Senior Director, Client Development

With 500+ professionals and 350+ business professionals, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP (www.manatt.com), is a multidisciplinary, integrated national professional services firm known for quality and an extraordinary commitment to clients. The Firm’s groundbreaking approach—bringing together legal services, advocacy and business strategy—differentiates Manatt from its competitors and positions the Firm to provide a distinct and compelling value proposition.

Opportunity

We are seeking a Senior Director of Client Development to drive growth by identifying market opportunities, building senior-level external relationships, and advancing priority pursuits. This role sits at the intersection of client development, growth planning, marketing, and leadership, partnering closely with business unit leaders and client account groups to accelerate pipeline, support revenue growth, and improve market positioning,

The Senior Director of Client Development will partner closely with the firm and business unit leadership to set priorities, drive pursuit strategy, and deliver measurable growth outcomes. We are seeking a senior client development leader with strong executive presence, sound judgment, and the ability to influence and align stakeholders across business units and offices. This role supports professionals by providing executive-level guidance on client targeting, account planning, and business development. The successful candidate will strengthen pipeline governance and reporting, coordinate visibility and thought leadership efforts with Marketing and Communications, and improve proposal and rankings performance through clear standards, high-quality credentials content, and disciplined processes.

This role reports to the Chief Client Development and Marketing Officer and plays a significant leadership role within the BD/Marketing team.

Core  Responsibilities

Strategy, Planning and Leadership

• Own business development strategy and oversee execution across the portfolio, translating growth priorities into measurable revenue and pipeline outcomes.

• Serve as a trusted advisor to partners and senior leaders, providing executive-level coaching on targeting, pursuit strategy, client meeting preparation, and relationship development best practices.

• Manage and develop a high-performing business development team, establishing a proactive approach to business development, operating and service level standards, and clear accountability for deliverables and results.

Client Development and Growth

• Implement a client engagement strategy incorporating of regular client feedback into our business development process. Establish program and processes that may include executive visits, feedback surveys and win/loss analysis to improve go to market effectiveness.  Anticipate personal engagement with clients.

• Lead client targeting and strategic account planning, including development of prospect lists, account plans, relationship maps, and coordinated pursuit strategies across business units and geographies.

• Identify and activate cross-business units and cross-office growth opportunities by orchestrating pursuit teams and aligning stakeholders around shared client and market initiatives.

• Support the growth of key client relationships and priority clients through targeted business development initiatives, research, and opportunity identification.

Marketing, Branding and Communications

• Align visibility and brand-building initiatives with business development priorities, leveraging thought leadership, awards, speaking, and media to advance targeted pursuits and client development goals.

• Serve as the senior most business development advisor to connect across business units and develop strategies to position business units nationally and work with professionals to market services and expertise both externally and within the Firm.

• Collaborate with Senior Director Marketing and Communications on the firm’s thought leadership strategy and editorial direction, partnering with Communications and Marketing to develop, package, and amplify high-impact content aligned to priority industries, strategic accounts, and pursuit pipelines.

• Develop and manage a strategic network of external organizations (industry associations, professional groups, educational institutions, and client partners), securing leadership appointments, speaking opportunities, and referral relationships that advance priority pursuits, strengthen market position, and support revenue growth.

Proposals, Pitches and Rankings

• Drive RFP and pitch strategy and continuous improvement, including scalable tools and templates, win/loss analysis, and post-mortems that strengthen pursuit quality and win rates.

• Establish governance, standards, and workflows to capture and maintain firm experience and credentials ensuring content quality, consistency, and rapid readiness for priority proposals and rankings submissions.

Research, Market and Competitive Intelligence

• Standardize and scale business development processes and knowledge assets in partnership with knowledge management and market intelligence, improving quality and efficiency across the firm.

• Proactively identify and shape client and market growth opportunities by translating research, trend analysis, and competitive insights into prioritized targeting recommendations, pursuit strategies, and partner-ready action plans for existing and prospective clients.

Data, Budgeting and Operations

• Establish and enforce pipeline governance and forecasting discipline, including defined stages, regular review cadence, and CRM adoption to support leadership visibility and decision-making.

• Define, track, and report key performance indicators (KPIs) and dashboards, using data and insights to prioritize activities, measure ROI, and inform leadership recommendations.

Qualifications

• At least 15+ years of experience leading marketing and business development efforts within a professional services environment (e.g., legal, consulting, accounting), supporting multiple practices and stakeholders.

• Minimum of a bachelor’s degree in marketing, public health, law, business administration or similarly relevant fields.

• Experienced team leader with demonstrated success driving high-performance collaboration.

• A team player who brings positive, can-do energy to their role and the team.

• Excellent spoken, written communication, interpersonal, and relationship-building skills.

• Experience with CRM software and data analytics tools, particularly Salesforce.

• Forward-thinking, results-oriented, deliverables-driven strategic thinker and self-starter with the ability to balance long-term strategic vision and effective day-to-day execution.

• Technologically savvy with demonstrated proficiency with the Microsoft Office suite, including Excel, PowerPoint and Word.

• Superb project and process management skills with the consistent ability to meet deadlines.

• Extremely detail oriented and a strong sense of accountability and ownership of work products.

• Possess exceptional judgement, professionalism and confidentiality.

• Commitment to exceptional internal and external client service.

• Demonstrated reliability and the ability to work both independently and collaboratively within a hybrid (remote and in-office) team environment.  The Firm operates on a hybrid work schedule requiring in-office presence Tuesday through Thursday, with optional remote work permitted on Mondays and Fridays. All employees must remain available for onsite work up to five days per week as business needs dictate. This schedule is subject to change; flexibility is required.

The base annual pay range for this role is between $300,000–$350,000. The base pay to be offered will vary and depend on skills and qualifications, experience and location.  A full range of medical, financial and/or other benefits dependent on the position will also be offered.

EEO/AA EMPLOYER/Veterans/Disabled

Manatt is an equal opportunity employer, dedicated to a policy of non-discrimination in employment on any basis including race, color, physical or mental disability, religion, creed, national origin, citizenship status, ancestry, sex or gender (including gender identity, gender expression, status as a transgender or transsexual individual, pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), age (over 40), genetic information, past, current, or prospective service in the uniformed services, sexual orientation, political activity or affiliation, genetic or and any other protected classes or characteristic protected under applicable federal, state, or local law. Consistent with the American Disabilities Act, applicants may request accommodations needed to participate in the application process.