Senior Legal Project Manager

The focus of the LPM team is to drive and implement significant change by focusing on delivery, process improvement and innovation, to increase efficiency and provide excellent client service on the most complex matters through effective legal project management. This is an exciting time to join the firm as developing more efficient ways of working lies at the heart of the firm's current strategy.

The Senior LPM will demonstrate strength in three key areas: firstly, recognised as an excellent practitioner with a track record of delivering major legal projects (matters) in a large law firm; secondly, to be an ambassador for BSD and the wider Service Areas with a proven track record in delivering holistic solutions to complex legal projects; and thirdly, leadership of a specific workstream directly linked to the strategy of the BSD team.

The Senior LPM will report into the Head of LPM along with the other Senior LPMs forming a leadership team to further develop the LPM capability, methodology and best practice in order to meet the evolving demand of the firm and our clients. In addition, the Senior LPMs will have line management responsibilities for LPMs and Legal Project Support Officers. 

You will work closely with lead Partners and their teams to lead the project management activities and to co-ordinate delivery of the legal work to meet the clients' needs to an agreed timeline and budget. This will involve client contact from the outset to define and document scope, advice on and set-up of internal matter management structure and governance, resourcing and budgeting, tracking transaction and financial progress, managing risk and identifying efficiencies throughout the life of the project. 

This role will be based in a specified office but the Senior LPM may be expected to travel as and when required as part of their role.

MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Act as an ambassador for BSD both internally and externally;
• Provide supervision, development and support to the LPM and LPSO community as required;
• To be responsible for a specific workstream or sub-function of the LPM team;
• Provide Legal Project Management support in any of the DLA Piper offices as required;
• Working alongside the lead Partner and core legal team to support on project delivery;
• Coordinate work effort, scoping, pricing, planning, fee monitoring and reporting, status reporting, liaising with clients (where agreed), tracking scope changes, liaising with specialist departments and potentially other DLA Piper offices;
• The extent of activity per project will depend on the size and type of project.  In some larger projects a fuller level of project management activity will be required with potentially greater interaction with the client but with smaller matters, a "Lite" level of project management will be needed to offer leaner support to the lead Partner;
• To promote the services of the Business and Service Delivery team as well as those of other Service Areas as part of a holistic solutions based approach;
• Work with a Legal Project Management tool to set up and track the status of each project;
• Research working processes through discussions with fee earners;
• Analysis of work product to identify any tasks that could be done by different/other resources;
• Introduce new working efficiencies where appropriate and develop improved processes, tools and systems;
• Roll out improvements and solutions through coaching and training sessions
• Consultancy role in work product re-engineering;
• Support fee-earners to ensure they have accurate information and support available to them;
• Identify and propose to the central management team any future needs and identified improvements to the firm's systems and approach;
• Develop strong working relationships with other departments and teams including Finance.

ABOUT YOU

• Minimum of 4 years' relevant experience leading projects and strategic initiatives;
• Minimum of 1 year delivering large scale projects in a large law firm;
• Prince 2 or similar qualification is an advantage but not essential;
• Having worked "client side" is an advantage but not essential;
• Preferably experience of working in a large international organisation;
• Analytical and strategic mind set;
• Financially aware and numerate;
• MBA or similar qualification is an advantage but not essential;
• Strong computer skills and experience in using MS Office tools (in particular Word, Excel, Outlook and Internet Explorer);
• Technology savvy - able to use various other IT tools to support efficient working processes;
• Demonstrably strong stakeholder management skills; 
• Strong influencing skills; and
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Exposure to professional services culture would be advantageous but not essential;
• Ability to grasp tasks quickly and work autonomously;
• Flexibility to adapt to different activities;
• Excellent attention to detail;
• Good mentoring and leadership skills;
• Collegiate and team based approach;
• Customer focussed with desire to improve working practices;
• Strong communication skills; 
• Excellent presentation skills;
• Analytical and strategic mind set;
• Effective problem solver;
• An ability to quickly prioritise between competing demands;
• Ability to multi-task;