Job description
The Legal Project Manager will work alone or support Senior LPMs to secure, design and lead on the process control of projects. Delegate and manage the work of the Legal Project Coordinators. Ensure successful delivery of tasks within both clients and internally-facing projects bringing solutions using established and new tools and processes.
Location: Belfast, Northern Ireland
Responsibilities:
- Manage multiple projects with competing deadlines
- Scope and manage specific client-facing projects
- Manage own caseload and that of more junior legal project management resources on projects
- Liaise with the client and the Firm's client project team, as well as the Firm's specialist departments and offices worldwide, along with external stakeholders
- Use (and assist others in using) pricing tools and analyze the outputs, bringing in the Pricing Strategy Team as required
- Support the Principal/Lead Associate in defining matter scope, tracking and manage changes
- Capture explicit and implicit client requirements/ preferences and design the project approach accordingly
- Identify, quantify, record, and manage risks/issues in projects including mitigation strategies
- Prepare, manage, and report on suitably-detailed project plans to internal and client matter teams
- Support whole-project budgeting, monitor and report on costs and fees on an ongoing basis both internally and externally
- Prepare internal and client status reports and provide timely updates to team leaders on potential risks/issues identified
- Support the matter review process for key matters and identify areas of improvement in practice area processes through discussions with fee earner
- Be creative, solve problems and improve on standard delivery solutions on a given project
- Identify future needs / opportunities for new service delivery and lead on analysis and design workshops
- Work with the Global LPM Leadership Team to define, enhance and integrate a single set of project management standards, processes, methodologies and tools to improve the efficiency of LPM
- Roll out improvements and solutions through individual attorney coaching and training sessions
- Work with internal stakeholders to secure and define LPM role on projects; move matter work into or out of LPM team where appropriate
- Assign priorities across large task lists, identify and communicate dependencies, and capture items in project timelines
- Disaggregate routine tasks and reassign by leveraging Alternative Legal Services and other non-traditional resourcing models on projects
- Clarify and communicate roles and responsibilities of the project team and all internal/external stakeholders
- Actively contribute to the Firm’s Innovation and LegalTech strategy and localize and leverage these on projects, finding ways to encourage team uptake
- Become a subject matter expert on given tech and standardized processes: evangelize, advise, train, apply to projects and support refinement
- Lead portions of LPM training for internal audiences
- Design end-to-end, matter specific portals for small to medium projects
- Integrate with allocated practice areas/ service lines; become comfortable with legal concepts / terminology / principles
- Strengthen network of professional colleagues across the range of PBS (including Knowledge Management, Business Development, Finance, and IT), and legal teams, carving out a role for LPM on new projects
- Build strong client relationships both with client in-house lawyers and Legal Ops professionals; contribute to business development opportunities by leveraging this client knowledge
- Offering PM expertise to non-LPM initiatives
Skills and Experience:
- Bachelor's Degree (law or business degree preferred)
- Formal project management qualification of Prince 2 Practitioner or equivalent (required) and LSS Green Belt (desirable)
- Formal project management qualification of Prince 2 Agile, Management of Portfolios (MoP) or PMP (desirable)
- Strong experience in project management roles
- Ability to manage multiple projects at a time
- Understanding of/ experience working in large complex organizations, ideally in a law firm or professional services firm
- Knowledge/ experience of relevant IT packages: e.g. Document Management Systems, Project Extranets (e.g. SharePoint) or other collaborative project management tools, Other LegalTech knowledge desirable
- Advanced knowledge of Microsoft Office, including Visio, Excel, and of financial systems and reports
- Experience of influencing or coaching within a professional services environment desirable
- Outstanding communication and relationship building skills
- Demonstrated ability and desire to work collaboratively with senior-level professionals to help them succeed in meeting their business development objectives
- Ability to work independently and willingness to work hands-on to achieve objectives in a relatively “flat” organizational structure
- Ability to analyse matter-level performance including profitability
- Advanced knowledge and experience of data manipulation tools (e.g. Excel) and experience with visualisation tools (e.g. Tableau)
- Demonstrated skills, knowledge and experience in compiling executive summaries and status reports for consumption by attorneys and clients
- Ability to identify and secure future internal project management opportunities (including process improvement analysis or follow-on client work)
- Ability to cover a wide subject-matter range and difficulty level of tasks from thinking strategically to troubleshooting detail
- Ability to understand the impact of matter finance decisions on profitability in order to understand and independently calculate key financial metrics
- Demonstrated ability to organize and prioritize work in a dynamic and complex environment to meet deadlines and daily requirements
- Strong competency in continuous improvement, change management, flexible approach and exceeding expectations.
Job Type: Full-time
Application question(s):
- Will you now or in the future require sponsorship for employment visa status?
Work authorisation:
- United Kingdom (required)
Work Location: In person