Senior Manager, Legal Project Management

White & Case; New York (NY); On-site; USD 158,000 - 217,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

Life insurance

Disability insurance

401(k) retirement savings

Vacation time

Parental leave

Job summary

White & Case is seeking a Senior Manager for Legal Project Management and Legal Operations to strengthen client relationships, protect profitability, and provide partners with operational support for delivering high-quality legal work.

The role sits within the global LPM and Legal Operations team, ensuring no administrative detail is overlooked and enabling lawyers to focus on the legal product at hand.

Qualifications

• Experience of Legal Project Management and/or Legal Operations required.
• Significant experience managing large, multi-jurisdictional client portfolios and matters.
• Experience advising partners and senior stakeholders on operational and process changes affecting client relationships.

Responsibilities

• Build out team capability and pipeline of work, influencing Partners and lawyers to adopt legal operations support on key client relationships and matters.
• Serve as day-to-day operational point of contact for one or more key client relationships, tracking budgets, KPIs, profitability, and reporting.
• Collaborate with legal teams to identify cost-effective staffing and resource levels for matters and client portfolios.

Skills

Client relationships

Budget management

Profitability analysis

Cross-functional collaboration

Analytical thinking

Education

Juris Doctor (JD)

Postgraduate degree

PMP / PMI certification

Tools

Excel

PowerPoint

BI tools

Job description

Our Legal Project Management team works closely with attorneys, legal support and clients to co-deliver legal projects. To ensure that legal projects are completed efficiently, on time and within budget, our team defines project scope, develops low-level and detailed project plans, and establishes clear timelines and budgets. Using appropriate project management methodologies, they track progress, manage resources and mitigate risks. The team also facilitates communication and collaboration among all stakeholders, both internal and external, ensuring that everyone is aligned and informed throughout the project life cycle. By implementing best practices and continuous improvement strategies, the Legal Project Management team enhances productivity, improves client experience and supports the Firm’s commitment to delivering high-quality legal services.

The Role Summary

This is a unique opportunity to join a team that sits at the heart of how the Firm serves its most important clients. This Senior Manager role is a key part of the Firm’s strategy to strengthen client relationships, protect and grow profitability, and give partners the operational support they need to focus on delivering outstanding legal work.

This role is part of the Firm’s global Legal Project Management and Legal Operations team. The team exists to ensure that no administrative or operational detail on a matter or client relationship is overlooked, freeing our lawyers to focus on the legal product. The team works hand-in-hand with our partners and with our clients’ in-house legal and procurement and operations teams.

The primary focus of this role is legal operations and legal project management in service of the Firm’s largest and most strategic clients. The ideal candidate will have demonstrable experience managing client relationships, budgets and profitability in a professional services or law firm environment. The candidate will be required to understand client expectations and commercial arrangements, track budgets and KPIs across large and complex matter portfolios, and work closely with partners to identify the most appropriate operational approach for a given client relationship.

The role requires the Senior Manager to work directly with partners, senior lawyers and clients on the Firm’s most significant matters and client relationships, advising partners on how to track and manage budgets, maintain profitability, and keep the administrative and operational side of the relationship running smoothly.

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, Senior Analysts, and Analysts. They will be involved in development opportunities for more junior members of the global team. They will need to 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’s ability to strengthen the Firm’s relationships with its key clients by ensuring budgets, KPIs and profitability are proactively managed, matters run smoothly on the operational side, and the Firm’s use of legal operations best practices and AI-enabled tools continues to mature across our global Practice Groups.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

