Research Intern

Business Development Research Assistant - 12 months fixed term contract starting August 2024 – Manchester.

What does the role involve?

You’ll be a Research Assistant assisting in the delivery of business development campaigns and providing focussed desktop research of public record information as asked for by senior members of the national corporate team. As a Research Assistant, you’ll be expected to gain experience and understanding of the field of corporate transactions, and delivering business development campaigns, working alongside the legal teams to understand their aims and activities in order to better identify suitable businesses to contact and to understand how to make and retain target relationships.

Who will I be working with?

You will report to a Senior New Business Manager, and work alongside the Business Development team, wider Marketing team and business/legal support specialists.

Main duties and responsibilities

Working with the firm wide BD team to implement marketing and business development projects and initiatives to win new business including:

• Work with the new business team to co-ordinate, develop and implement the national new business development plan. This will include identifying and qualifying leads and researching contacts for regional, sector and service line teams to pursue, and maintaining a record of activity
• Deal with basic research enquiries using a range of business and financial information sources, such as the internet, press searches and commercial databases
• Provide information to the team on financial position, market position, structure, competitors, and key management issues for the production of in-depth company analyses
• Research and produce company briefing notes, credential information and sector-specific marketing collateral to assist the team in securing and conducting initial meetings
• Undertake research projects encompassing support for our corporate lawyers, marketing reports and new business development
• Coordinate and tracking business development campaigns

Role outcomes

• High quality research produced to deadlines
• Key data systems kept up to date
• Research projects delivered to specification, on time
• Good working relationships with colleagues across the Business Development and Marketing team
• Quickly building an understanding of firm’s offering and client base

The person

To be successful in this role, it is likely your background will include:

• Degree graduate or would suit undergraduate looking for third year in industry - A level candidate with 120 UCAS points (B,B,B), and/or evidence of strong performance in degree to date
• Experience of MS Office applications including Word, Excel and PowerPoint
• An organised approach to research tasks / Ability to carry out research and present findings clearly
• Time and project management – ability to keep track of multiple tasks and deadlines, and keep tracking systems up-to-date
• Able to deliver under pressure and with occasional tight deadlines

It would be great if you have experience of:

• Research tools e.g. Onesource, Corpfin, BvD databases and a range of Thomson Financial Products.

The package

Working hours are 35 per week.

Salary will be at a rate greater than the level set for national living wage for those age 21 or over.

As you would expect, the firm offers generous benefits. The firm’s standard benefits are detailed in the following link:

https://www.mills-reeve.com/careers/benefits

Pre-employment screening

Please note that, in the event that we make an offer for a role, we will conduct pre-employment screening that includes, but is not limited to, a basic DBS check, right to work check, any disciplinary history recorded with the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and a self-declaration to assess your character and suitability for the role. A full policy of the screening the firm undertakes is available on request.

The Mills & Reeve Business Services career structure

We have a firm wide Business Services career structure and a published career progression framework. Within the firm wide career structure there are five career levels.  For the purposes of the framework, this role is at an Administrator level and the role profile that details the outcomes and activities expected of across the firm is included with this job description.  Further information on the firm’s Business Services career structure is available from the HR team.

The firm

Mills & Reeve is a major UK law firm renowned for its outstanding service to national and international clients, for its collaborative culture and for its deep sector expertise.

The firm has a strong sector focus with expertise in agriculture, charities, education, food and beverage, health, insurance, private wealth, real estate investment, sport and technology. Clients include businesses from PLCs to start-ups, high net worth individuals and landowners, more than 120 universities, colleges and education bodies and over 100 healthcare organisations.

This is an ideal opportunity to build your skills and experience with a major UK law firm, listed as one of the “Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For” for the last 20 years - the only law firm to achieve this.

We are also proud to have been awarded Platinum Investors in People status this year. The firm joins a select club of only 6% of 50,000 assessed organisations awarded the coveted platinum status.

The firm is also delighted to report for the eighth year running we were named as one of Roll On Friday’s ‘best law firms to works at’.

And finally

Mills & Reeve is committed to providing an inclusive and supportive working environment. We are happy to consider flexible working arrangements and endeavour to achieve the right balance for both our people and the business. This attitude to flexible working ensures we continue to provide outstanding service to our clients, whilst allowing our people to develop their careers in the knowledge that personal priorities will remain just that.

Mills & Reeve is committed to promoting equality, diversity and to providing an inclusive and supportive environment. Please click the link below to find further information regarding our diversity policy.

https://www.mills-reeve.com/about-us/diversity-and-inclusion

If you would like any more information about Mills & Reeve, you can visit our website by clicking on the following link:

https://www.mills-reeve.com/