Austen Hays Operations Manager

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The Role

Austen Hays, part of Gateley, has an exceptional opportunity for a highly skilled and self-motivated Operations Manager to take the helm in managing all operational aspects of this claimant-centred class action firm and make this key role their own. We are looking for someone with a solid background in operations; they will be responsible for the operational management of complex class actions; they will also be expected to refine operational procedures and policies, including risk and compliance, and ensure the flawless execution of each class action to fulfil our strategic litigation aims.

The successful candidate will be expected to gain a thorough understanding of the firm's operational and logistical requirements, working closely with Chaya Hanoomanjee, the Managing Director of Austen Hays, as well as our partners, clients, claimants, and the legal and business support teams involved in each case. The Operations Manager will interface with various central business support areas within Gateley as well as external providers of services. This would, include Professional Regulations & Standards, Risk & Compliance, IT, Marketing, Accounts HR, and external marketing agencies or IT/Tech suppliers.

The role calls for a confident professional who demonstrates excellent organisational and planning skills, strategic thought, impeccable judgment, sharp attention to detail, and discretion. The ability to adapt to varying demands within tight and changing deadlines is crucial. As Operations Manager, cultivating and sustaining effective working relationships is key to this role, as is staying calm and focused when under pressure, and communicating with clarity and professionalism at all times.

Whilst a regular office presence is required of three days per week, Gateley are fully embracing the new hybrid culture, so a mixture of both home and office working is available. If you are looking for an incredible opportunity to work within a supportive, ambitious, growing and energetic team, and would like to join an award-winning law led professional services business, we would like to hear from you.

The Team

Austen Hays is a firm focused on bringing class actions against corporates on behalf of large numbers of individuals, businesses. The core purpose of the firm is to deliver access to justice in a fair, efficient, and transparent way. Using the right expertise and cutting-edge technology to minimise manual intervention, Austen Hays brings a forward-thinking approach to those individuals, businesses and consumers looking to achieve collective redress and helps claimants to seek justice by sharing the costs and risks across many people or organisations in the same situation. Claimant-centred class actions is an exciting and growing area of the law, which plays a key role in holding businesses to account to ensure access to justice and fair compensation for consumers.

The Managing Director and Partner - Chaya Hanoomanjee, and Partner - Alicia Theuma have extensive experience in launching and managing group claims, usually with an international element, and in successfully securing group settlements. Supplemented with detailed knowledge of litigation funding, they are well placed to advise on all stages of the collective actions process, and suitable funding structures.

Our highly experienced and talented team has acted on some of the most complex and significant collective cases in the UK, brought by both consumers and businesses. The team has been at the forefront of the rise of consumer group claims, including previously acting as lead solicitor for over 71,000 individuals in the landmark Volkswagen NOx Emissions Group litigation, which settled for £193m in May 2022. The team is expanding as the need for more legal expertise is being identified.

The Person

The successful candidate should be able to demonstrate the following attributes and skills:

Essential

• Substantive experience in an operational management position, preferably in a law firm and with some understanding of the regulatory requirements for law firms.
• Confident and excellent communicator.
• Strategic thinker with excellent planning and organisational skills.
• Ability to work as part of a team with a team player mentality.
• Self-motivated and able and willing to learn quickly.
• Understanding and ongoing assessment of level of resources for the operations.
• Numerate, with at least a basic understanding of financial planning.
• Ability to work proactively, coordinate and manage the operations and processes involved in running class actions, ensuring the meeting of time limits and deadlines, and providing summaries and reports as needed with clear and timely communication. This includes the ability to understand and communicate Austen Hays's specific requirements for and maintain oversight of timelines and class action workflows during the lifecycle of claims.
• Ability to understand IT systems and oversee the operation of Austen Hays' claim portals, case management system, Salesforce, and document management system.
• Strong internal stakeholder management and ability to build and strengthen relations with internal business support teams and liaise with external suppliers as necessary in conjunction with the relevant internal business support teams.
• Understanding of risk and compliance including SRA regulation, PII and responsibility for ensuring issues in relation to such matters are addressed, including maintaining Austen Hays' risk register.
• Provide any other operational assistance as needed to support Austen Hays.
• Excellent IT skills; proficient using Word, Excel, Powerpoint and relevant case management systems.
• Commitment to being part of a hard-working team and the flexibility to support transactional activity.
• Drive, commitment, self-motivation and a "can do" attitude.
• Ability to always exercise discretion and professionalism.
• Exceptional attention to detail.

Desirable

• Experience in the operational management of class actions from inception to completion.
• Experience of organising and attending Board meetings.

This job description is not an exhaustive list due to the requirements of the role. Therefore, the job holder may be required from time to time to carry out other ad hoc tasks as requested.

About You

About Us

The benefits
With support, coaching and feedback from some of the most engaging colleagues around our great development and progression opportunities will reward your commitment and loyalty. We offer a competitive remuneration package where you'll be rewarded for your individual performance with an opportunity to receive an annual bonus.

In addition, we have a wide range of learning and development opportunities via our Learn platform to develop new skills and progress your career. Our My Flex comprehensive rewards package includes options covering annual leave (and the benefit of purchasing extra days), cycle to work, critical illness benefit, employee assistance programme, group personal pension, health care, season ticket loan and many more benefits (grade dependent). Finally, with Perks At Work/Home you can select a host of retail benefits that suit your needs alongside a Community Online Academy, free courses for all from fitness to coding to languages to hip hop dance.

We are Gateley
We are forward thinking and straight talking, our approach is to find solutions to the problems that our clients face. Gateley is a legal and professional services group, we are a group of formidable experts in all areas of law and business. Passionate problem solvers, we get our kicks from finding the right answers and getting our legal and business clients where they need to be. We support more than 5,700 active clients, ranging from FTSE 100 companies to private individuals, in the UK and beyond. Being part of Gateley is not just about the expertise that you bring; it's about attitude too.

The 'Gateley Story' is the story of our people and our culture. It is what has got us to where we are today as a successful business and it's the driving force behind the Gateley Team Spirit and the values that have shaped it. We have a set of shared internal values that capture what the Gateley Team Spirit is and this includes five elements that bind us all together as one Gateley: Ambitious for Success, Forward Thinking, Room to Breathe, Trusted to Do and Working Together. Every year across the group, we recognise members of our team that have gone and above and beyond and have lived these shared values. They are recognised at our annual Gateley Team Spirit awards.

Diversity, inclusion and well being
Diversity, inclusion and well-being is an important part of Gateley's culture and values. We recruit talented people from a diverse range of backgrounds and cultures, providing equal opportunities for all to join our team regardless of age, sex, race, sexual orientation, disability, or culture.

We create an exciting and rewarding place to work that aims to fulfil everyone's potential and together to achieve personal and business goals. We offer flexible working patterns to help our staff achieve a good work/ life balance and we encourage candidates seeking flexibility in their next role to apply for any of our vacancies.
We are proud to have been recognised by The Law Society as gold standard for our Diversity and Inclusion Charter and to be Stonewall Diversity Champions.

Additional Information
If you are successful in receiving an offer of a role with our company a variety of pre-employment screening checks will be completed. Our screening checks can include but are not limited to your eligibility to work, professional and academic qualifications, any criminal records, your financial stability, and references from previous employers. The screening that takes place will be relevant to your role and will vary from role to role.