Senior Recruitment/Resource Manager

Womble Bond Dickinson (UK) LLP; Bristol; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a dynamic Head of WBD InHouse to lead their recruitment efforts. This unique role involves close collaboration with partners and senior lawyers to identify and attract top legal talent for secondment opportunities. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience in recruitment within a legal or professional services environment, showcasing their strategic approach to resource management. This role offers the chance to shape the future of legal staffing while fostering an inclusive culture that values diversity and well-being. Join this forward-thinking team and make a significant impact in the legal sector.

Benefits

Flexible Working

Health and Wellbeing Resources

Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives

Qualifications

• Proven experience in senior recruitment roles within legal or professional services.
• Strong ability to build relationships with senior stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with partners to understand legal staffing needs.
• Lead recruitment campaigns and manage candidate evaluations.

Skills

Senior Recruitment Experience

Stakeholder Management

Resource Management

Team Management

Recruitment Strategy Development

Education

Degree in Human Resources or related field

Job description

Senior Recruitment/Resource Manager (1124)

WBD Advance is our 100-strong alternative legal services business group. One of our most high performing teams within this business group, is WBD InHouse. We provide clients with experienced lawyers for a variety of secondment and resourcing opportunities. Our current panel of in-house lawyers provide their services in a variety of ways, from those who are permanently employed by the firm, employed for a specific client project on a fixed term contract, or independent contractors providing their service to WBD through personal service companies. As the need that clients have for flexible resource has grown, so too has the team.

Over the last 6 years we have launched and embedded the service across the business. We've established working practices and there is already a high level of awareness and support for the service within the firm. We're now looking to build on this success by growing the offering across the UK. With more clients seeking to buy "alternative" legal services and with a requirement for lawyers who can quickly make a real difference in-house, we think there is a real opportunity for WBD InHouse to expand rapidly.

In recent years has seen increase in both headcount and revenue across the team, but we have our sights set on further growth. It's why we're now looking for an experienced senior recruitment specialist to become our new Head of WBD InHouse.

What will you be doing?

This unique role involves close collaboration with our partners and senior lawyers to understand the specific legal knowledge, specialism, and levels of post-qualification experience required by each of our clients. This will be through individual discussions and attending partner team meetings, where appropriate. While some candidates come recommended by existing WBD staff or clients, you'll mainly work with our recruitment team on campaigns to attract and source new talent. Whether they are contractors, permanent, or temporary staff, you'll be involved in the initial reviews and interviews, with the support of our technical lawyers, to determine if they are suitable for our WBD InHouse panel.

The opportunities in this role extend way beyond the traditional recruitment role that you might be familiar with. You'll continue to work with our partners and senior lawyers to match our panel of legal professionals to secondment opportunities as they arise. You'll proactively market our panel to potential clients, often involving the creation of tailored proposals. We'll need you to help to raise the profile of WBD InHouse within the firm by maintaining regular communication with key stakeholders about the direct financial and other benefits our service delivers.

The WBD InHouse Lawyers are in a unique position where they are part of WBD, but spend the majority of their time on secondment. As their manager, you'll ensure that they remain engaged and connected with our firm. You'll work closely with Rachel Jones, the Director of WBD Advance, on financial management and planning to ensure the continued success and growth of the WBD InHouse service.

So what are we looking for?

To lead this next phase of development of the service, we are looking for someone who has experience in delivering and supporting a similar service within a legal or professional services environment, a recruitment or resourcing specialist. To be successful in this role you'll need as a minimum:

• Experience as a senior recruitment professional, e.g. Head of Recruitment or Recruitment Manager, with experience of leading on recruitment strategy at organisational level or resource management specialist;
• Experience in finding and/or placing staff in professional services firms;
• Experience in building relationships with senior partners/stakeholders in an organisation;
• Experience of managing competing demands in a senior recruitment role;
• Experience of managing teams/individuals and management of financial planning.

What makes it great to work here?

We continually work hard to create an open culture that sets us apart from other firms. Our culture gives us much more of a human feel, emphasising that we're more than just suits!

As signatories to the Mindful Business Charter, it's important to us that our people are able to maintain healthy and happy lives, both in and out of work. We have a number of resources and initiatives designed to support health and wellbeing and we're very happy to talk flexible working.

Through our DEI initiatives we create an environment in which difference is valued. We have a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Group, led by our Board Sponsor, which works with our colleague networks (we currently have firm supported networks for race, ethnicity, and cultural heritage, LGBTQ+, disabilities, neurodiversity, families, and women's career development and we're in constant dialogue with our people about how we expand our networks to better support everybody). Find out more about DEI at WBD here. We encourage applicants from all social backgrounds, ethnicities, disabilities, gender identities and sexual orientations.

We are committed to ensuring our recruitment process is inclusive and accessible to all. If you have a disability or long-term condition and need us to make any adjustments to give you the best possible recruitment process, please let us know by contacting the recruiter on the right hand side of this page. Please also let us know if you need this job advert or the application form in a different format.

We will offer an interview to candidates with a disability or long-term condition who meet the minimum criteria for this role. You can opt into this scheme within the application form. Your response to this question is only used for this purpose, is only visible to the recruitment team and is not used for data monitoring.

We are an in-house recruitment team and will always aim to fill our roles directly in the first instance. If you're an agency, please click here for ways that you can work with us.