Senior Manager: Learning and Development

Mayer Brown is an international law firm positioned to represent the world’s major corporations, funds, and financial institutions in their most important and complex transactions and disputes. We are recognized by our clients as strategic partners with deep commercial instincts and a commitment to creatively anticipating their needs and delivering excellence in everything we do.

We are a collegial and collaborative firm where highly motivated individuals with an unwavering commitment to excellence receive the opportunity, support, and development they need to grow, thrive, and realise their greatest potential all while supporting the Firm’s client service principles of excellence, strategic partnership, commercial instinct, integrated strengths, innovation, and collaboration across our international firm.

If you enjoy working with team members whose defining characteristics are exceptional client service, initiative, professionalism, responsiveness, and adaptability, you may be the person we are seeking to join our L&D / HR department in our London office as a Senior Manager: Learning and Development.

The Team

The L&D team is responsible for:

• legal, compliance and professional skills training, for all in the London office
• mentoring and coaching across EMEA and Asia
• skills and compliance training across EMEA and Asia (working with HR teams in local offices)
• global professional skills programmes, (designed and delivered in conjunction with the US L&D team).

The Role

This is an opportunity to play a pivotal role in shaping and delivering our professional skills offering in London, EMEA and Asia, ensuring the continuous professional growth of lawyers and business services professionals. The role will involve the design, implementation and evaluation of innovative learning solutions that support the firm’s strategic objectives, fostering a culture of high performance and continuous learning and enhancing employee engagement. There may also be some management responsibility of an administrator and / or an apprentice, from time to time.

Hours

Standard hours are 9:30am to 5:30pm with flexibility in accordance with the needs of the business. Our current working from home policy allows for two days working from home, subject to business need. This policy is subject to change and does not form part of contractual terms.

Responsibilities

We are a small and busy, but very supportive team. Responsibilities will include the following:

• Manage specific programmes, such as our Business Services Apprentice Programme; Secretarial Team Leader Programme; Junior Management Programme; Midlevel Manager Programme.
• Lead our various graduate recruitment, CSR and community engagement projects.
• Co-deliver our biannual Trainee Development Centre, with our Senior Manager of legal skills.
• Assist with our global coaching and mentor programme.
• Oversee and manage L&D sponsorship and clawback agreements.
• Collate monthly L&D metrics for London and the USA for reporting purposes.
• Write pre or post session summaries for the London office.
• Update L&D spreadsheets and project plans.
• Monitor the L&D inbox, along with the rest of the L&D team.
• Review and update the L&D intranet pages, as required.
• Manage ad hoc projects, as required.

Training / coaching

• Co-develop with the Senior Manager of legal skills, with input from the team, the annual professional skills curriculum for the London office and the virtual skills offering for the rest of EMEA and Asia.
• Design and personally deliver a wide range of professional skills based learning and development courses, workshops and programmes for both lawyers and business services staff.
• Develop and deliver short bite-size skills sessions, for virtual delivery.
• Coach individuals, teams or groups on a variety of skills and sign-post them to further help and support.
• Ensure learning solutions are innovative, inclusive, accessible and culturally nuanced for the audience.
• Carry out L&D inductions.
• Carry out return to work coaching / meetings to support those returning from long term leave.
• Network with fellow L&D professionals in the city and keep up to date with L&D trends and developments in professional services environments.

Planning / Stakeholder Management

• Design and implement proactive communication plans to ensure that learning and development initiatives are communicated effectively to target populations.
• Draft engaging calendar invites, emails and course summaries.
• Act as a trusted adviser to and regularly liaise with internal stakeholders (e.g. Secretarial Team Leaders, Directors and Asst Dirs of Business Services Teams) to scope and understand the training needs of business services professionals.
• Work with the Senior Manager of our legal training programmes to understand the professional skills needs of our lawyers and respond with appropriate interventions and programmes.
• Liaise with external training providers and other departments (such as the graduate recruitment, CSR and community engagement teams) to devise new and existing courses and training interventions, ensuring quality and value for money.
• Collaborate with L&D colleagues and maintain strong relationships across the global HR team and across the wider firm.

Evaluation, Administration and Reporting

• Evaluate learning and development programmes to assess impact and effectiveness, and make recommendations for improvements.
• Create and produce reports for management, including from the learning management system, as required.
• Support with administrative L&D tasks, as needed.

Qualifications

Educated to degree level standard or equivalent.

Desirable But Not Essential

• DISC PPA and / or Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) (or similar) qualified.
• Coaching experience.
• Experience with elearning programme design and delivery tools and processes, such as Poll Everywhere and Microsoft Forms.

Experience, Skills And Personal Attributes

Key Requirements

• A proven track record of developing and implementing learning and development initiatives, preferably in a professional services environment.
• Demonstrate significant experience of successful professional skills training design and delivery through a range of delivery options.
• Excellent project management, facilitation, decision-making and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent attention to detail.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Ability to provide a range of solutions when faced with challenges.
• Experience working with databases and learning management systems.
• Knowledge of Micron CE Manager and VinciWorks would be advantageous.
• Proficient in using MS Office PowerPoint, Word, WebEx, Teams, Zoom, and Excel.

Personal Attributes

• Genuine interest in and desire to develop others.
• Personable, reliable, with excellent relationship-building skills.
• Proactive, enthusiastic and energetic approach.
• Self-motivated.
• Able to work well in a busy small team, to sometimes tight deadlines.
• A motivated individual who demonstrates accountability for their own development and who thrives on owning initiatives and delivering outcomes to continuously stretch themselves.
• Flexible in terms of design and delivery style, credible and able to tailor presentations to the audience.
• A quick, adaptable learner comfortable with change and continuous improvements in training and ways of working.
• Ability to work on their own but also able to work well with other team members in order to achieve common goals.
• Culturally aware, adaptable and able to work effectively in a global context.
• High levels of integrity, professionalism and discretion.

At Mayer Brown, we are committed to creating an inclusive work environment that offers our people the opportunity and support they need to succeed. Our culture promotes mutual respect, acceptance, cooperation and productivity among people from all backgrounds and values different perspectives and ideas. One of our core values at Mayer Brown is to promote inclusion at all levels within the business which is actively supported by our Employee Resource Groups - LGBT+, Fusion (Race & Ethnicity), Multi-faith, Women, Enable (Disability) and Work and Me (Family). We are happy to discuss any reasonable adjustments that individuals may require throughout the recruitment process and once they have joined the Firm.