Senior BD Manager, Antitrust - FTC

Job Description

We are recruiting a Senior BD Manager in London to support out Antitrust practice on a 6 month fixed term contract.

Our Marketing department contributes to the setting and achievement of the firm's business objectives, which include supporting our partners and associates in their pursuit of becoming our clients' trusted advisers, building and maintaining long‑lasting, deep institutional client relationships, winning new clients, increasing the visibility of the firm globally, and positioning the firm as the thought leader among the global elite law firms.

The function works as one team across the globe with close collaboration between the central groups and professionals supporting offices, practice groups, sectors, and clients.

This role sits in the business development (BD) team. The BD team is focused on practice group strategy, implementing practice group business plans, winning new clients, winning more work from existing clients, and profile raising.

We are seeking a candidate to cover the Senior Business Development Manager role for Global Antitrust for a six-month period. We are open to considering both current senior managers, and managers looking to take a step up.

This is a broad BD role for one of the firm's most high‑profile, profitable and strategically significant global practices. A&O Shearman has a leading global Antitrust practice. We are one of the largest top‑tier law firm practices, with over 120 dedicated antitrust specialists based in 24 offices across the U.S., Europe, Asia Pacific and Africa. The Antitrust group is part of the Disputes department, however it operates on a cross‑practice basis at the nexus of transactional and litigious work, driven by client need for sophisticated and cohesive antitrust solutions on a global scale.

You will work closely with the Antitrust partners, the Antitrust BD manager in London, the global head of business development for disputes, and the wider BD team across corporate and disputes to ensure the successful delivery of key projects and provide high quality work across the full spectrum of marketing activities (pitches, events, thought leadership, materials, awards, communications, etc.).

This is an excellent opportunity for someone to gain experience in a role with a global remit, significant autonomy, broad responsibility and exposure to senior stakeholders.

• Progress activity around the recently‑established client targeting program.
• Coordinate partner meetings, management calls and strategic planning sessions, ensuring clear agendas, actions and follow‑through.
• Oversee the integration and on‑boarding of partner lateral hires or partner promotions in the group, working with local BD.

• Lead on and oversee proposals for major antitrust opportunities, including cross‑border and cross‑practice collaborations.

• Manage submissions for key global/multi‑jurisdictional rankings and awards, for example GCR 100.
• Work with Media Relations to enhance external visibility of the practice and key individuals.

• Work alongside the knowledge team to surface trends and key developments to inform business development activities.
• Oversee the flow of client/market insights to partners and fee‑earners.

• Facilitate the promotion and roll‑out of key antitrust publications and thought leadership, both internally and externally.

• Lead BD contact for upcoming global practice offsite.
• Lead on the conception and delivery of antitrust client events, including client round tables or webinars.
• Assess the ROI of external conference involvement and make recommendations for partners.

• Strong leadership skills.
• Strong communication skills, both written and oral. Can persuade and influence senior stakeholders.
• Strong client focus and commercial knowledge.
• Proactivity.
• Highly organized.
• Can build relationships across teams and at all levels of seniority.
• Relevant business development, marketing and/or CRM experience (ideally within a professional…