About Lester Aldridge



Lester Aldridge is a full-service UK law firm with a strong reputation across key sectors including; healthcare, shipping, banks & other lenders, housebuilders, ports & harbours, charities, AI and private clients. We are committed to delivering legal advice that creates commercial or personal opportunity for our clients and do that by building long-term client relationships.



We are at an exciting stage in our development as a firm and also to our approach to business development so this a unique opportunity to help shape that for a firm with bold and ambitious plans. Our first Business Development & Marketing Director joined in 2025 and is part of the Senior Leadership Team who have been working on plans for our new strategy.



Supporting the partners and fee-earners with BD to win and retain high-quality clients across our target markets is key to those plans. This role would also work alongside the BD & Marketing Director to develop the infrastructure to support the new BD approach.




Role Overview



We are looking for a BD & Proposals Manager to work closely with partners and fee-earners as well as the BD & Marketing Director and Marketing colleagues to identify and create BD opportunities and develop compelling, client-focused proposals that demonstrate LA's proposition.



This is a high-impact role with visibility across the firm, supporting strategic growth in our priority sectors.




Key Responsibilities




Bid & Pitch Management

• Produce compelling, tailored proposals (including credentials and tenders) that demonstrate Lester Aldridge's proposition in their approach. These could be from any part of the firm's full service offering (so offers a lot of variety).However, the Marketing & BD strategy will focus on target sectors and hence on collaboration across the firm in order to address clients' specific requirements.

• Manage multiple concurrent submissions, ensuring high-quality outputs to deadline.


• Support go/no-go decisions aligned to firm strategy and sector priorities.


• Develop and maintain a high-quality library of proposal-ready credentials, case studies, and CVs.

Sector Initiatives

• Help develop the firm's sector BD strategy eg

• Track sector issues for impact on clients and high value targets


• Identify opportunities to support clients and targets by drawing on expertise across the firm.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Partner closely with Partners and fee-earners across all parts of the full service firm.


• Challenge and shape bid strategy to improve win rates for high quality targets


• Support and coach fee earners in best-practice pitching and proposal development


• Facilitate review sessions and capture lessons learned from wins/losses


• Collaborate with Marketing on campaigns to attract targets through:




• Events (seminars, webinars) including identification of invitees and attendance.


• Content

Pipeline Management

• Ensuring new cold enquiries are responded to quickly by fee-earners.


• Help devise new processes (within current and emerging data infrastructure) for pipeline management at a firm, sector, team and individual level


• Ultimately, pipeline reporting.

Firm Initiatives



There may be new firm initiatives that will require support and input from this role eg

• Key client programme


• Alumni programme


• Pricing strategy


• CRM implementation

Key Skills & Experience




Essential

• Proven experience managing proposals in a law firm or professional services environment


• Ability to develop strong relationships with partners and fee-earners and be seen as a trusted adviser with credibility.


• Strong writing and editing skills, with the ability to produce high-quality, client-ready content


• Excellent project management skills and ability to manage competing deadlines


• Commercial awareness and understanding of client decision-making

Desirable

• Using tools such as LinkedIn and AI in research


• Advanced PowerPoint skills for proposal production


• Experience of CRM systems/pipeline reporting tools


• Experience working within one or more of Lester Aldridge's key sectors (e.g. healthcare, shipping, housebuilders, private wealth)

Key Competencies

• Strong communication and influencing skills


• Attention to detail and quality focus


• Collaborative and proactive approach


• Resilience and ability to work under pressure


• Strategic mindset with a focus on results

Reporting Line

• Reports to: Business Development & Marketing Director

Why Join Lester Aldridge?

• Opportunity to play a key role in the firm's exciting growth strategy


• Exposure to a broad range of sectors and legal services


• Collaborative and supportive culture


• Flexible/hybrid working approach


• Clear opportunity to shape and enhance the firm's proposal capability