Managing Director, Litigation and Special Situations - Burson Buchanan

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As a Managing Director at Burson Buchanan, you will be a principal growth engine, client counsellor, and key leader within our premier strategic advisory boutique. Burson Buchanan delivers high-level advisory and communications support to clients on major capital markets events, ongoing financial communications, high-profile litigation and government investigations, crises and other reputation-defining events. Backed by Burson’s global network and market-leading data, analytics and AI tools, Burson Buchanan is defining strategic communications advisory for the intelligence era.
As a key leader in our Litigation and Special Situations work, you will be responsible for building, launching, and scaling Burson Buchanan’s new Litigation Communications practice across the UK and Europe, as well as supporting the firm’s efforts to counsel clients on high-stakes capital markets events, crises and other market-shaping issues.
You will establish Burson Buchanan as the premier strategic advisory boutique for contentious matters in Europe. While this represents an exciting new capability for Burson Buchanan in the UK and Europe, you will build upon and draw strength from the deep crisis, regulatory, and corporate affairs expertise in Burson Buchanan in the U.S. and embedded across the wider Burson and WPP global networks.
As a business generator, you will leverage your deep network of relationships at leading law firms and in the executive ranks (especially at the General Counsel level) and boardrooms of leading companies to help originate new business leads and opportunities. As a strategic senior counsellor, you will oversee accounts and lead teams in responding to the market-shaping events faced by Burson Buchanan clients, ensuring we consistently deliver excellent client work and results.
As a member of the Burson Buchanan Senior Leadership Team (SLT), you will help shape the strategic direction of the firm. Leading by example, you will set the tone for a team culture that is built on high performance, teamwork, and open and respectful feedback to continue to elevate the value we bring to clients.
PRACTICE LEADERSHIP & STRATEGIC ADVISORY
Shape the market offering: define and execute the go-to-market strategy to launch and scale Burson Buchanan’s Litigation Communications capability across the UK and Europe, building on the established work and expertise within Burson Buchanan in the U.S. and in lockstep with Burson’s broader litigation and crisis capabilities.
Advise and lead: serve as a trusted advisor to C-suite, Boards, General Counsels, and outside legal counsel on high-stakes and high-profile litigation and government investigations, including:
Securities & Financial Litigation
Antitrust & Competition Matters
Government & Regulatory Investigations
White Collar Crime & Whistleblower Cases
IP, Patent & Trade Secrets
Class-Action, Collective Litigation & MDL
Employee & Labour Disputes
Client service leader: lead complex litigation, government investigations, and crisis and issues mandates, ensuring flawless execution, game-changing strategic positioning, and the highest standards of quality control across all deliverables.
Innovate: champion bold, innovative, and data-informed comms strategies, leveraging our global network to support clients across complex legal and corporate communications challenges.
Lead by example: operate with a true “player-coach” mindset—demonstrating the agility to transition seamlessly from board-level counsel to rolling up your sleeves on core deliverables, taking proactive ownership to solve both client and firm-wide challenges.
COMMERCIAL & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Origination & growth: act as a principal revenue driver, cultivating a deep referral network of law firm partners, litigators, litigation funders, and General Counsels across key UK and European legal hubs (London, Frankfurt, Paris, Brussels, Dublin).
Pitch & proposal leadership: lead client pitches, RFPs, and crisis response mobilisations with speed, authority, and commercial rigor.
Cross-selling: identify opportunities to cross-sell litigation comms to Burson Buchanan’s existing corporate/financial retainer clients, while introducing Burson’s wider corporate, PA, and IR services to newly acquired legal dispute clients.
Network & brand ambassador: serve as a prominent external ambassador for Burson Buchanan through market commentary, event participation, and senior industry networking to enhance agency profile and lead pipeline.
PEOPLE, BRAND & LEADERSHIP
Senior Leadership Team: serve as an active member of the SLT, contributing directly to agency-wide strategy, operational excellence, talent strategy, and long-term positioning.
Team building & talent acquisition: recruit, build, and mentor a specialist litigation communications team as the practice scales, instilling a high-performance, fast-paced boutique mindset.
High-performance culture: model leadership behaviours, setting a benchmark for ambition, strategic depth, and commercial urgency across a high-functioning team of advisors—while helping to build a culture that fosters connection and respect.
AI & innovation leadership: lead by example in adopting innovative solutions for our clients, including AI-driven communications tools, and ensure team adherence to WPP tools, ethical frameworks, and best practices.
Cross-agency collaboration: work closely with the UK Senior Leadership Team and European regional leadership to leverage existing crisis skillsets and integrate litigation comms into wider group offerings.
Thought leadership & market profile: establish Burson Buchanan as the definitive voice on litigation communications in Europe through published thought leadership, media commentary, legal industry event sponsorships, and panel participation.
Who you are:
You're open: We are inclusive and collaborative; we encourage the free exchange of ideas; we respect and celebrate diverse views. We are open-minded: to new ideas, new partnerships, new ways of working.
You're optimistic: We believe in the power of creativity, technology and talent to create brighter futures or our people, our clients and our communities. We approach all that we do with conviction: to try the new and to seek the unexpected.
You're extraordinary: we are stronger together: through collaboration we achieve the amazing. We are creative leaders and pioneers of our industry; we provide extraordinary every day.
What we'll give you:
Passionate, inspired people – We aim to create a culture in which people can do extraordinary work.
Scale and opportunity – We offer the opportunity to create, influence and complete projects at a scale that is unparalleled in the industry.
Challenging and stimulating work – Unique work and the opportunity to join a group of creative problem solvers. Are you up for the challenge?
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