About Gowling WLG

We have more than 1,400 legal professionals working around the world. Our offices span across 19 cities in Canada, the UK, Continental Europe, Asia and the Middle East. There's strength in our global presence – we embrace our differing cultures and work together as one team. We also understand the importance of investing in relationships that build knowledge and trust, while we provide legal advice that's tailored to our clients' world.

'Our people and distinct culture are what makes us different. We know this through client and employee feedback and this drives everything we do'' Chris Oglethorpe, HR Director.

There are great opportunities for all our people to flourish. Through training and personal development they can grow in their role. Our people are the cornerstone of our success, across legal, business support and early talent. We care about their happiness and believe in the power of teamwork. We want them to feel empowered and recognise that by supporting, respecting and embracing everyone's different contributions we achieve more.

Working flexibly, working fairly

Agile working offers people more freedom and flexibility in where, when, and how they work. As technology advances and our workforce becomes more diverse – and with clients often working to a 24/7 rhythm – having extra flexibility is key to helping us balance work and other commitments sensibly and productively.

By supporting people to choose where and when they get their work done, we help them to make a full and fair contribution to their team – while maintaining that all important work-life balance.

Where possible and depending on business needs, we will consider all flexible working options such as part-time working, job sharing, working from home and staggered hours. If in considering a role with Gowling WLG you favour flexibility in your working arrangements, please discuss this with the recruitment team in the early stages of the application process.

Main Purpose of the Job

Support the Bids Managers with the production of professionally written proposal content that clearly articulates Gowling WLG's sales/value proposition as part of the in-house Bids team.

This role will be mainly based at 2 Snowhill Birmingham but may also require travel to our other offices

• Internal
  • Head of Bids, Bids Managers, Bids Assistant and the wider Business Development team.
  • Fee earners, including Client/Lead Partners and other stakeholders in the Bid process, as well as numerous other fee earners at all levels as part of wider BD projects.
  • Service teams, including Heads Of and other key contacts for collating and disseminating firm information to the Bids team.
• External
  • Procurement contacts of current and potential clients.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

• Manage internal client brief for one to one sales documents including taking and developing a brief with the relevant partner/fee earner
• Develop written content for proposals and other one to one sales documents for the lead lawyer against agreed brief and timescales, escalating issues as required.
• Identify and re-work existing pre-written content where relevant.
• Proactively develop and manage a network of subject matter experts.
• Re-write / edit content for proposals and other one to one sales documents from a variety of stakeholders, typically involving contributions from fee earners, compliance, finance and HR.
• Present all new content to the Bids Assistant for potential re-use
• Contribute to the firm brand through high-quality presentation of submissions.

Junior Bids Management duties and responsibilities as required to assist with peaks in workload

• Responsible for successfully delivering compliant PQQs/RFIs and lower value ITTs/RFPs, strategically managing the Bid process from identification to post-submission.
• Responsible for liaising with the compliance and financial teams to ensure good governance of regulatory and financial risks.
• Contributing to the credence of the firm brand through high-quality presentation of Bid submissions.
• Assisting with commercial decisions by providing guidance on current market expectations and utilising (internal) market knowledge. 
• Supporting in rehearsing teams and producing collateral for presentations.
• Any other reasonable duties delegated by any Partner or Senior Manager of the firm.

Key skills and experience

• Advanced written, grammar and proofreading skills.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills. 
• Experience and knowledge of best practice in Bidding.
• Document management (Microsoft Office Suite) and desktop publishing.
• InDesign capability desirable.
• Proven skills in producing, editing and laying-out proposal content within a complex business environment.
• Experienced in participating in key review meetings / final document review, content sign off and document production.
• Experience of coordinating and updating a knowledgebase system is beneficial.
• Strong time management / prioritisation skills.
• Excellent attention to detail.

Equal Opportunities

Gowling WLG is committed both to promoting equality and diversity in the firm and to Equal Opportunities in employment.  The firm believes in equality of opportunity regardless of race or racial group (including colour, nationality, ethnicity, national origins), religion or belief, age, disability, sexual orientation, sex, gender re-assignment and gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy, maternity and paternity.  This also includes any incidents of perceptive or associative discrimination and harassment.

At Gowling WLG we seek to attract and retain talented people from a diverse range of backgrounds and cultures, to create an exciting and rewarding place to work.  Our aim is to fulfil everyone's potential and together to achieve personal and business goals.