Disputes Pursuits & Directories Manager

About this role

DLA Piper is, at its core, bold, exceptional, collaborative and supportive.  Our people are the backbone, heart and soul of our firm.  Wherever you are in your professional journey, DLA Piper is a place you can engage in meaningful work and grow your career.  Let’s see what we can achieve. Together.

Summary As a member of the Business Development’s Pursuit team, the Disputes Pursuits & Directories Manager has a primary responsibility for assisting the Firm win new business through the development of compliant, on-time, best-in-class and client-centric formal RFP responses and pitch response. This position will support pursuit activities across Litigation, Regulatory & Government Affairs, Intellectual Property & Technology, and Labor & Employment, collaborating with stakeholders to develop compelling deliverables that effectively position the firm to win new work. They will have primary responsibility for (1) developing best-in-class, client-centric, compliant, and on-time, formal RFP responses and pitch and introductory material for business development purposes, (2) developing and maintaining business development standard content, (3) maintaining, updating, and navigating a robust experience library, and (4) collaborating with attorneys and colleagues on directory submissions.

Location This position can sit in our Austin, Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Northern Virginia, Philadelphia, Short Hills, or Washington, DC office and offers a hybrid work schedule.   Responsibilities • Acts as project manager throughout the pitch and proposal response lifecycle including, but not limited to: conducting opportunity assessments; tracking opportunities; developing project plans; organizing and conducting kick-off calls with lawyers and colleagues; gathering and drafting relevant content; coordinating with client pricing, BD and other business professional  colleagues; incorporating competitive intelligence to tailor responses; and ensuring high quality/error free proposals are submitted.

• Facilitates conversations with attorney teams and leverages client intel to identify, create and update information that differentiates DLA Piper from its competitors with clearly articulated value propositions and win themes.

• Ensures follow-up on opportunities to ascertain win/loss status.

• Supervises junior members and instills substantive practice knowledge as key criteria for success in role.

• Owns maintenance of standard materials in conjunction with BD and Marketing colleagues, ensuring materials are updated consistently post-pitches.

• Works in collaboration with BD & Marketing colleagues to coach lawyers on in-person/virtual presentations related to business development opportunities.

• Utilizes and instills discipline in AI among team to improve both process and content creation.

• Drafts, edits, formats and reviews proposal documents and ensures the final submission adheres to requirements.

• Prepares unique content and graphics to be used to enhance proposal and pitch meeting documents are compelling.

• Works closely with other business development and marketing staff to identify creative new ways to enhance proposal and presentation products.

• Works with groups to ensure the experience database is populated with accurate, updated, and correctly tagged pitch-ready descriptions. Provides tailored and formatted experience lists and/or facilitates curated self-service lists.

• Works with relevant stakeholders and colleagues to draft Chambers and Legal500 directory submissions. Project manages individual submissions end-to-end process.

• Proactively extracts pitch trends to identify potential BD opportunities and to assess and scale the pipeline.

• Ensures projects managed by direct reports are well executed and best practices are shared.

• Other duties as assigned.  

Desired Skills     Proven track record managing multi-practice, multijurisdictional, complex RFP responses, in addition to the ability to build pitch documents from the ground up in a client-centric manner. Extremely high level of professionalism and good judgment with the ability to maintain collaborative relationships with attorneys, staff, Pitch & Proposal team members, business development and marketing professionals, pricing staff, and others. Demonstrated project management experience, including establishing deadlines, pursuit team management, and ensuring each project is compliant with the client or attorney ask and is completed on time – taking ultimate responsibility for deliverables, meeting engagement/project objectives. Strategic thinking and problem-solving capabilities, as well as solid decision-making abilities; ability to recommend and implement solutions. Ability to lead, develop, and contribute effectively in a team environment. Demonstrated ability to work effectively both independently and as a team member on projects. Superior communication and organization skills. Ability to work under tight deadlines. Ability to prioritize multiple tasks and complete each on schedule. Superior writing, editing, and proofreading skills. Strong PowerPoint skills. Flexibility to adjust hours to meet client-driven deadlines and operating needs.  Strong people management skills.  Growth-mindset and team-oriented to contribute to overall department projects and needs.

Minimum Education                          • Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Communication or related discipline. General understanding of the role of business development within a law firm environment.  

Minimum Years of Experience   • 8 years’ relevant experience includes directing the project management and development of RFP responses in a professional services environment; possessing a thorough understanding of the proposal process in a competitive professional services marketplace; and having demonstrated experience managing several concurrent projects under tight deadlines.  

Essential Job Expectations While the specific job

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