Senior Manager / Lead – Client Solutions in London

What We Will Offer

We will offer you a place where you can be yourself and where there are no limits on what you can achieve. With us, you can take ownership of your career and have honest conversations throughout. You would join an ambitious firm with a clear strategy for profitable growth where you can get early responsibility and early involvement in growing the business. Here you can expect a competitive and fair reward as well as recognition based on all round performance. This forms part of our internal promise to you, The Deal, between the firm and its employees.

Team Structure

AI, innovation and digital transformation play a central role in delivering the firm's strategic goals. The team has a global remit and works closely with practice groups, knowledge teams, risk, IT, finance and other business services functions to improve the way our lawyers deliver services to clients, embed responsible use of new technologies, and identify opportunities to enhance quality, efficiency and client value.

Main Responsibilities

• This is a senior role for someone who can help move the firm from successful pilots, new technology delivery and individual use cases to scaled, responsible and measurable adoption of AI-enabled and other innovation tools in day-to-day legal work.
• The role will act as the bridge between the new technology team, practice groups and deal teams: taking technologies that have been selected or implemented and helping lawyers use them confidently, safely and effectively on live matters.
• The success of the role will be measured by business impact: improved ways of working, increased adoption, better matter delivery, defensible governance, clearer reporting, stronger engagement with lawyers and clients, and demonstrable value from the firm's technology investments.
• The role will support the Partner – Global Head of AI and Digital Transformation in shaping and delivering the firm's AI and digital transformation agenda, with a particular focus on change and adoption and solution finding.
• This will include taking handover from the technology team, translating tool capability into practical legal workflows, identifying use cases with practice groups and deal teams, developing training, communications and guidance, and creating repeatable processes that enable lawyers to use approved tools safely, effectively and consistently.
• Stakeholder management will be critical. The successful candidate will need to build credibility with partners, lawyers, knowledge teams and business services colleagues, translating strategic priorities into practical delivery while helping teams adopt new ways of working.
• The role will lead the team, working closely with and managing team members involved in AI, innovation, legal operations and platform support.
• The successful candidate will be expected to provide day-to-day direction, help allocate work, support development and create a collaborative team environment in which colleagues can contribute effectively to the firm's wider transformation agenda.
• The role will be highly practical. The successful candidate will be expected to spend time with deal teams to understand where transactions are slow, manual, duplicative or frustrating, and then work with lawyers, knowledge specialists, technology colleagues and external vendors to identify workable solutions, test them, capture lessons learned and embed them into standard ways of working.

Attributes/Skills Required

• Demonstrates the Stephenson Harwood values of: go far, go together, experts in more than law, can do-personalities and always ready.
• Strong credibility with lawyers and the ability to influence partners and senior stakeholders without relying on formal authority.
• Excellent project, product, change and adoption management skills, with the ability to convert strategic objectives and technology capability into practical delivery plans for legal teams.
• Commercially minded and outcome-focused, with a clear understanding that technology adoption must improve client service, quality, risk management or efficiency.
• Strong curiosity about how deals are run in practice, with the ability to listen to lawyers, understand friction points and help design solutions that work in the reality of busy transactional teams.
• An understanding of the pressures, constraints and practical realities faced by lawyers and deal teams, whether gained through previous legal practice or through close work with legal teams in an innovation, knowledge, operations or transformation role.
• Confident working with AI-enabled tools, automation, workflow platforms and data/reporting outputs, with enough technical curiosity to ask the right questions.
• Good judgement on risk, confidentiality, information security, client terms and responsible use of AI, with the ability to escalate appropriately.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to create clear guidance, training materials, reports and senior stakeholder updates.
• Highly organised, resilient and able to prioritise competing demands in a fast-moving environment.
• Collaborative, pragmatic and diplomatic, while also comfortable challenging assumptions and driving momentum.
• Aptitude for problem-solving and continuous improvement, with the ability to spot patterns, remove friction and build repeatable processes.

Education And Experience

• Degree level qualification or equivalent experience.
• Experience working in or very closely with a law firm, legal team or comparable professional services environment, with a strong understanding of how legal work is delivered in practice.
• Previous experience as a practising lawyer would be particularly valuable, especially where combined with an interest in innovation, technology, knowledge, process improvement or new ways of working.
• Candidates who have not practised as lawyers will also be considered where they can demonstrate substantial hands-on experience working with lawyers and deal teams, and a strong understanding of legal workflows, matter delivery and the practical challenges faced by fee-earners.
• Experience delivering change, adoption or transformation in a law firm or other partnership/professional services environment is strongly preferred.
• Experience working with AI-enabled tools, document automation, workflow platforms, data analytics, knowledge systems or similar legal technology is highly desirable, but practical curiosity and the ability to learn quickly are more important than experience with any specific tool.
• Experience embedding newly implemented technologies into day-to-day working practices, including user engagement, training, adoption planning, feedback loops and continuous improvement.
• Track record of leading projects from discovery and business case through pilot, implementation, adoption and benefits tracking.
• Experience working with vendors and internal stakeholders across the full technology lifecycle, including shaping requirements, testing solutions, resolving issues, supporting rollout and improving adoption.
• People management, coaching or team leadership experience is desirable, including experience leading or coordinating a team, supervising work, supporting colleagues' development and helping teams deliver consistently.
• Recognised project management, process improvement, product management, change management or design thinking experience would be advantageous.

About The Firm

Stephenson Harwood is an international law firm, and we're committed to creating 'positive partnerships' with our clients. We represent listed and private companies, institutions and individuals, building lasting relationships to help them succeed in a complex and ever-changing world.

Our focus is on five core sectors: Energy Transition, Life Sciences and Healthcare, Private Capital and Funds, Technology, and Transportation and Trade.

With more than 1,500 people, including 220+ partners, across eleven offices in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, we combine deep legal capabilities and broad commercial expertise. We have also forged close ties with high quality law firms around the world, blending local knowledge with global savvy for clients in over 100 countries.

We understand the power of diversity in delivering that high calibre advice to our clients. We want to attract diverse talent and we particularly encourage applications from underrepresented demographics.