Senior Manager, Legal Project Management

etain cross-border work and why we attract a diverse group of people.

Our lawyers are globally minded, enterprising, collaborative and committed to excellence. Diversity is a core value of our Firm and it has been recognized with numerous awards and top rankings around the world. Our people represent 90 nationalities and speak 80 languages.

Position Summary

This is a unique opportunity to join a team that is implementing significant change, by focusing on client service excellence and process innovation. This senior manager role is a key part of the Firm’s strategy to deliver an enhanced client experience, increase profitability and demonstrate operational efficiency.

This role is part of the Firm’s global Legal Project Management (LPM) team. The team was set up to work with our lawyers to manage Client portfolios and to co-deliver projects, and also with our clients and their in-house legal and operational teams.

The main focus will be on legal project management.  From advice to delivery of the full project/matter lifecycle, the ideal candidate will have demonstrable project management capabilities preferably gained in a professional services environment.  The candidate will be required to understand and assess business and change management needs and will have experience of delivering complex projects across multiple business functions, teams, geographies/jurisdictions, and industries, defining scope and identifying the most appropriate project delivery approach in collaboration with our lawyers, other key stakeholders and clients.

The role will require you to work directly with legal teams and clients on the Firm’s most significant matters and clients, by liaising with the partners and senior lawyers on the progress, profitability and efficiency of the matters and clients.

The Senior Manager will have the opportunity to influence and help to grow the LPM capability and may also have line management responsibility for Managers and Senior Analysts/Analysts.  They will be involved in development opportunities for more junior members of the global team.  They will be someone who is able to work with limited supervision to effectively build relationships and manage project delivery.

The success of this role will be measured by the candidate adding value to the organization by contributing to the roll out of LPM best practices, tools and techniques across our global Practice Groups.

Duties and Accountabilities1

• Ability to quickly develop relationships with internal and external clients, such as the broader recruiting team, People team and other colleagues to drive measurable results against strategy
• In collaboration with the LPM leadership, build out the LPM capability and pipeline of work, influencing Partners and lawyers to adopt LPM on their matters
• Operational management and co-delivery of legal projects/matters by:
  • arranging Kick-Off Meetings, Project Team Meetings and Steering Meetings, ensuring attendees, standing agenda, record-keeping and circulation are appropriate to the meetings’ purpose
  • defining and validating project scope, not simply management of scope
  • defining and tracking timelines, milestones, deliverables, assumptions and dependencies at the outset
  • financial/budget management on projects/matters
  • tracking progress and escalating changes in scope, time and/or budget to project stakeholders and ensuring effective corrective action is implemented, where required
  • implementing effective risk and issue identification and management strategies, providing options for mitigation or resolution
  • leading post project review and Lessons Learned workshops
• Use of appropriate project management tools and techniques including drafting of all project-related documents and project artifacts such as project approach, project plans, schedules, action trackers, availability trackers, correspondence trackers, risk logs, status reports
• Implement and ensure effective communication strategies are in place and acting as the interface, where appropriate, to project specific stakeholders including our clients, lawyers in other practice areas and offices, external and opposing counsel and third-party vendors
• Provide LPM guidance on best practices, tools, techniques, roles and responsibilities
• Collaborate with legal teams to identify the most cost effective and level of resources available
• Collaborate with legal teams to draft and submit budget proposals; and with support from the Finance team, track and analyze actual project costs against budget and proactively address budget variances
• Build relationships and foster a collaborative approach between project workstreams including between our lawyers and our clients
• Focused on lean principles and use of innovation and business process mapping, contribute to continuous improvement of the LPM Team’s processes including project management methodology, governance, training for legal teams and LPM best practice; and support of the change management of implementing these
• Management of concurrent projects
• Management of client portfolios with emphasis on legal operations, disputes and transactional projects and management of Firm’s strategic client innovation initiatives
• Line management of junior team members, as required
• Support LPM leadership with LPM collateral for bids, tenders and pitches to portray LPM as an innovative way in which to deliver legal services
• Contribute to the development and delivery of LPM training content for Firm lawyers and clients
• Identify opportunities to cross-sell LPM services in our global business
• Be seen as a key contact point for Partners and senior stakeholders for LPM globally and build relationships and foster a collaborative approach to working with clients and across all departments
• Comfortable with presenting on relevant topics at Senior Leadership meetings and Client meetings

Qualifications

• 5 years’ experience in Legal Project Management required including client facing roles
• A strong academic record, preferably of Graduate level (Law Degree or other relevant Post Graduate Degree an advantage)
• Formal project management qualification preferred, for example PMP or APMQ
• Significant experience in managing project teams and supporting complex, multi-jurisdictional matters in a dedicated project management capacity including experience of working with global legal teams
• Experience in change management
• Knowledge and proficiency in extranets, online data rooms, collaboration tools, legal tech and SharePoint sites; proficiency in the use of Microsoft Office products including Excel, PowerPoint, Visio, Project and Power BI
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills
• Ability to manage multiple priorities with “can do” attitude, work cross-functionally, and meet tight deadlines
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, able to interact at all levels including with senior business stakeholders to negotiate and persuade in order to achieve successful outcomes
• Understanding of law firm financial and performance metrics and ability to analyze financial reports of varying levels of complexity, providing financial analysis with a focus on delivering value to clients
• Problem solver
• Willing to challenge and question assumptions
• Ability to work well under pressure and manage/prioritize workload
• Advanced organizational and time management skills
• A project leader
• Flexible and resilient with ability to change and adapt in a fast moving, detail-oriented environment
• Sensitivity to cultural differences across project teams

Location and Reporting

• This role is a hybrid in-office/remote role based in our New York office.
• This role reports to the Associate Director, Legal Project Management. 

Equal Opportunities

White & Case is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace. It is our Firm’s policy to recruit, employ, train, compensate, and promote without regard to race, religion, creed, national origin, age, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, military or veteran status, disability, genetic information, or any other category protected by applicable law.

If you require assistance and/or accommodation to participate in our application and/or interview process, please email the recruiting contact listed for the relevant position. We will be happy to work with you.

The Firm may modify and amend this job description at any time at its sole discretion. Nothing herein creates a contract of employment or otherwise modifies the at-will nature of employment. 

1The above is a general description of the essential duties associated with this position and does not represent an exhaustive or comprehensive list of all duties.