• In collaboration with the LPM and Legal Operations leadership, build out the team’s capability and pipeline of work, influencing Partners and lawyers to adopt legal operations support on their key client relationships and matters
• Serve as the day-to-day operational point of contact for one or more of the Firm’s key client relationships, by
  • tracking budgets, KPIs and profitability across the client’s full portfolio of matters, and preparing reporting for partners, firm management and the Client on spend, performance and value delivered
  • managing local counsel across jurisdictions on the Client’s matters, including selection, fee arrangements, budget oversight and quality of service
  • advising partners and senior lawyers on how to structure and stick to matter budgets, and on actions to protect and improve profitability
  • financial and budget management on matters, including fee arrangements, WIP, billing guidelines and realization
  • tracking budget and profitability performance and escalating variances to partners and Client stakeholders, ensuring effective corrective action is implemented where required
  • coordinating with billing, finance, revenue management and business development to ensure the administrative and financial side of the Client relationship runs smoothly
  • leading periodic client relationship and matter portfolio reviews with partners to assess budget performance, profitability and service delivery
• Act as a trusted point of contact for the Client’s in-house legal operations and procurement teams globally, and as the interface between partners, lawyers, local counsel, and the Firm’s billing, finance and business development teams
• Collaborate with legal teams to identify the most cost-effective staffing and level of resources for a matter or client portfolio, and to draft and submit budget proposals to Clients
• Build relationships and foster a collaborative approach between the Firm’s lawyers, Clients, local counsel and internal support functions
• Work closely with the Firm’s Innovation team to promote the adoption of Legora and other AI tools among partners and Client teams, and help design and implement agentic and AI-enabled workflows that save time and cost on Client matters
• Manage portfolios for the Firm’s key clients, with emphasis on legal operations, budgets, profitability and local counsel management across disputes and transactional matters, and support the Firm’s strategic client AI and innovation initiatives
• Line management of junior team members, as required
• Support LPM and Legal Operations leadership with collateral for bids, tenders and pitches to showcase the Firm’s legal operations and AI capabilities, including Legora and other agentic workflows, to clients
• Contribute to the development and delivery of legal operations training content for Firm lawyers and Clients
• Identify opportunities to cross-sell legal operations and LPM services across the Firm’s global business
• Comfortable presenting to and working directly with senior firm management, including the CFO and COO, in intense, high-stakes meetings to resolve budget, profitability or service issues on the Firm’s key client relationships

Experience and Knowledge

• Experience of Legal Project Management and/or Legal Operations required
• Significant experience managing large, complex, multi-jurisdictional client portfolios and matters, including experience working with global legal teams and managing local counsel relationships
• Experience advising partners and senior stakeholders on operational and process changes affecting client relationships and matter delivery
• Proficiency in AI tools, Microsoft Office products, particularly Excel and PowerPoint, and in financial/business intelligence tools used for budget, KPI and profitability tracking and reporting
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills
• Ability to manage multiple priorities with a "can do" attitude, work cross-functionally, and meet tight deadlines
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, able to interact at all levels — including with partners, firm management and senior Client stakeholders — to negotiate and persuade in order to achieve successful outcomes
• Strong understanding of law firm financial and performance metrics, and ability to track budgets, KPIs and profitability and analyze financial reports of varying complexity, with a focus on delivering value to clients
• Problem solver
• Willing to challenge and question assumptions
• Ability to work well under pressure in a fast-paced, high-stakes environment and manage/prioritize workload accordingly
• Advanced organizational and time management skills
• A leader who can operate independently and build trust with partners and key clients
• Flexible and resilient with the ability to change and adapt in a fast-moving, detail-oriented environment
• Sensitivity to cultural differences across client and project teams

Education and Qualifications

• A strong academic record, preferably of graduate level (Law Degree or other relevant Post Graduate Degree an advantage).
• Formal project management qualification essential, for example PMP, APMQ, or Prince
• 5+ years relevant work experience including client-facing roles

Salary Range

$157,600 - $216,700

This role reports to

Director, Legal Operations

Equal Opportunities

White & Case is an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) employer and is committed to creating a fair workplace. It is our Firm’s policy to recruit, employ, train, compensate and promote without regard to race, color, 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.

Applicants who are interested in applying for a position and require an accommodation during the process should contact [e-mail].

Benefits at White & Case

White & Case LLP offers a comprehensive suite of benefit programs to all eligible employees, including medical, dental, and vision insurance, life and disability coverage, 401(k) retirement savings, vacation time, and leave programs (including parental leave). Exempt roles are also performance bonus eligible.

Note to Recruitment Agencies

Our internal Recruitment team manages all aspects of lateral hiring. All agencies must have signed terms of business - specific to the relevant office - before submitting any candidates. CVs or applications sent directly to White & Case partners or employees will also not be considered formal introductions. If you have questions, please contact the relevant Recruitment team. We work with our preferred suppliers when engaging agencies.