Manager - Legal Support Services

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Lead and manage VPA Lead and their team, ensuring delivery of high-quality PA support services, Legal Support and Document production units
• Drive service quality, process efficiency, and compliance across the different teams
• Act as an escalation point for complex or sensitive matters unresolved by VPA Leads
• Monitor performance, conduct reviews, and ensure accountability through KPIs
• Align team deliverables with group wide objectives; ensure workload balance and resource optimization
• Collaborate with senior stakeholders, London-based Business Admin Unit, and internal functions
• Oversee implementation of best practices, standardization, and automation initiatives.
• Provide regular reporting to Operations Delivery Head on performance, risks, and improvements.
• Anticipate internal business challenges and provide recommendations and drive necessary changes to solve problems

The Manager, Legal Ops, will need to be an effective manager who will lead and nurture a team of self-motivated, organized VPA lead, who will be able to manage a busy workload and take responsibility for following tasks through to completion.

PA Support

The below activities represent standard VPA support tasks for assigned members of staff. The list is not exhaustive and the exact support requirements and preferred working styles will be agreed with the assigned individuals as part of the onboarding process.

Diary & Inbox Support

• Full proactive and advanced international calendar management for assigned members of staff, including scheduling calls/meetings, looking ahead and following up as needed
• Ensuring the assigned members of staff are fully prepared for all client meetings by collating required information (and input from others), preparing background information and notes as needed, supporting the follow-through of action points etc
• Inbox management and email filing, basic correspondence and meeting requests (both internally and from clients)
• Booking desks and meeting rooms for assigned members of staff
• Processing expense claims on behalf of assigned members of staff

Business Development

• Organising business breakfasts, dinners or smaller events
• Managing CRM lists, contact maintenance and logging referrals in Firm's CRM systems

Travel

• Managing all travel for assigned fee-earners, ensuring that business travel is booked through the Firm's in-house provider. This encompasses both routine and more complex travel arrangements, guaranteeing that fee-earners receive comprehensive itineraries and supporting materials. Additionally, ensuring that business expenses are captured, approved, and processed for payment in accordance with policy.

Matter Lifecycle

• Supporting fee-earners in the smooth running of the client/matter lifecycle, following documented procedures, ensuring all required information/documentation is obtained, issued and correctly stored on the Firm's systems.
• Developing a strong working knowledge of the Firm's billing systems in order to support the fee-earners in being able to prepare and issue timely and accurate bills and financial updates for clients.
• Ensuring all documents are maintained and filed in line with the Firm's electronic and hard copy filing protocols.

Providing support with ad-hoc tasks as needed

Business Admin support

In addition to the 1:1 support listed above, a Virtual PA may also be asked to perform wider ad hoc support for the firm as outlined below. These tasks would typically be delegated by London-based PAs and/or the central Business Admin Unit and will be shared out amongst the Virtual PA team by way of a ticketing system.

The Business Admin & Virtual PA Lead will oversee the task allocation across the team of Virtual PAs and make sure that every member of the team engages with the ticketing and task management system throughout the duration of the task in a professional and timely manner, including accepting the instruction as well as communicating estimated turnaround times and delays back to the requestor.

Key Business Admin support responsibilities include:

• Booking basic lunches and events, ordering gifts/flowers as instructed
• Billing support supporting PA's with various billing and WIP management tasks, adhering to the firm's processes and protocols
• Filing support ensuring all documents are maintained and filed in line with the Firm's electronic filing protocols and as per instructions received
• Administration and maintenance of HighQ Collaborate matter sites and client portals
• Wider support with expense claims, travel bookings, desk and meeting room bookings, electronic filing etc. as outlined above

Collaboration (where applicable)

• Working closely with London PAs and central Business Admin Unit staff, as well as internal document/presentation experts in the Document Production Unit (for specialist tasks, such as the preparation of documents, pitch/presentation materials etc.)
• Liaising with other internal departments, such as the Billing team and Risk & Compliance, to obtain specialist input as needed, taking ownership of issues and following up where appropriate

Knowledge, Skills, and Experience:

• Minimum 12 years experience in business administration, legal operations, or professional services, including 4-5 years in a managerial role
• Strong experience in people management, process improvements, and client/stakeholder engagement
• Prior exposure to global professional services environments (GCC/UK preferred)
• Excellent communication, organizational, and decision-making skills under pressure
• Proficient in Microsoft Office, CRM systems, document/billing management, and workflow tools
• Ability to mentor team leads, manage competing priorities, and maintain confidentiality
• Strong time management skills; will need to juggle a number of tasks at any given time, plan ahead, and have the ability to respond positively and willingly to re-prioritize and adapt to changes in requirements
• Excellent English skills, and the ability to communicate effectively, with warmth and professionalism, to clients and colleagues both orally and in writing, including drafting business emails/correspondence
• Previous experience using bespoke in-house systems (e.g. client contact databases, matter management systems, billing systems, ticketing and task management system etc.)

Personal Attributes:

• Leadership & Team Management coaching and guiding team leads
• Strategic & Operational Oversight aligning operations with business needs
• Stakeholder Management engaging senior internal and external clients
• Problem Solving handling escalations and ensuring timely resolution
• Continuous Improvement driving efficiency, quality, and service innovation