Legal Competence Advisor

Kennedys; London; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 65,000; Full time

Job summary

Kennedys, a global law firm in London, is seeking a Legal Competence Adviser to enhance training solutions for their lawyers. The role involves collaborating with the Knowledge Management Team to deliver training and foster best practices across international offices, ensuring compliance with legal standards.

Benefits

Professional development opportunities

Inclusive workplace culture

Qualifications

• Project management experience is crucial.
• Experience with external training suppliers.
• Excellent communication skills with stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Support the Senior Legal Competence Manager.
• Act as a project manager for training programme delivery.
• Build relationships with external training providers.

Skills

Project management

Communication

Teamwork

Interpersonal skills

IT skills

Education

Experience within Learning & Development

Tools

MS Office suite

Job description

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Kennedys is looking for a Legal Competence Adviser to join our Knowledge Management Team. The successful person shall support the Senior Legal Competence Manager in facilitating the creation and delivery of effective, innovative training solutions to meet the needs of Kennedys UK based lawyers. As a core component of the role you will have the opportunity to work across all of Kennedys practice area teams and act as a project manager supporting legal competence stakeholders (partners, lawyers, and other legal competence advisers) playing an instrumental part (and possible take the lead) on the creation and implementation of training and competency programmes in a timely fashion (often to short timescales). The role will involve working closely with and alongside the Senior Legal Competence Manager and the Legal Competence Advisers who are responsible for identifying and understanding legal technical training needs both in terms of continuing competency (as prescribed by professional regulatory bodies) and those unique to Kennedys business needs (such as regulatory/legislative changes and case law development). In doing so the successful person shall be required to identify and build successful business relationships both internally (across all levels of the business) and externally (commercial training and educational providers). The role shall also involve being proactive in promoting the Legal Competence Team (and wider Knowledge Management Team) across the firm which shall involve direct contact with and presentations to stakeholders (legal and business services). Whilst the main focus of the role is on provision of training within the UK, the successful person shall also play a strategic role in developing training best practice in Kennedys international offices.

Team

This role sits within Kennedys Knowledge Management team which collaboratively work together to ensure that Kennedys lawyers have access to the knowledge, information and training they need in order to be able to deliver an excellent service to clients.

The Knowledge Management team deliver across three service areas – knowledge services; information services; legal competence services and the team is made up of professionals with expertise in each of these areas – Knowledge Lawyers, Library & Information Professionals and the Senior Legal Competence Manager and Advisers, who are supported by the team's Knowledge Management Administrator. This small, but growing, team work together across these three service areas to ensure a joined-up service to our lawyers across knowledge, information and training, and to collectively support and facilitate a global knowledge sharing culture across the firm.

The team is based in London.

Key responsibilities

• Support the Senior Legal Competence Manager and work alongside other Legal Competence Advisers assisting lawyers at all levels within Kennedys UK offices to manage the creation and delivery of training programmes.
• Act as a project manager overseeing the creation and delivery of training programmes to firm deadlines. This will involve liaising closely with key stakeholders and those performing tasks within a project in a sensitive and appropriate manner to ensure efficient delivery.
• Acting as a co-ordinator for stakeholders and chairing meetings to ensure that projects are on course for delivery by the required deadline
• Reporting on development and progress of projects and looking at ways to mitigate risks of late delivery where delays occur.
• Develop an awareness of and monitor significant legal, procedural and industry/sector developments impacting Kennedys England & Wales qualified lawyers in order to facilitate the delivery a continuous and consistent programme training for divisions and specific practice area teams as required.
• Building lasting relationships and liaising with external training providers such as barristers chambers and commercial providers from whom the firm has procured subscription services.
• Overseeing and taking responsibility, when required, for hosting training sessions both online and in person, with internal and/or external speakers/panellists.
• Work collaboratively with Kennedys business services teams (Risk & Compliance, Business Development, Corporate Affairs, Learning & Development and IT teams) to understand and facilitate the development of appropriate training for lawyers with different levels of experience.
• Positively contribute to the development of Kennedys UK Legal Competence service as centre of best practice, providing models/guidance for how legal training can be best delivered in our international offices, with consideration given to the differing regulatory requirements for training in the various jurisdictions in which Kennedys operates .
• Contributing to wider Knowledge Management projects as required.
• Have an understanding and awareness of Continuing Competence requirements for England & Wales legally qualified professionals (not limited to Solicitors) and increasing this scope to include the wider international jurisdictions in which Kennedys operates, in order that relevant guidance can be provided on regulatory obligations around Continuing Competence.

