We are looking for a Resource Manager with previous fee earner experience to join our highly
regarded Disputes & Risk practice group in either our Bristol or London
office, offering hybrid working.
Reporting into the Practice Group's Operations Director,
this role works with the Disputes & Risk management team and Lead D&R
Resource Manager to manage client work allocation across the lawyer teams,
support career development, and be a trusted advisor to Partners in order to
optimise the productivity and profitability of the Practice Group.
Key Responsibilities
The primary responsibility of the Resource Manager is to
allocate client work to ensure all matters are staffed effectively, profitably,
and in a way that supports balanced and fair workloads and helps fee earners
career development and progression. You
will need to build strong trusted relationships with Partners and Service Line
Leaders to develop a deep understanding of their client requirements. Understanding the need to deliver the
strategic objectives of the practice group and
firm is important. The candidate
will work alongside the Lead D&R Resource Manager to facilitate effective
resourcing decisions and support the technical development of lawyers,
workplace wellbeing and support career progression and performance
management. As a member of the D&R
Operations team, you will also work closely with the HR and Knowledge teams to
develop and implement training and development programmes that help deliver
excellent client service and overall high performance, and deliver elements of
the practice group's business strategy.
Role will include (but not be limited to):
- Working with the Practice Group Head, Operations Director,
and Lead Resource & Operations Manager to build on resourcing foundations
that improve the work allocation process
- Monitoring resource requirements for client matters,
anticipating and managing periods of increased/ reduced busyness across
individuals, service lines and the whole Practice Group
- Providing supervising Partners with valuable insights and
recommendations for lawyers to work on matters based on a deep understanding
of fee earners skills and development
needs, as well as understanding of their
short, medium and long term career aspirations
- Investing time with lawyers to build trust and maintain
relationships and to understand workload and career aspirations
- Supporting fee earners with their career progression through
matching their skills and interests to client work opportunities
- Through deep knowledge of lawyer skills and client needs,
collaborating with the HR and Sales & Marketing teams on other relevant
initiatives, such as people development programmes, training and secondment
opportunities
- Championing the use of alternative resources in order to
drive productivity and profitability on client matters, including utilising
support from Legal Project Managers, technology, OC Solutions, and fixed term
contractors
- Attending service line management meetings to discuss
workflow, ongoing needs, and utilisation levels
- Monitoring fee earner chargeable and non-chargeable hours
and ensure any over or under-utilised resources are flagged, providing feedback
to service line leaders and line managers
- Monitoring and managing fee earner holiday requests to
ensure appropriate planning of holidays around periods of projected peak
activity in client matters
- Support the development of best practice and/or process
improvements, including implementing new technology, for effective delivery of
client service
- Working with Knowledge to conduct matter debriefs, share key
learnings across the Practice Group, and implement process improvements where
appropriate
- Support annual lawyer performance management cycle
- Working with HR, partners and the leadership team on ideal
structures (team size), taking into account anticipated client work pipeline,
client mix, and progression of fee earners
- Working closely with the Practice Group's senior
stakeholders, including the Operations Director and HR, to achieve the firm's
dedication to diversity, the importance of an inclusive culture and positive
financial growth as well as other strategic projects
Who we're looking for
The successful candidate will need to demonstrate:
- Experience working as a disputes fee earner
- The ability to build strong, trust based, working
relationships with colleagues at all levels
- Strong stakeholder management skills, delivering change and
experience in dealing with people at senior levels (Partner level in law firms)
- Ability to manage expectations of stakeholders across levels
of seniority
- Proven experience in time management and working
autonomously – responsiveness is critical to the role
- Ability to handle multiple and sometimes conflicting
priorities to tight deadlines
- Aptitude to quickly learn the nature of the client facing
services provided across the practice group's six service lines (Commercial
Disputes, IP, Regulatory Disputes, Property Disputes, Construction &
Engineering Disputes; Restructuring & Insolvency) and considerations for
resourcing this
- Strong verbal and written communication skills
- Strong understanding of, and ability to analyse performance
data and present it back to the partner team
- Ability to respond to change, be innovative and offer
creative solutions
- Ability to work collaboratively and impartially across
various teams
Salary and benefits
We offer competitive salaries and generous benefits. We value the health and wellbeing of our people and our wide range of initiatives and benefits support this.
Our recruitment process
Please note that although we include closing dates for our roles as a guide, we review and progress applications on a rolling basis. At Osborne Clarke we do not make any recruitment decisions using automated decision-making.
We are committed to providing an environment where you can perform to the best of your abilities at every stage of your recruitment experience and beyond. If you require any adjustments to be made during the application stage, interview process, or when working with us, please let us know in confidence.