Executive Director of Client Innovation

Foot Anstey, a top 100 law firm, is launching an exciting new opportunity for an Executive Director of Client Innovation to lead and drive innovative legal solutions. This role is at the core of the firm’s strategy in this regard, and will work with senior leadership, Client Relationship Partners and other key stakeholders across the firm to foster, influence and grow our range and approach to client innovation solutions. You will connect the client strategy with technology, people and process innovation opportunities with the aim of driving a competitive advantage. Working closely with the Marketing, Business Development, Digital, Data and Technology, and Legal teams, you will ensure a collaborative and clear focus of resources in delivering solutions to the client.

Though effective collaboration with Partners you will be responsible for successfully identifying and driving the client opportunities pipeline and delivering innovative solutions which span people, process and technology in order to drive client stickiness and growth. Along with the legal teams you will take responsibility for owning the client relationship whilst delivering solutions ensuring that what the client wants are clearly understood and delivered with clarity of operational accountability.

Our strategic commitment to client innovation

Client innovation is a core part of the firm’s strategy. Over the past 3 years we have placed strong focus on innovating the way we deliver legal services to better connect with our clients. We launched Ingenuity 9 months ago, our brand for client innovation centred on people, process, and technology, and we continue to successfully generate revenue, grow client relationships and foster new client relationships through our approach and solutions. We are excited about the value delivered to date and the opportunities to significantly push on our client innovation approach as a central element of our ongoing strategy for growth.

The firm is now entering a strategic planning period and the Board is committed to growing our client innovation capability which is recognised as a strategic imperative. This newly created senior role will be at the heart of leading this, working with the Partners and senior leadership in defining and leading the client innovation strategy for the next 4-year strategic period. This is a real chance for you to create and deliver a client innovation vision that makes a transformational difference to deliver tangible benefits both in terms of client attraction and retention through the provision of agile, future focused and personalised solutions, whilst ensuring a healthy return on investment for the firm.

Our successes

We have engaged with around 70 clients over the past 2 years and have seen an impressive uptake rate of about 70%. These solutions cut across the firm’s practice areas and sectors, with two solutions being launched already under our Ingenuity brand and at least 3 more planned this year. Our focus on getting in the room with our clients to understand their challenges and identify opportunities receives consistent, positive feedback from clients and results that are of value to the client and firm. As such, there is an established understanding of this role and its value to partners and teams in attracting and securing new clients, and retaining them over the longer term.

About You

To be successful in this role, you will need to:

1. Have a passion for innovation of legal services
2. Motivated to drive innovation strategy
3. Have a proven track record and demonstrable experience in a similar role e.g. Leading on client engagement strategy
4. Able to describe business and client value
5. An understanding of different legal practice opportunities
6. Possess excellent relationship management, with a proven ability to develop strong and effective working relationships with a range of stakeholders including at the most senior level
7. Be driven to make a difference in your role
8. Have the skills to create clear client engagement plans aligned to market strategy
9. Have experience of the legal industry
10. Enjoy driving a collaborative approach to getting results
11. Deliver exceptional client facing and presentation skills
12. Have had experience of developing commercial models for revenue generation
13. Have had experience of digital product development
14. Enjoy driving R&D and an interest in technology
15. Possess the proven ability to generate creative solutions in the interest of the client and wider business (Are a creative thinker)
16. Foster a passion for combining technology, people and process change
17. Have the ability to engage with and influence strategic decision makers as appropriate

About Us

As one of the UK’s fastest growing law firms, we believe in helping our clients and people achieve their ambitions, unlocking new and exciting opportunities. Working as one team, our business and legal advisors are motivated by understanding clients’ goals, collaborating with them to deliver the right solutions at the right time. We are on an exciting journey to become our clients’ most trusted advisor, enabling them to achieve their ambitions, and we think how we do it is just as important as what we do. Our values guide the way we act, every day, from the way we operate as a business to how we treat our colleagues and clients:

• collaboration over convention
• championing aspiration
• being refreshingly human
• embracing entrepreneurial spirit
• delivering integrated thinking

We’re proud to have grown from a high-street firm to a significant regional and national player working with leading brands and individuals predominantly across six key sectors: Developers, Energy & Infrastructure, Islamic Finance, Private Equity, Private Wealth, and Retail & Consumer. Our strategy of gaining market share through meeting clients’ needs, investing in and developing high quality talent and using technology and innovation to enhance our services has led to significant growth. We now operate from seven bases: Truro, Plymouth, Exeter, Taunton, Bristol, Southampton and London.

At Foot Anstey our people, like our values, are at the very heart of our business. We work hard to help our employees achieve their aspirations through offering meaningful careers with balanced rewards, which have been carefully designed to focus on personal wellbeing. Wellbeing matters to us and our people enjoy a range of benefits which we think are a bit special, such as the weekly Lifestyle Hour to use as you wish, and our Family Hour option which makes a day of annual leave go so much further across the year.

The recruitment process

As you can tell, we are excited at the prospect of welcoming our new Executive Director of Client Innovation to the firm and, as is right for a role of this strategic importance, the recruitment process will include a number of elements. We anticipate that an initial, informal conversation would proceed to a formal interview, followed by one of more competency-related tasks which is likely to include a presentation on a given topic. You may also have the opportunity to meet a panel of key stakeholders, senior partners and managers from across the business. Our aim is to give you every opportunity to showcase your skills, knowledge and experience and to highlight their relevance based on the needs of this role. Feedback will be made available at each stage, and naturally, your application will be handled in the strictest confidence.

If you would like to discuss any aspect of the recruitment process, please **** or email ****

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