Legal Project Manager

Job Description

Legal Project Manager

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Overview

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A leading global law firm is seeking an experienced Legal Project Manager to provide strategic and operational support to practice groups, legal matter teams, and partners.

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The Legal Project Manager will support project management, staffing, budgeting, profitability analysis, and client communications. This individual will play an important role in improving client service, streamlining the delivery of legal services, advancing process innovation, and maximizing matter profitability.

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The position reports to the Senior Manager of Legal Project Management and will contribute to the continued development and expansion of a global Legal Project Management function. This includes helping establish scalable processes, demonstrate the value of legal project management, and embed project management discipline across practices and offices.

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Key Responsibilities

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• Matter-Level Project Management
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• Apply established project management methodologies to plan, lead, and coordinate matter deliverables.
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• Create and maintain workstream trackers, project plans, budget estimates, and other written project-management materials.
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• Lead team meetings and provide regular updates to lead partners, matter team members, and clients.
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• Coordinate matter activity across legal teams, practice groups, and professional support functions.
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Scoping, Budgeting and Profitability

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• Define matter scope and develop detailed budgets.
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• Monitor legal spend, alternative fee arrangements, and matter profitability.
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• Work closely with Financial Reporting and other professional-service teams to maintain accurate financial information.
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• Support fee estimating, budget preparation, fee management, and scope management.
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• Identify potential budget concerns, scope changes, and profitability risks and escalate them appropriately.
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Staffing and Resource Allocation

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• Support matter staffing decisions and resource allocation.
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• Help establish clear roles, responsibilities, and workstreams across matter teams.
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• Facilitate effective communication among partners, associates, and professional staff.
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• Help ensure resources are aligned with matter requirements and client expectations.
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Time Entry and Data Integrity

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• Support the accuracy, completeness, and compliance of time entries.
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• Ensure time entries comply with client billing guidelines.
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• Help leverage time-entry data for matter analytics, financial reporting, and project-management purposes.
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Client Service Delivery

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• Serve as a central point of coordination for assigned matters.
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• Help ensure matter teams meet client expectations related to quality, responsiveness, and delivery timelines.
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• Gather and synthesize client satisfaction information and data.
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• Use client feedback to identify opportunities for continuous improvement.
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Task, Timeline and Risk Management

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• Develop and maintain comprehensive matter plans.
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• Track tasks, milestones, deadlines, dependencies, and deliverables.
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• Proactively identify potential risks, delays, and workflow bottlenecks.
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• Escalate concerns and help matter teams develop practical solutions.
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• Manage competing priorities across multiple active matters.
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Matter Closure and Post-Matter Review

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• Facilitate matter-closing processes and post-matter reviews.
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• Document key lessons, outcomes, and opportunities for improvement.
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• Ensure relevant insights are captured and shared to improve future matter execution.
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Strategic and Functional Development

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• Serve as an internal consultant focused on continuous improvement.
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• Analyze existing processes, gather lessons learned, refine workflows, and recommend practical improvements.
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• Advise on the innovative use of technology and tools for matter management.
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• Serve as a subject-matter expert on project planning, scoping, fee estimating, budget preparation, fee and scope management, and status reporting.
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• Develop and maintain budgeting materials, project-management templates, playbooks, and other resources.
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• Support active and incoming matters, as well as business-development efforts such as pitch materials and RFP responses.
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• Collaborate with lawyers, Financial Reporting, Knowledge Management, and other professional teams to develop and leverage project-management resources.
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• Contribute to the adoption and optimization of legal technology, matter-management tools, collaboration platforms, and data-visualization solutions.
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• Coordinate legal project management and knowledge-management support based on the upcoming stages and needs of each matter.
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Training and Change Management

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• Identify legal project management training needs across the organization.
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• Develop internal resources and training materials.
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• Deliver departmental training sessions.
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• Provide one-on-one coaching to partners and associates on project-management principles, processes, and tools.
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• Support change-management initiatives involving new processes, technologies, and ways of working.
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• Help drive adoption and secure stakeholder buy-in across practices and departments.
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Qualifications

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• Bachelor’s degree required.
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• JD or master’s degree in finance, accounting, business, or a related field is a plus.
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• Project-management certification, such as PMP, Lean Six Sigma, PRINCE2, or an equivalent credential , is a plus.
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• At least three years of experience in legal project management, practice management, or legal operations within a law firm.
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• Experience within a large or global law firm is strongly preferred.
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• Demonstrated experience managing legal budgets, alternative fee arrangements, and profitability analysis.
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• Exposure to legal technology and matter-management platforms, such as HighQ, Brightflag, iManage, or similar tools , is preferred.
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• Strong proficiency with Microsoft Word, Outlook, Excel, and PowerPoint.
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• Proficiency with, or willingness to learn, data-visualization and reporting tools such as Power BI or Tableau.
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Key Skills and Competencies

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• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
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• Ability to lead discussions, drive project progress, and secure stakeholder support.
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• Excellent judgment and the ability to manage competing priorities across multiple matters.
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• Demonstrated ability to work effectively with global teams, including partners, associates, and professional staff.
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• Ability to move between strategic planning, stakeholder engagement, hands-on troubleshooting, and detailed project management.
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• Creative and resourceful approach to identifying issues and implementing practical solutions.
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• Exceptional time management, prioritization, and decision-making skills.
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• Strong comfort with technology adoption and continuous learning.
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• Desire to help build and expand a Legal Project Management function and increase its visibility, credibility, and organizational impact
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