Legal Project Manager

Company Description

Who we are

We are one of the largest international law firms in the world. With over 30 offices across the globe, we strive to exceed the expectations of our clients, providing them with the highest-quality advice and legal insight, which combines the firm’s global standards with in-depth local expertise.

Our firm, work and people span jurisdictions, cultures, and languages. We offer our clients a truly international perspective. We believe every career should be rewarding and stimulating - full of opportunities to learn, thrive, and grow. That’s why we’re so proud of our inclusive, friendly, and team-based approach to work.

You’ll find our clients in commercial and industrial sectors, the financial investor community, governments, regulators, trade bodies, and not-for-profit organisations. But no matter who they are or why they’ve reached out to us, we provide a world-class service every step of the way. And that’s possible thanks to the entrepreneurial spirit and conscientious approach to work that you’ll find across all of our teams.

Whichever area of the business you join, you’ll become an integral part an innovative, diverse and ambitious team of people. Clifford Chance is a place where the brightest minds and the best of colleagues meet.

Job Description

The Role

The successful candidate will be responsible for supporting the delivery of the full matter lifecycle for a portfolio of significant matters.  The success of this role will be measured by: achieving good levels of engagement with key stakeholders; achieving measurable benefits from the activities undertaken; adding value to the organisation by contributing to the development and roll out of legal project management best practices, tools and techniques as well as supporting the firm's Innovation is Action programme

The successful candidate will be credible, engaging and authoritative, with the ability to build close working relationships at all levels.  Ideally, the successful candidate will have a solid background in project management, preferably gained in a professional services environment.

Key Accountabilities

Working in collaboration with the File Partner and the Managing Associate, utilising Practice Support Coordinators and other available Business Services resources as appropriate, the Legal Project Manager will be expected to take responsibility for supporting the delivery of the full matter lifecycle, from pricing and inception through to the completion of post-closing activities, for a portfolio of significant matters (or work streams within those matters), to ensure that they are delivered in accordance with the client's needs, efficiently, on budget and within timeframe.  They will also be expected to contribute to the development of legal project management tools and best practices at the Firm and provide training in project management techniques and best practices to lawyers.

This will include some or all of the following (depending on the precise nature of the matter):

• In consultation with clients and colleagues, prepare scope, resourcing and budget proposals for relevant matters or work streams and then track progress against those proposals, alerting the relevant stakeholders promptly to variances and recommending changes and developing contingency plans where necessary
• Working with the File Partners and Managing Associates, and consulting as necessary with the Work Allocation Partners or Practice Management Advisors, ensure that relevant matters are adequately and appropriately resourced at all times, taking into account anticipated changes in matter activity and the upcoming workload and availability of members of the matter team
• Arrange appropriate kick-off meetings or communications, ensure that members of the relevant matter teams are adequately briefed about the nature of the matters and the client's expectations and ensure that they are kept up-to-date about any relevant changes through regular update meetings and other communications as appropriate
• Maintain or arrange for the maintenance of appropriate communications channels and resources, such as working party lists, team email distribution lists and online deal and data rooms
• Ensure that any applicable information barriers and/or insider lists are established and maintained
• Act as the interface, where appropriate, to matter-specific and other personnel at the client, lawyers in other practice areas and offices, external and opposing counsel and third-party service providers
• Develop matter timetables to track milestones, deliverables and dependencies and produce periodic reports to provide status updates for both internal and external stakeholders
• Proactively identify any risks and issues that arise, provide options