Associate Director, Special Events

New York, NY

Summary

The Associate Director, Special Events, (“the Associate Director”) is responsible for developing and maintaining the firm’s overall events strategy and ensuring event execution in alignment with firm goals and objectives. The Associate Director will oversee the planning, executing and management of all the firm’s event and program initiatives, which includes client-facing events, prominent internal events and other strategic initiatives.

The Associate Director works closely with firm leadership, partners and business development teams on event strategy, design and implementation to ensure coordination, effective engagement of resources and processes, consistency of approach and high-quality execution of events. This individual will be responsible for managing 5-6 events team employees based in various office locations and will provide direction and guidance to ensure events are executed consistently.

Responsibilities

• Develop, implement and oversee the firm’s overall events strategy. Create both a short- and long-term strategy for the firm’s events program and track progress against established milestones.
• Take ownership over the entire event planning process from inception through execution, delegating to team members as needed. Work closely with internal clients, external clients, firm management and business development and marketing teams to understand each event’s unique goals and objectives and create specific action plans to ensure objectives are met. Provide hands-on planning, coordination and oversight of meetings and special events in collaboration with leadership and other business development and marketing teams.
• Create and manage the special event department’s annual budget.
• Manage project requests and assign workload across the team to ensure that all events are well covered and that deliverables and expectations for each team member are clearly defined. Travel as needed to support the execution of high-profile events.
• Develop and oversee individual event budgets and resource allocation. Produce reporting on a regular basis to analyze potential areas for improvement in cost and resource efficiency.
• Work with the Marketing Technology team on list management and development criteria
• Monitor progress of events to ensure benchmarks and objectives are achieved on time and within budget. Identify potential issues early and work with the appropriate teams to troubleshoot, escalating as needed. Track all event details and ROI and conduct a post0event evaluation, identifying successes and areas for further development.
• Develop, build and maintain relationships with external vendors in an effort to maintain a roster of quality, cost effective services that can augment event support as needed. Manage all event vendor and contract negotiations and generate ideas for ways in which to continue to develop the firm’s events offering.
• Act as an internal consultant and resource by providing information, recommendations and events best practices and procedures to key stakeholders. Coordinate regular outreach to partners and management to understand their event needs and how the team can best support their goals.
• Monitor peer events and industry trends and present new event ideas to senior leadership to support practice group and business development team’s client engagement and networking objectives.
• Manage a team of events staff based in various office locations. Coordinate regular touchpoints with all team members and continue to assess performance and develop the skills of each person.
• Other duties and responsibilities as assigned.
• Flexibility to work outside regular business hours.
• Periodic travel as needed.

Qualifications

• College degree preferred but commensurate with experience.
• 10 years of direct experience in events planning and execution.
• Previous experience working in a law firm or professional services environment preferred.
• Experience supervising team and outside vendors.
• Formidable team building, people development, leadership and supervisory experience.
• Capacity to lead and motivate a team and the ability to cultivate a team environment where ideas can be shared, questions can be asked, and individuals are accountable for performance.
• Results-oriented with a strong emphasis on collaboration and a positive attitude.
• Ability to develop and create relationships and communicate and interact with the practice groups and partners, working as part of a global team.
• Excellent planning, organizational and time-management skills.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to think creatively to work through complex issues successfully.
• Project and administrative management expertise; strong negotiation skills.
• Proactive and able to prioritize and manage multiple projects and deadlines.
• Adaptable and assertive, thrives in a fast-paced environment working successfully with all levels of leadership.
• Strong attention to detail with a highly organized approach to working.
• Excellent collaborator with strong interpersonal skills, successfully able to build relationships with diverse stakeholders.
• Proficient in MS Office including Word, PowerPoint and Excel.

Compensation

$165,000-$$225,000, depending on experience and qualifications.