Business Manager - Service Lines

Ogier; Greater London; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Ogier in London seeks a Strategy & Change professional reporting to the Senior Business Manager to support Service Line Heads (SLHs) and the Legal Executive Board (LEB). The role focuses on building and reviewing service line business plans and budgets, then leading implementation and reporting to ensure timely delivery and profitability.

You will collaborate with Partners, SLHs and HR to drive performance, enable onboarding of senior hires, and generate management information to support

Qualifications

• Strong financial and commercial acumen in a professional services environment.
• Excellent interpersonal and written communication with stakeholders at all levels.
• Ability to challenge strategically using data and facts.
• Project management knowledge and methodology.

Responsibilities

• Support SLHs and LEB to construct, renew and review service line plans and budgets.
• Lead implementation, track progress and report performance.
• Prepare and coordinate meeting materials, dashboards and templates for decisions.
• Commission management information and BI reports.
• Improve profitability via data-driven resource allocation and collaboration across Service Lines.
• Support onboarding of senior hires and integration with HR and support teams.

Skills

Financial acumen

Communication skills

Strategic thinking

Project management

AI tools mindset

Time management

Teamwork

Job description

Reporting to the Senior Business Manager, the purpose of this role is to support:

• the Service Line Heads (SLHs) for 3 Service Lines (SLs) which include Corporate, Banking and Finance, Funds, Dispute Resolution, Private Wealth, Local Legal Services
• the Legal Executive Board (LEB) member(s) who have been assigned to work alongside those SLHs

Department: Strategy & Change

Location: London

In order to pro-actively drive the achievement of agreed business goals, while ensuring that the business remains profitable and competitive.

Key Responsibilities

Working with the SLHs and the LEB members, the role holder will be responsible for managing the cycle of constructing/renewing, and reviewing and agreeing the service line business plans and associated budgets. They will then lead the implementation, track and report progress, support the relevant SLH in ensuring delivery, and support the relevant LEB member in overseeing delivery of the agreed plan(s) so that goals are met within the agreed timeframes and budget.

This includes liaising with partners and other stakeholders to:

• spot trends, issues and support on strategy
• deliver a key metrics dashboard, reporting templates, meeting agendas and action trackers, ensuring there is a good structure to optimise:
• management of the SLHs by the relevant LEB member and
• management of the SL partners by the SLHs
• prepare SLH meeting materials and Board papers in collaboration with the relevant SLHs, LEB members and subject matter experts, ensuring content is clear, timely and focused on decisions, risks and progress against agreed priorities
• commission management information and business intelligence reports
• facilitate the increase in income and improvement in net profit margins by analysing and reporting on data related to resources and measurements of performance e.g. profitability, lock up, team shape, resource allocation and utilisation increase income through:
• facilitating resource sharing between Service Line teams and between different Service Lines and
• facilitating collaboration between the legal teams and the other divisions in the Ogier business (OGL, the corporate administration business, and ORC, the regulatory consulting business)
• use data to identify hotspots and undertake 1-2-1 discussions with specific Partners to understand issues/barriers, articulating these in a 'to the point' way for discussion and agreement on next steps by the SLH and relevant EB member
• identify, explain and when agreed manage the continuous improvement of Service Line processes so that they are efficient and effective
• keep momentum behind agreed projects (in collaboration with the relevant Business Services lead where required)
• support the continuous cycle of performance management by working with Executive Support – Service Lines and monitoring Ogier's performance management, learning and development platform (DWO), liaising with HR and the other Business Services Directors gathering feedback on key focus areas, and providing relevant supporting performance management data/information to drive a high performance culture
• collaborate with HR and Executive Support – Service Lines to ensure the successful integration of any senior hires through design and timely delivery of agreed onboarding, embedding and integration plans
• Work with the Director, Strategic Initiatives on relevant upstream strategic investigation and research; and work with the Strategy and Change Director (or their delegate) on downstream strategic project implementation as it relates to the scope of the role

The role holder will:

• be responsible for close liaison with the relevant Business Services professionals who provide support across the law firm, and have an excellent understanding of the business services capabilities, complementing existing relationships held by the Business Services personnel
• need to collaborate closely with Executive Support – Service Lines and the wider Executive Support team to deliver on the role efficiently and effectively

Skills, Knowledge And Expertise

• Sound financial/commercial acumen and knowledge of the profitability drivers in a matrix-model, professional service environment
• Excellent interpersonal and written communications skills with a proven ability of successfully interacting professionally and proactively with a diverse group of all levels of stakeholders and subject matter experts to drive change
• Ability to provide strategic and fact-based challenge especially where identifying opportunities or risks
• Project management skills and knowledge of standard project management methodology
• A digital-first mindset and experience of leveraging relevant AI tools and AI-assisted processes
• Superior time management and organisational skills including the ability to manage multiple responsibilities simultaneously and deliver to deadlines, taking accountability for actions and ideas from inception to delivery
• Ability to work both independently, use initiative and equally confident working effectively as part of a team, collaborating and supporting colleagues