Legal Operations & Client Services Lead in Northampton

We are currently looking for a proactive, highly organised, service focussed individual to fulfil a crucial role supporting the Insurance & Risk team.

Role Purpose

Reporting to the Head of the team, you will be responsible for the day-to-day management of all business support to fee earners in the team. Having oversight of the team’s workflow you will coordinate support and ensure all business administrative needs of the team are met. You will also be required to undertake client relationship management and will have responsibility for managing/coordinating key business processes such as our Paperlite initiative and file compliance.

Responsibilities Of a Legal Support Manager Include:

• Team leadership
• Day to day management of the IRR team’s support staff including managing holiday, absences and any other people management related issues – e.g. appraisals, coaching, disciplinary, grievance or performance issues
• Responsible for the development of colleagues, ensuring any identified learning and development needs for the team are addressed
• Ensuring that absence is accurately recorded on cascade for all members of the service team
• Recruitment and selection of new support staff within the team
• Champion the induction process for all new joiners
• Smart Practice and Workflow Management
• Liaising with the Head of Team and Partners to coordinate distribution of administrative work across the team
• Managing the workflow in the digital dictation platform (BigHand), ensuring enough resource to support business demand, organising out of hours support when needed
• Managing case files - opening, closing, storage and retrieval - ensuring all files are compliant
• Overseeing the work of the support team to ensure that firm and departmental quality and compliance standards are complied with.
• Sharing and promoting best practice in conjunction with the Smart Practice Team
• Support the implementation of technology or systems changes ensuring the team embrace the changes and are readily supported throughout
• Liaising with the Regulatory and Compliance team and ensuring the team is prepared for the annual Lexcel assessment
• Contributing to continuous process improvement
• Coordination of team and/or firm projects where necessary
• Working with other LSM’s across the firm to share best practice and resource where needed
• Client Relationship Management
• Acting as a point of escalation for client related queries that Legal Secretaries are unable to deal with and referring onwards to fee earners where appropriate
• Building strong rapport and relationships with clients and third parties
• Supporting the coordination of client events and meetings
• Acting as the teams Marketing Lead, where appropriate, liaising with the Central Marketing Team ensuring marketing activities are delivered effectively within brand guidelines and budget.
• Fielding client queries, taking messages on behalf of fee earners and communicating updates as requested by the fee earner
• Fee Earner Support
• Proactive management of emails, voicemails/calls and general post, using initiative to route enquiries to the appropriate individuals for swift response and action, ensuring that tasks are followed up
• First point of contact for the team on any business support issues
• Active management of the team’s monthly fee estimation and billing processes
• Managing the team’s processes following up unpaid bills
• Proactive diary management of the team
• Drafting and formatting of letters, documents, and forms and other administrative duties as may be required
• Prepare correspondence and documents through audio typing and word-processing from a team central digital dictation system or as required by fee earners

About You

As Legal Support Manager you will have:

• Skills
• Seize opportunities, we want the teams to work in an agile way which requires adapting quickly to changes.
• Exhibit a desire for continuous learning and professional development and a strong ability to deliver solutions to problems.
• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written
• Ability to be able to plan and organise tasks against tight deadlines.
• Demonstrate excellent attention to detail in all aspects of your work
• High levels of resilience and discretion and the ability to manage relationships at all levels.
• Ability to make decisions quickly and be open to feedback
• You will be results focused and proactive in your approach to work.
• Have positive ‘can-do’ attitude, willing to be hands on and do what is needed in order to achieve results
• Ability to build relationships and encourage team working and create a supportive culture
• Possess drive and initiative, anticipating solicitors and clients' needs
• Embrace technology and be willing to become proficient at the emerging software
• Driving license or the ability to travel to other office locations as required.

Knowledge

• Have a broad knowledge of administrative tasks in legal practices.
• Understanding of legal terminology
• Demonstrate a sound knowledge of IT skills in Microsoft Office, Outlook, Word, Excel and Teams, Zoom, etc.
• Have a genuine interest in our clients focusing on absolute client service.

Experience

• Experience within a legal environment / professional services environment
• Strong legal administration experience
• Experience in case management systems
• You will have experience of working in a client facing environment.
• A proven track record of supervising team members is desirable.

Benefits of working with us as a Legal Support Manager:

• Scottish Widows Pension Scheme
• Support staff bonus scheme
• 28 days annual leave (plus public holidays)
• Happy People / Perks at Work benefits portal
• Cycle to Work scheme
• Life Assurance
• 1/3 gym membership contribution
• Flu vaccinations

HCR suits people who love a challenge and want to work in an environment where careers thrive on the back of hard work and personal merit. Our people enjoy feeling part of something bigger than themselves, and whilst our clients drive our development, it is our people who bring their energy, enthusiasm, and entrepreneurial mindsets together to solve problems and help our clients succeed.

Our people tell us they enjoy working on good quality, interesting matters from a wide variety of our clients, because they get the experience they want to develop their careers. We will give you responsibility early, the mandate to make things happen and we’ll back your good ideas. Our “Passion for People” lives and breathes every day throughout the firm as our peoples’ energy and sense of fun create a warm environment in which to thrive.

HCR’s growth constantly creates opportunities for people who want to go places and make a difference, your career plan can become part of our growth plan. At HCR you can expect to work with friendly, energetic, ambitious people, who love getting stuck into a client problem, and enjoy celebrating a good outcome. Our people value the sense of community provided by the individual personality of each office and the collegiate approach across all our service and sector teams.

As a Times Best Law firm, among the UK Top 60, we provide the full range of services that you would expect to organisations, business leaders and individuals. However, in our mission to give everyone the opportunity to experience a different kind of legal service we take an entrepreneurial approach. We’re flexible and responsive to the needs of our clients, delivering the best outcomes for them.

As HCR is an equal opportunities employer, we don’t just accept differences, we celebrate them. We want to attract a diverse and ambitious workforce that reflects all backgrounds and skills to create a workplace that is supportive and inclusive, recognises and nurtures talent, and which works together to achieve the best outcome for our clients.