JOB DESCRIPTION
About Herbert Smith Freehills
As one of the world’s leading law firms, we advise many of the largest and most ambitious organisations across all major regions of the globe. With over 5,000 people, including 3,100 lawyers and over 2,000 business services professionals, operating from our global network of offices across Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and North America, Herbert Smith Freehills is at the heart of the new global business landscape providing premium quality, full-service legal advice.
We recognise that the success of our business and our clients relies on the skills, knowledge and ideas of all our people. Our environment is one in which high performance is expected, in return, we will provide you with rewards and opportunities tailored to your personal and professional goals.
The Opportunity
We're seeking a Legal Practice Administration Manager (LPAM) to join our Office Operations team based in Sydney on a full-time basis.In this role you'll be responsible for leading and managing a sizable team of legal support colleagues for our Disputes practice group. Reporting to the Operations Manager you'll support in daily group/office management by:
1. Enhancing service quality for legal teams
2. Allocating work efficiently for client delivery
3. Administering central group processes
4. Ensuring proper utilities for group operations
5. Promoting consistency and knowledge sharing across offices for improved efficiencies.
Day to day this may look like:
6. Interviewing and selecting (with the support of the recruitment team) high calibre support staff to ensure the quality and consistency of services provided to legal teams and clients.
7. Maintaining and improving support staff engagement through setting clear expectations, providing regular feedback and evaluating performance.
8. Developing capability across the team
9. Managing allocation of work across the support team to optimise and support the practice group and partners in client delivery
10. Monitoring and upholding service quality for the practice group, identify and progress improvement opportunities
11. Escalating and alerting the Operations Manager to issues that may impact the day-to-day operations on an ongoing basis.
12. Collaborating with finance and practice managers to provide consistent messaging on group operational metrics.
13. Promoting and communicating new initiatives, acting as a liaison for business services, and assist in implementing enhanced processes and services.
14. Collaborating/ sharing knowledge with other LPAM's for consistent best practices across offices and regions.
To be successful in this role you will have:
15. Demonstrated experience leading sizeable teams in a professional services firm or large corporate environment (legal firm experience is desired).
16. Proven organisational and time management skills with the ability to maintain a high level of attention to detail and organisational skills to prioritise workload and meet deadlines.
17. Demonstrated ability to manage complex stakeholder relationships.
18. Demonstrated commercial acumen.
19. Sound operational management skills.
20. Excellent communication skills (written and verbal) - to communicate insights and influence key stakeholders within the business.
21. Demonstrated experience in dealing with ambiguity and adapting to changing circumstances.
22. Strong judgement and problem-solving ability.
23. Proven ability to learn, develop and implement new ways of working and to adopt new systems.
24. Tertiary qualifications or equivalent in a relevant field is desirable (eg front line leadership or business qualification)
What you can expect from us:
25. We’re a world leading international law firm with a global team of over 5,000 professionals. As the market leader in Australia, we are committed to high performance, collaboration, diversity and digital innovation. We are client-centred, commercially driven, and renowned for our solution-focused expertise. We will align your growth with our ambitions.
26. We make your personal and professional growth our business. And as part of the team, our ambition is yours too. Wherever you are in your career: grow and help the firm grow with you.
27. We will provide opportunities to learn on the job as well as a mix of learning opportunities tailored to you. Daily experiences, supportive challenges, team collaboration, mentors, and structured learning opportunities help you to expand your knowledge and reach your goals.
28. We value your wellbeing, both at home and work and we place a strong emphasis on mental health. If you need support, you’ll have it and we’ll empower you to harness your personal strengths, navigate uncertainty, embrace opportunities, and effectively manage things within your control.
29. For more benefits on offer such as our 26 weeks paid parental leave, holistic wellbeing fund or home office allowance please click/ copy this link into your browser -
30. Join us to be part of a human, bold and outstanding team at Australia’s market leading law firm.
We encourage applications from individuals of diverse backgrounds, including but not limited to First Nations, LGBTIQA+ and neurodivergent individuals, as well as individuals of all ages, cultures, genders, and abilities. We’re a safe, inclusive, and equitable workplace and celebrate the diversity of our people.
This vacancy is being managed directly by Herbert Smith Freehills Recruitment team. We will contact our preferred agency partners should we require additional assistance. Thank you.
Team
Office Operations
Working Pattern
Full time
Location
Sydney
Contract type
Permanent Contract
Diversity & Inclusion
At Herbert Smith Freehills you will be part of a diverse, innovative culture where high performance, client focus and highly engaged people are our differentiator. People at our firm come from a range of backgrounds and bring a wide variety of experiences and perspectives to their work with us. We strive to ensure that our inclusive environment means you feel valued and able to perform at your best by being your authentic self at work. We know that our future success not only depends on being innovative and progressive in the changing legal market but, most importantly, on our people feeling highly engaged in meaningful work.
We understand that you have commitments and personal interests outside of work and we strive to create a working environment based on mutual trust and respect, in which you can perform at your best whilst maintaining sustainable balance across your life.