilities

• Leads and coordinates the implementation of the Business Development strategy for Corporate M&A in Italy, ensuring alignment with global product BD priorities, while tailoring execution to local market conditions and opportunities. This includes:
• Leading discussions with relevant internal stakeholders across Italy to support creation and development of M&A BD plans at local and global level.
• Champion and support the use of data-led insights for horizon scanning, opportunity spotting, pipeline management and client targeting/development for M&A.
• Provide client and market high-level insights to guide local Marketing teams to develop strategically aligned program of relevant client touchpoints (e.g., meetings, events, thought leadership).
• Acts as the point of contact for partners in Italy, where there is no local BD specialist for that practice, connecting with the relevant global practice BD teams and regional marketing teams as needed to support execution. This includes:
• Building and maintaining relationships and interconnectivity across the broader BD team.
• Continuously collaborate with global practice BD teams to ensure that the local office remains connected to the global network and strategies. Feed potential jurisdictionally specific work generating opportunities and trends to relevant global practice BD team.
• Providing a timely point of contact to communicate and escalate tasks between lawyers and relevant global practice BD team where required.
• Acts as the central local point of contact for BDM resources within the country, providing these resources with the necessary pastoral support and ensures these resources are equipped to perform their roles efficiently and effectively. This includes:
• Leading on communications across Italy-based BD/M team members to ensure engagement and delivery of centrally led BD/M activities.
• Role modelling best practice to other team members, including working with teams in the new BD/M structure to maximise efficiency.
• Providing a sounding board/point of contact to discuss senior stakeholder situations where appropriate.
• Provides direct oversight of the country\'s local BD team where they do not report into global practice BD teams, managing these individuals to execute BD strategies within the country while collaborating with the global product team to drive and execute global opportunities. This includes:
• Working closely with team members to set including key milestones and accountabilities.
• Supporting team members to continuously improve their skills and abilities in order to provide excellent BD support to the firm.
• Allocating work based on strategic requirements of practice, bearing in mind individual\'s strengths, development areas and specialisms.
• Ensuring clear communication around strategic objectives for the firm and BD function globally so team members understand how their roles support broader efforts.
• Work with relevant teams to support/lead on associate BD skills development training.
• Ensures the use of product, market and client feedback and insights to help inform and execute the M&A BD strategy for the country. This includes:
• Working with relevant stakeholders to create a feedback strategy for Italy M&A aligned to the global M&A strategy.
• Identify opportunities to gather feedback from relevant Italy M&A practice clients.
• Collating, analysing and sharing information with relevant stakeholders to ensure trends can be extrapolated and responses implemented.
• Accountable for all local M&A pitching in Italy, working with the global strategic pitch team or PAC depending on pitch needs. This includes:
• Input insights and BD strategy lens into conversations around pitch go/no go and win strategies to allocate BD and marketing resources effectively towards the most strategic opportunities.
• Oversee the development of market-leading pitch and panel submissions in Italy through working with relevant teams, sometimes including dedicated pitching support, to ensure pitch support documents and pitch drafts are created to a high standard
• Work closely with partners to ensure pitch follow up activities are executed effectively and efficiently, including overseeing the coordination of creating additional supporting documentation and collating feedback.
• Ensure pitch outcomes are added to relevant trackers, adding outcomes directly where necessary.
• Accountable for overseeing submissions, league tables, awards and any inputs to global submissions, as required. This includes:
• Working with relevant stakeholders and teams to lead on high-quality, strategically focused legal directory submissions in the local market.
• Working with BDM colleagues to assign lawyers to create draft legal directory submissions in the local market.
• Working with relevant stakeholders and teams to assist in collating relevant information for multi-jurisdictional legal directory submissions.
• Sets targets and key performance indicators and metrics to track the effectiveness of BD efforts for M&A practice in Italy. This includes:
• Create strategy and plan for KPIs, aligned to broader global strategy. Ensure this is communicated with key lawyer and BD team stakeholders and allocate tasks effectively across junior Italy M&A team members to capture and report on relevant metrics.
• Effectively utilising MarTech (e.g., Salesforce) to help provide proactive, targeted insights to relevant stakeholders and champion the use of MarTech amongst colleagues.

Your Experience

• Extensive experience in business development leadership within professional services, preferably in a legal environment.
• Strong knowledge of the local market with understanding of local business practices and client requirements.
• Deep experience with supporting BD for Corporate practice areas.
• Proven track record in implementing BD strategies that drive growth and revenue.
• Strong stakeholder management skills with ability to build relationships with partners and senior leaders.
• Experience aligning local BD initiatives with global strategies and priorities.
• Track record of setting and measuring KPIs for BD effectiveness.
• Experience in coordinating complex, cross-border client engagements.
• Leadership experience with proven ability to develop high-performing teams.

Seniority level

• Mid-Senior level

Employment type

• Full-time

Job function

• Business Development
• Industries: Business Consulting and Services

We’re not including unrelated boilerplate or links in this refined version. The core responsibilities and qualifications above reflect the role. If you need further trimming, I can adjust.