Legal Project Manager

Vario is a market leading alternative legal services provider within the law firm, Pinsent Masons. It is unique in the legal sector. Vario is a practice group within Pinsent Masons which incorporates Flexible Services, Consulting and Technology, Legal Project Management (LPM) and Managed Legal Services (MLS).

The Legal Project Management team collaborates with our legal teams to assist with the delivery of client-facing legal matters. Involvement in matters will include advice or support on project management aspects as well as the management and delivery of the full project/matter lifecycle.

We are looking for a Legal Project Manager to manage and deliver client-facing legal matters from a project management perspective. This role will also focus on improving profitability, efficiency and client service on the matters they are involved in. The Legal Project Manager will work with lawyers and clients to define the scope projects/matters and to identify the most appropriate project delivery approach based on business needs, project risk, impact and cost. Strategic support and operational project management support on projects/matters are key elements of the role. There will be a need to actively engage in business development activity, alongside increasing the awareness of our lawyer teams on the benefits of utilising project management services to support legal delivery. This will contribute to establishing the LPM brand and growing the pipeline of chargeable LPM opportunities.

Key Responsibilities

• Representing the LPM team across all our offices and effectively communicating the LPM proposition at appropriate legal team and business wide forums.
• Developing an effective professional network of internal and external contacts to support the establishment of the LPM brand, and to increase awareness of the LPM offering across all our offices.
• Adopting a proactive approach to building a pipeline of new LPM opportunities within the appropriate practice groups and sectors across all our offices.
• Working collaboratively with other professional services and business operation teams to identify and implement effective solutions to support legal delivery.
• Defining and validating scope of projects/matters in accordance with clients' and lawyer teams’ project/matter objectives.
• Working with Partners and Senior Lawyers to define timelines at the outset of matters. Managing projects/matters within time constraints and taking full responsibility for financial/budget tracking.
• Tracking progress and escalating changes in scope, time or budget to project stakeholders and ensuring effective corrective action is implemented where required.
• Implementing effective risk management strategies in projects to ensure proactive identification and management of Project Risks and Issues, providing options for mitigation or resolution.
• Exceptional Stakeholder Management skills with the ability to work collaboratively in complex, fast-moving environments.
• Arranging and running Kick-Off Meetings, Project Team Meetings and Steering Meetings. Ensuring attendees lists, standing agendas, record keeping and circulation of minutes are in place.
• Leading post project/matter reviews and Lessons Learned exercises.
• Implementing effective communications strategies on projects, including: Project Communication plans and all Reporting requirements covering both progress and costs reporting.
• Drafting of all project management-related documents including project plans, schedules, milestones and action trackers.
• Identification and tracking of deliverables, dependencies and assumptions.
• Promoting collaboration between project workstreams including Pinsent Masons' lawyers and our clients.
• Management of concurrent projects.
• Contributing to the continuous improvement of the Legal Project Management Team's offering including project management methodology, governance, and legal project management best practice.
• Focussed on lean principles and use of innovation and business process mapping to further advance efficiencies in legal processes and project management.
• Responsibility for identifying the most cost effective resource on projects/matters.
• Responsibility for mentoring trainee/apprentice project managers.
• Identifying where there are opportunities to cross sell LPM services on other projects.
• With support from the LPM Leadership team, contributing on bid materials, pitches, and RFP responses.

Candidate Overview

We are looking for candidates who hold the following skills and experience:

• Comprehensive track record in a client-facing project management role.
• Experience of working in the legal sector or a professional services environment within a project/programme management team.
• Expertise in legal corporate transactions/mergers and acquisitions.
• Experience of legal technology and/or legal operations.
• An understanding of law firm financial and performance metrics and the link between effective project/matter management, profitability and delivering value to clients.
• Experience of managing projects across a diverse range of sectors.
• Experience of working with international teams and clients.
• Additional language skills including Dutch or German would be a bonus.

What happens next? Once your application has been submitted and reviewed, our Recruitment team will share the outcome with you by email. We typically hold two interview stages per vacancy providing the opportunity to meet two members of the hiring team at each stage. The first stage is typically conducted virtually and the second stage typically in person at the office in which the role would be based. However, we strive to remain flexible depending on the requirements of the role or the candidate.

Our strength lies in our differences. We are a Disability Confident and top Stonewall employer, a Valuable 500 member, a founding member of the Mindful Business Charter, signatory of the Race at Work Charter and a proud partner of Neurodiversity in Law. We encourage and value different ideas and styles of thinking. It’s with different perspectives that we’ll find solutions to our clients’ most complex challenges. It’s how we’ll deliver outstanding results today, and tomorrow. We want everybody attending an interview to be comfortable and able to fully demonstrate their experience and talents.

Our in-house recruiter, Victoria Greaves, would be happy to have an informal chat about this role, provide this job advert or our application form in an alternative format, and/or discuss any reasonable adjustments to be made either during the recruitment process or after offer stage. You can contact Victoria by emailing careers@pinsentmasons.com.