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Job Title
Senior Legal Project Manager – Disputes
Office Location
London
Department
Finance – Legal Project Management
Support Hogan Lovells Cadwalader and its partners to be the market leaders in legal service delivery. Legal Project Management (LPM) ensures an enhanced quality of service, which is efficient, innovative and our clients consider valuable.
Working Hours
35 hours per week, 9:30am to 5:30pm but additional hours may be required. We are happy to consider agile and flexible working patterns. Our approach to hybrid working allows for up to 40% of time working from home and 60% working in the office, please contact a member of the recruitment team to discuss further.
Role Overview
The Senior Legal Project Manager – Disputes will work closely with the Legal Project Manager Lead – Disputes, International and other key stakeholders to support the effective implementation of LPM initiatives within the practice group. This role provides an opportunity to contribute to the practice LPM strategy while also carrying out the below:
Work closely with partner and lawyer teams to support the efficient management of sophisticated client engagements through:
Scoping and pitching.
Planning.
Managing and monitoring.
Matter completion and review.
Provide 'on-demand' support and consultancy for partners and lawyers on 'live matters' at set up, delivery and / or review.
Identify opportunities for efficiency and innovation – assisting with the development of such solutions, where appropriate, and, once developed, embed best practice.
Champion and support the build out of LPM capability across Hogan Lovells Cadwalader.
Be a trusted member of transaction / case teams focused on service quality, delivery and efficiency.
Liaise with other operational specialists at Hogan Lovells Cadwalader to support the following functions, Pricing / Finance, Reporting / IT, knowledge gathering and sharing, and Pitching / Marketing and Business Development in the LPM space.
Provide training and development on the LPM methodology and tools; and support the implementation, use and further development of the LPM software tool, as well as provide user training for fee earners on the software – as appropriate.
Key Responsibilities
Specific duties or responsibilities may be reviewed from time to time to reflect changes in personnel and management structure, staff location or services. All members of the firm participate in our Responsible Business program.
The core responsibility of this role is operational, to work with partners to actively manage matters through: scoping; pricing; resource planning; delivery and monitoring; identifying, revising and pricing scope changes; and reviewing and identifying opportunities for service quality or efficiency improvements – and introducing innovative working practices and tools.
The outcomes we are looking for from Legal Project Management are:
Priced correctly - thoughtfully tailored fee structures, meeting each client's needs and built using data, tools and experience.
Managed – creating a standard / quality mark for LPM and establishing this as a recognised 'value' of Hogan Lovells Cadwalader's service delivery.
High quality – to enshrine 'service quality' as a core deliverable – meeting the expectations of our clients.
Consistent – LPM principles to be applied consistently across all matter planning, execution and communications with clients.
Efficient – ensuring that efficient delivery of matters is a core contributor to building efficient practices and ensuring realisation.
Profitable – ensure profitability is a core consideration and deliverable of all matters regardless of fee arrangements.
Transparent – 'No Surprises' – status, changes and impact of changes actively communicated to all stakeholders and clients.
Innovative – identifying opportunities to provide enhance efficiency and quality in our service delivery through alternative use of people, process and technology.
In addition, the Senior Legal Project Manager – Disputes will also:
Support strategic goals – collaborate with the LPM Practice Lead and Head of LPM to advance the global strategic objectives of the LPM team, including the rollout of LPM tools, training programs, and processes.
Practice-specific initiatives – assist in developing and maintaining practice-specific LPM knowledge, tools, and processes, ensuring alignment with the firm’s broader LPM framework.
Team support and oversight:
Provide day-to-day guidance and support to the LPM team within the practice group, helping to manage workloads and prioritise tasks using the established prioritisation matrix.
Coach and mentor junior team members to enhance their LPM capabilities and ensure high-quality service delivery.
Contribute to effective communication of LPM initiatives and best practices within the practice group.
Skills & Experience
Essential
Good track record of championing and delivery change – and delivering solutions that work for all stakeholders.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
Self-motivated, able to demonstrate determination and persistence.
Ability to implement pragmatic solutions.
High degrees of influencing skills.
Coaching skills; high level of credibility, professional.
Ability to work with all levels within an organisation, from senior partners to more junior team members.
Build effective relationships / networks internally and externally.
Pro-active, commercial outlook with a solution based approach.
Work collaboratively, providing a quality service.
Proven track record of selling the chargeable elements of LPM to clients and partners, and being a chargeable asset on live matters.
Desired
Worked in a law firm or professional services environment.
Understanding of the legal services markets and the challenges and opportunities that exist.
The Candidate
Essential
Be a team player who instils confidence in others of: themselves: the need for LPM; and of solutions and options offered.
Results driven with a record of delivering creative and effective outcomes.
Be comfortable embracing uncertainty and to work with others to find working solutions.
Highly numerate and competent in Excel (for fee analysis and reporting) with a good degree of financial acumen.
Willing to challenge and question assumptions; proposes alternative and bold solutions.
Professional qualifications required for the role if applicable.
Desired
Worked as a subject matter expert – acknowledged by colleagues as such.
Experience with Microsoft 365 / Power Platform (PowerBI, Power Automate, SharePoint, Projects, Planner, CoPilot inc agents), SmartSheet, other legal tech / AI tools.
Equal Opportunities Employment & Agile Working Statement
It is the policy of Hogan Lovells Cadwalader to provide equal opportunities for all employees in relation to recruitment, training and promotion. Decisions in these areas will be made only by reference to the requirements of the job and shall not be influenced by any consideration of racial or ethnic origin, religion, sex, gender and gender identity, age, sexual orientation, marital and civil partnership status, pregnancy or disability.
Our goal is to embed flexibility across our business by giving everyone the opportunity to work in an agile way, whether as a regular pattern or on an ad hoc basis, and we will be happy to discuss this further.