Required experience

• Project management experience and the ability to demonstrate providing deliverables within strict timeframes.
• Ability to ensure progress and development of projects in a reasonable and appropriate manner.
• Experience of reporting on progress and developments to senior managers.
• Demonstrable knowledge of the legal services industry.
• Demonstrable experience of being a strong team player.
• Experience of working with external providers/suppliers and managing commercial relationships.
• Ability to work effectively and collaboratively with people at all levels throughout the firm, including across geographical boundaries.
• Excellent and concise oral and written communication skills with the ability to build credibility and relationships quickly.
• Excellent listening skills and a strong ability to show empathy, compassion and patience.
• Proven ability to work co-operatively, collaboratively, flexibly and a willingness to prioritise and deliver to team as well as individual objectives.
• Ability to influence senior and key stakeholders.
• Good IT skills – strong command of the MS Office suite.
• Experience of working within Learning & Development (or similar) at a law firm or other regulated professional services provider.

Please let us know if you require any additional support or adjustments to be made in order to submit your application to Kennedys.

*where a level of experience is indicated, this is a guideline only and represents the amount of time we would usually expect a candidate to accumulate the requisite level of experience. This does not preclude applications from candidates with more or less experience.

About Kennedys

Kennedys is a global law firm with expertise in dispute resolution and advisory services. With over 2,500 people worldwide across 45 offices in the UK, Europe, Middle East, Asia Pacific and America we have some of the most respected legal minds in their field.

Our lawyers handle both contentious and non-contentious matters, and provide a range of specialist legal services, for many industry sectors but we have particular expertise in litigation and dispute resolution, especially in defending insurance and liability claims.

We're a fresh-thinking firm, and we're not afraid to bring challenging new perspectives to the table way beyond the traditional realm of legal services. We empower our clients with a diverse range of ideas, tools and technology to make their lives easier, as well as delivering exceptional results, every time.

What do we have to offer?

We welcome high-performing lawyers, business services professionals, secretaries, graduates and apprentices to join our rapidly expanding global firm. Whatever your role at Kennedys, you'll be involved in exciting and stimulating work, where your input will make a difference.

Our culture and values form a big part of who we are and we take them seriously. We make a difference by being approachable, straightforward, supportive and distinctive. Our are at the core of who we are and what make us a great firm to work with and for.

The Firm recognises the value of investing in our people's development and believes our culture and values contribute to the quality of our work and of our client relationships. With a culture of on-the-job and experiential learning, peer to peer learning, mentoring, resources and tools that enable you to drive your career, we can support your development in your current and future roles. A variety of other opportunities are available including secondments to clients and our global offices.

We strive to celebrate empower our people and ensure everyone can bring their authentic selves to work. We've created a culture based on client service, professional excellence, hard work and trust, where diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) is a key priority. We recognise that many of our people want to work for an employer that is aligned to their values, which is why we are building an inclusive culture, decarbonising our operations and supporting our people to thrive at work. Our people are the key to driving this change and helping us to make a difference to our clients, our people and the communities in which we live and work.

Kennedys is an equal opportunities employer and is committed to ensuring our recruitment processes are as inclusive as possible. We expect all employees to be aware of and comply with all relevant policies and procedures within their jurisdiction, including those relating to Information Security, Data Protection and Quality Management, refer any breach promptly to Risk & Compliance and to complete all mandatory training when requested.

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