Legal Project Manager

Osborne Clarke; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salaries

Generous benefits

Job summary

Osborne Clarke is seeking an experienced Legal Project Manager to join the Osborne Clarke Solutions (OCS) team. The role focuses on delivering LPM services to ensure efficient, predictable and transparent legal work for lawyers and clients in a hybrid setting based in Bristol or London.

The successful candidate will drive governance, budgeting, reporting and collaboration across matter teams, technology groups and BD to position LPM as a differentiator in client engagements.

Qualifications

• Demonstrable experience in project management or legal project management within a law firm, professional services or similar complex environment.
• Knowledge and experience of legal technology and AI
• Experience managing complex, multi-stakeholder projects with responsibility for scope, budget, resources and timelines.
• Good understanding of legal service delivery, law firm economics and matter profitability drivers.
• Experience of legal operations, process improvement and change management
• Strong project management, stakeholder engagement and reporting, including planning, risk management skills.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to work credibly with partners, senior stakeholders and clients.
• Strong analytical skills; confident using data and metrics to inform decisions and demonstrate value.

Responsibilities

• Managing client calls, and running them where applicable
• Setting the governance frameworks for complex matters and establish delivery plans
• Organise, design and deliver reporting and MI to clients
• Coordinate delivery teams and organise onboarding and mobilisation during pre-delivery
• Work with the wider OCS teams to devise efficient delivery model based on people, process and technology
• Assist technology teams with requirements gathering and deployment of technology solutions
• Support the application of LPM methodologies across key work types, matters, mandates and client portfolios
• Work with matter teams to define scope, deliverables, pricing, assumptions and success criteria
• Develop budgets, timelines, resourcing plans and work breakdown structures
• Establish governance frameworks, communication plans and risk/issue registers
• Monitor matter progress, track scope changes, manage risks and issues, and elevate where appropriate
• Provide LPM support for strategic clients, panel relationships and key framework agreements
• Implement and utilise tools and processes for matter budgeting, fee tracking and margin analysis
• Collaborate with partners and BD to position LPM as a differentiator in pitches, RFPs and panel reviews
• Collect and act on client feedback regarding matter delivery, reporting, communication and value
• Develop and maintain client-facing materials including project governance packs, reporting templates and dashboards
• Contribute to process improvement initiatives by mapping, design and refine legal workflows and automation
• Support maintenance of LPM frameworks, methodologies, templates and best-practice guidance

Skills

Project management

Legal project management

Stakeholder engagement

Reporting

Risk management

Communication

Job description

Role profile

Following a period of sustained growth, our innovative and expanding Osborne Clarke Solutions (OCS) team are looking for an experienced Legal Project Manager to join them. This role will focus on delivering Legal Project Management (LPM) services to support the efficient, predictable and transparent delivery of legal work for our lawyers and clients. The role can be 4 days a week or full time, is permanent, based out of our Bristol or London office and working to a hybrid arrangement.

The Team

Osborne Clarke's Solutions team plays a crucial role in helping clients explore exactly how they would like legal and related services to be delivered to maximise the value to their businesses. The team is client led, developing new products and services to deliver existing services better, and to deliver entirely new services to meet growing client needs. The team operates out of the UK and Europe, with teams of ex-lawyers, and technologists across locations.

Our Solutions programme has two key goals. First, to make sure we're responding to client demands for greater value, efficiency and certainty from their lawyers, whilst maintaining the highest quality. Secondly, in helping us bring innovative ideas to the delivery of our, or our clients', current and new, services. A significant part of this innovation involves integrating AI technologies throughout our offering.

We want to ensure our lawyers have the best products and resources needed to provide the best possible service to our clients.

Key Responsibilities

• Managing client calls, and running them where applicable


• Setting the governance frameworks for complex matters and establish delivery plans


• Organise, design and deliver reporting and MI to clients


• Coordinate delivery teams and organise onboarding and mobilisation during pre-delivery


• Work and collaborate with the wider OCS teams to devise best and most efficient delivery model, based on people, process and technology. Ensure the right resource and expertise is engaged to develop the solution


• Assist technology teams with requirements gathering and deployment of technology solutions where applicable, acting as the link between the lawyers and the technology teams


• Support the application of LPM methodologies across key work types, matters, mandates and client portfolios (e.g. complex transactions, large disputes, multi-jurisdictional projects, managed legal services).


• Work with matter teams to define scope, deliverables, pricing, assumptions and success criteria.


• Develop budgets, timelines, resourcing plans and work breakdown structures for matters.


• Establish governance frameworks, communication plans and risk/issue registers for assigned matters.


• Monitor matter progress, track scope changes, manage risks and issues, and elevate where appropriate.


• Provide LPM support for strategic clients, panel relationships and key framework agreements.


• Implement and utilise tools and processes for matter budgeting, fee tracking and margin analysis, providing insights on matter performance and profitability.


• Collaborate with partners and BD to position LPM as a differentiator in pitches, RFPs and panel reviews, and participate in client meetings to explain delivery approach and project governance.


• Collect and act on client feedback regarding matter delivery, reporting, communication and value.


• Develop and maintain client-facing materials including project governance packs, reporting templates and dashboards.


• Contribute to process improvement initiatives by helping to map, design and refine legal workflows, and identify opportunities for standardisation, automation and use of legal technology.


• Support the maintenance of LPM frameworks, methodologies, templates and best-practice guidance, and contribute to firm-wide LPM training initiatives.

Skills, Experience & Qualifications

• Demonstrable experience in project management or legal project management within a law firm, professional services or similar complex environment.


• Knowledge and experience of legal technology and AI


• Experience managing complex, multi-stakeholder projects with responsibility for scope, budget, resources and timelines.


• Good understanding of legal service delivery, law firm economics and matter profitability drivers.


• Experience of legal operations, process improvement and change management


• Strong project management, stakeholder engagement and reporting, including planning, risk management skills.


• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to work credibly with partners, senior stakeholders and clients.


• Strong analytical skills; confident using data and metrics to inform decisions and demonstrate value.

Competencies & Behaviours

• Client-centric mindset focused on delivering value, transparency and predictability.


• Commercial acumen with understanding of profitability and pricing dynamics.


• Collaborative approach, working effectively across practice groups and offices.


• Pragmatic and solution-oriented, balancing best practice with what is realistic for each matter.


• Continuous improvement mindset, always seeking ways to enhance efficiency and client satisfaction.


• Resilience and comfort working in a fast-paced environment with competing priorities.

Salary And Benefits

We offer competitive salaries and generous benefits. We value the health and wellbeing of our people and our wide range of initiatives and benefits support this.

Our recruitment process

Please note that although we include closing dates for our roles as a guide, we review and progress applications on a rolling basis. At Osborne Clarke we do not make any recruitment decisions using automated decision-making. We are committed to providing an environment where you can perform to the best of your abilities at every stage of your recruitment experience and beyond. If you require any adjustments to be made during the application stage, interview process, or when working with us, please let us know in confidence.

About Us

Osborne Clarke is an international legal practice with over 330 Partners and more than 1,260 talented lawyers in 26* locations. Our sector-based approach enables us to help our clients tackle the issues they are facing today, and prepare for the ones that they will face tomorrow. Advising them both comprehensively and commercially. We love working closely with our clients on new deals, products and solutions which will transform their businesses, markets and even sectors. And our unique approachable culture is not an added extra, it's fundamental to our success.

At Osborne Clarke we value difference and encourage applicants from all backgrounds. We want everyone to feel that OC is a place where you can be yourself and belong, and our range of interest groups and diversity networks - not to mention our great teams - are a part of making that a reality.

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