Legal Support Manager

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The Role

Department: Legal Support

Location: London or Manchester

Role: Legal Support Manager

The Team

To ensure the Hub Leaders and legal support teams meet the demands of the firm and its clients. This role will be responsible for the successful delivery of a high-quality, client-focused legal support service, through the strategic and operational day-to-day management of the Hub leaders, Practice Assistants, Legal Support Assistants and Administrative Assistants; and will be the main point of contact for ensuring operational excellence. They will work closely with all members of the team focusing on understanding the business and practice needs and work with the Head of Workplace Services and Legal Support and fee earners to strategically design and deliver appropriately resourced administrative support services and deliver exceptional client service.

Key Responsibilities

People Management

• Manage Hub Leaders, Practice Assistants, Legal Support Assistants and Administrative Assistants services in a proactive manner, whilst ensuring individual performance levels are maintained to a high standard. Such responsibilities to include regular progress meetings and annual appraisals, probation reviews in line with the competency framework, and objective setting
• Ensure the smooth induction of new starters, transfers and maternity returns to the department, ensuring awareness and understanding of HR, department and client specific policies, procedures and information
• Act as a coach to develop the Hub Leaders and team members to the highest standards
• Identify appropriate training to support induction and personal development through feedback, performance management and continued assessment of training needs
• Pastoral care and wellbeing for Hub Leaders and legal support team members

Management of Support Services

• Manage legal support teams with a focus on service delivery and excellence; resolve issues relating to staffing and performance issues resources, working relationships and HR matters
• Support resource management and business case for staff allocations
• Work closely with the Head of Workplace Services and Legal Support to support wider group. Ensure full understanding of the groups aims and objectives
• Develop relationships and proactively engage with the fee earners to understand client specific requirements/SLAs/KPIs, and to ensure the successful management and administration of practice area support
• Responsible for ensuring Hub Leaders have a handle on the prioritisation of work and work is shared across hubs where necessary
• Ensure all Hub Leaders and their teams work proactively and collectively for the benefit of the business across their team and other teams as appropriate
• Manage headcount in line with business needs and ensure business case established where changes are required, drafting documentation as requested
• Manage the recruitment and selection process, ensuring recruitment is within budget, alternative options have been explored and appropriate business cases are provided
• Keep abreast of issues, anticipate changes in demand/regulatory changes and effect timely interventions to address the changes, working with the appropriate Heads to introduce these into the service
• Proactively and flexibly work with the other Legal Support Managers to improve the quality and efficiency of legal support services provided to the business, ensuring consistency of approach
• Arrange and chair legal support team meetings
• Produce management information as required; Implement and review team KPIs/SLAs, statistics etc. for ongoing monitoring of quality and efficiency and performance management
• Approval of overtime
• Review processes and service provision, introducing improvements/new services as appropriate; developing and managing the current services being provided as well as considering future changes in line with technology changes and the changing needs of our clients/the business
• Co-ordinate desk allocations, moves and changes in conjunction with IT and Business Operations
• Ensuring high standards of service are consistently maintained and developed

Quality of Service

• Drive the delivery of exceptional client service, quality and consistency across departments through ongoing process improvement; review of systems and processes, capturing, sharing and implementing best practice
• Ensure full compliance by the legal teams of our policies and procedures (e.g. Compliance, ISO, Finance), engaging with central teams where appropriate
• Actively support and be a champion for department/firm initiatives, engaging with central teams where appropriate and driving implementation of changes
• Lead on department projects, adopting common project methodologies from initiation to completion and ensuring business requirements, objectives and anticipated benefits are understood and achieved
• Any other duties as required, commensurate with the level of the post

Essential Skills & Experience

• Excellent communication skills with the ability to quickly establish credible relationships at all levels
• Experience of managing multiple stakeholders and leading change
• Ability to balance conflicting priorities, be alert to potential problems and challenge working practices;
• Proactive, collaborative and forward-thinking
• Confidential and discreet and able to appropriately ensure areas of concern are managed and resolved effectively
• Ability to identify and deliver improvements to processes and systems to ensure efficiency and the drive to see projects through from initiation to completion
• Ability to lead, motivate and develop people
• Attention to detail and the highest quality standards
• Resilient with the ability to manage difficult situations effectively and stay calm under pressure
• Excellent influencing skills
• Acts as a role model and mentor
• Customer service focused

Technical Skill

• Management qualifications or equivalent experience
• Demonstrable experience of working in a management role in a legal or professional service environment
• Ability to build and maintain excellent working relationships with all staff levels
• Advanced Microsoft Office skills

The Firm

Clyde & Co is a leading global law firm, specialising in the sectors that underpin global trade and commercial activity, namely: insurance, transport, construction, energy, trade and commodities. It is globally integrated, offering a comprehensive range of contentious and non-contentious legal services and commercially-minded legal advice to businesses operating across the world. Clyde & Co is committed to operating in a responsible way. This means progressing towards a diverse and inclusive workforce that reflects the diversity of its communities and clients, using its legal skills to support its communities through pro bono work, volunteering and charitable partnerships, and minimising the impact it has on the environment. The firm has 480 partners, 2400 lawyers, 3200 legal professionals and 5000 people overall in over 60 offices and associated offices worldwide.

Our Values

Our values are the principles that guide the decisions we make, unite us in our endeavours and strengthen our delivery, for our clients and our firm. We:

• Work as one We are a globally connected team of talented people who act with a firm-first mentality to achieve success
• Excel with clients We aim high and challenge ourselves to deliver unique excellence for our clients, keeping them at the centre of everything we do
• Celebrate difference We help each other to be at our best and believe our differences result in greater achievement
• Act boldly We seek new opportunities, take action and learn as we go, recognising that curiosity drives our development and contributes to growth

Business Services Competencies

Clyde & Co is committed to providing extensive, personal and professional development opportunities for our people enabling them to be highly effective in their current role as well as assisting them to fulfil their career aspirations.

The competencies are used to inform all aspects of Business Services career development. They vary across levels and different business areas and fall under the following areas:

• Technical Excellence
• People and Team
• Client/Stakeholder Relationships
• Service Delivery and Commercial Awareness
• Personal Effectiveness

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