Camara Deniran-Francis

As the Global Business Development Manager for a growing service group, I’ve been focused on building and driving growth for our Regulatory & Investigations practice, which spans key areas including sanctions, white-collar crime, ESG, and more. I’ve had the opportunity to lead the development of a comprehensive business strategy, execute targeted marketing initiatives, and conduct detailed client mapping to ensure we’re meeting the specific needs of each focus area. Collaborating with business development teams across our global offices has been essential in creating cohesive, regionally tailored strategies that boost the firm’s visibility, client engagement, and overall market positioning. Through this work, I’ve been able to contribute to growing the practice and positioning the firm in the regulatory and investigative space.

• Guided partners and senior fee earners through 100-day client execution plans to drive account growth and deepen client relationships.
• Proactively cross-sold R&I services through collaboration with other practice groups, leveraging pitches, meetings, and targeted client touchpoints.
• Supported Senior Manager with developing and executing a comprehensive business strategy for the Regulatory & Investigations (R&I) practice, covering creation of marketing materials, tailored client solutions, and strategic pitches.
• Managed a successful global campaign featuring an interactive video brochure, boosting brand visibility and driving new client engagement.
• Created bespoke marketing materials aligned with key client sectors, practice priorities, and strategic business goals.
• Presented marketing and BD initiatives at partner away days and global business development meetings to secure buy-in and drive collaboration.
• Aligned with partners to enhance the client experience through targeted initiatives such as niche events, bespoke training, and speaking opportunities—demonstrating a reciprocal, value-led approach to client engagement.
• Collaborated with Knowledge Lawyers to develop gated client content, including planning, targeted client segmentation, and creation of tailored marketing plans to support engagement and lead generation.
• Facilitated regular planning sessions with fee earners to identify upcoming opportunities and develop proactive go-to-market strategies.
• Collaborated with global marketing and BD teams to ensure cohesive, regionally tailored campaigns that enhanced the firm’s market presence and client reach.
• Line-managed a business development executive, overseeing day-to-day delivery, providing strategic guidance, and supporting professional development.

As a SBDE/ cover BD Manager within the Projects & Construction group I have taken on the responsibility of managing the growth of a variety of BD elements and have built a reputation of being proactive, results-driven and an effective member of the GPG. During my time, I quickly adapted to the practice group understanding its wants and needs which led to trust being established between myself and the team. Building a relationship with the team has contributed to me successfully leading on a variety of BAU and Project work over the past 6 months. This includes some of the following activities;

• Successfully managed a global podcast series, boosting brand visibility and engagement.
• Oversaw RFPs and pitch processes from inception to completion.
• Led initiatives in transactional services and public-private partnerships.
• Identified key clients and targeted groups for strategic initiatives.
• Organised events for industry professionals, enhancing networking opportunities.
• Executed a campaign that attracted over 500 organic subscribers.
• Presented innovative ideas confidently to Partners during meetings.
• Delegated tasks effectively to optimise work efficiency.

As a Business Development Executive initially working in a shared service function I balanced my time between Insurance and Industrial sectors working on high level initiatives. During my time I led on many projects including campaigns, events, pitches and so on. I built trustworthy relationships with senior stakeholders working towards achieving team strategies over periods of time.

• Successfully supported the launch of a new product (Cyber One).
• Planned the Real Estate summer party for clients (guest list of 300+).
• Co-lead on conferences including (FIDO the largest conference Clyde & Co have hosted thus far).
• Ownership of refreshing marketing collateral and building new content for brochures, website pages, etc.
• Confidently contributing new ideas for initiatives.
• Liaise with fee earners regularly and directly for various key work including content for pitches.
• Confidently work on new pitches from start to finish.

Adapted from my role as an apprentice, I continued to support team commodities. I was actively involved with general marketing activities such as CRM, social media, content creation and events organising with key clients in mind. Alongside this I assisted on pitches, capability statements, directories and more. As my interests grew further towards business development, I pushed myself to build trusting relationships with fee earners and to learn more about each practice area I worked with. The trust built gave me the opportunity to gain more access to projects and extensive work.

• Leading on the creation of a pitch intranet site.
• Responsible for various directories.
• Lead a firmwide website bio refresh.
• Suggested a new initiative for client gifting and set up the new process.
• Responsible for ensuring all processes across the team were up to date.

Working as a Brand, marketing & Sales apprentice at a well respected law firm gave me a broad learning opportunity to learn and develop new skills. This included planning and executing projects from start to finish, using CRM systems to market to current and potential clients, liaising with stakeholders internally and externally through various communication options and more.

Throughout my time as an apprentice I developed exceptional organisation skills giving me the ability to both prioritise tasks and deliver tasks in under pressure circumstances. I am pleased to say that during my time as an apprentice I showed diligence, proactivity and continuous dedication to my work and role.