JOB DESCRIPTION

About Herbert Smith Freehills

As one of the world’s leading law firms, we advise many of the largest and most ambitious organisations across all major regions of the globe. With over 5,000 people, including 3,100 lawyers and over 2,000 business services professionals, operating from our global network of offices across Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and North America, Herbert Smith Freehills is at the heart of the new global business landscape providing premium quality, full-service legal advice.

We recognise that the success of our business and our clients relies on the skills, knowledge and ideas of all our people. Our environment is one in which high performance is expected, in return, we will provide you with rewards and opportunities tailored to your personal and professional goals.

The Opportunity

Broad Business Development role with a focus on marketing and events, as well as supporting the Johannesburg Business Development Manager and wider International Markets Business Development Team.
Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

Events
Plan, coordinate and produce physical events (inhouse and at external venues) and virtual events for the Johannesburg office and wider Africa Group as and when required
Assist with event logistics including venue hire, food, décor, entertainment, marketing materials, audio-visual, email communications, onsite facilitation and post-event reporting
Create and edit event lists, invitations, materials and signage
Track and report expenditures against budget
Conduct pre and post event evaluations and report on outcomes
Conduct research of vendors and venues and propose options for events
Draft, format and send email communications to promote firm events using Vuture - the firm's email platform
Develop, update and maintain event email distribution lists using firm’s

Interaction system

Prepare program materials including presentations, handouts and name tags, as well as promotional items/giveaways as requested
Provide onsite support at firm events, including setup and breakdown, registration, speaker assistance, venue and vendor coordination
Prepare RSVP, attendance and survey summary reports
Post events to internal and external websites
Maintain event documents including event calendars and forms
Maintain an up-to-date calendar of client events in South Africa
Regular updates to the 'Africa events' spreadsheet of upcoming events/ sponsorships
Writing intranet stories after key events

Marketing & Communications:
Assist in coordination of HSF’s participation in, and sponsorship of, local and national conferences. Responsibilities would include handling lawyer reservations or RSVPs, and coordinating and submitting advertisements, giveaways, logos, and other materials as needed for sponsorships and other external activities.
Assist in client and market research to help BD manager proactively identify opportunities
Preparation of innovative client materials and campaign role outs
Co-ordination and distribution of client briefs/legal updates
Liaising with PR agency on possible PR opportunities

Reputation enhancement, brand & profile:
Internal distribution of JHB office news alerts
Assisting with marketing collateral (brochures, advertising material) with design team
Support Business Development Manager in preparing legal directories and award submissions
Assist on content creation and editing for Africa blog, LinkedIn pages, and ensuring timely uploads are done

Pitches, proposals and tender submissions:
Liaise with BD Manager on Johannesburg offices pitches, both pitches led by the Johannesburg office, and providing input for global pitches
Update pitch log and ensure pitches are stored in systematic way in pitch library
Updating of our global credential management system

Management of information, projects and finance administration:
Arrange photographs for new joiners
Arrange website CVs for new joiners
Ensure marketing administration is completed (including invoices, ordering marketing collateral, printing brochures etc.)

General Business Development Support:
Provide BD support to the Johannesburg and wider International Markets BD team as and when required

Qualifications, skills and experience

Degree educated or similar level
We would expect the successful candidate to have at least five years' marketing/events/business development experience in a professional services firm, although we will consider candidates with less or more experience providing, they meet the required competencies
Exposure to marketing within a corporate or professional services environment is desirable.
Candidates with a strong knowledge of the South African legal and business market would be favoured
Advanced MS Office skills - in particular Word, PowerPoint and Excel skills
Experience in composing own correspondence, internal and external documents and working with large schedules and documents
Database experience - InterAction experience desirable. Experience with virtual event production and platform/tools required. Experience with email marketing software preferred.
Experience with website content management systems and HTML a plus
Excellent writing skills, attention to detail and commitment to quality are pre-requisites
Excellent organisational skills and high levels of accuracy Strong organizational abilities. Excellent project management skills; must be capable of working well under pressure in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment.
Ability to liaise confidently and build relationships with people of all levels
Has an agile approach to workload and demonstrates flexibility to meet the demands of an international legal firm
Well-developed persuasive and diplomacy skills with the ability to constructively challenge as needed
Ability to be self-sufficient but also able to leverage internal network as needed
Creative with a willingness to consider ways beyond the status quo.

Applications will close on the 18/10/2024.

Team

Business Development

Working Pattern

Full time

Location

Johannesburg

Contract type

Permanent Contract

Diversity & Inclusion

At Herbert Smith Freehills you will be part of a diverse, innovative culture where high performance, client focus and highly engaged people are our differentiator. People at our firm come from a range of backgrounds and bring a wide variety of experiences and perspectives to their work with us. We strive to ensure that our inclusive environment means you feel valued and able to perform at your best by being your authentic self at work. We know that our future success not only depends on being innovative and progressive in the changing legal market but, most importantly, on our people feeling highly engaged in meaningful work.

We understand that you have commitments and personal interests outside of work and we strive to create a working environment based on mutual trust and respect, in which you can perform at your best whilst maintaining sustainable balance across your life.

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