Legal Director (US OR Canada Based)

Avantia Law

3d•Remote

About The Position

Avantia Law is leading the way in legal services innovation. Our team of talented lawyers, backed by AI, work with clients to deliver routine legal and compliance work fast and cost-efficiently. We have experienced exceptional growth and success since our inception in 2019. Our clients are sophisticated, high-calibre investment funds and asset managers. They expect a premium service – and we deliver. We have a proven track record in this, often winning new clients through referrals. We are powered by AI, but committed to our people. We offer a culture of trust and flexibility to employees. We have an office in London for those wishing to spend some portion of their working time with colleagues, but employees are equally welcome to work remotely. We have a truly diverse workforce, with members of staff coming from all corners of the world. Avantia is looking for a talented and ambitious Lawyer to take the lead on client service delivery and team management. We have an innovative team structure, where each of our Legal Directors heads a "Club" comprised of lawyers and legal professionals serving multiple clients. As a leader, you'll have freedom in running your Club - at the same time you have a group of peers to collaborate with and will work with your Managing Director to coordinate across Clubs, ensure consistent standards of delivery and, of course, to celebrate successes as a group. You will be accountable for overall performance of the services to your clients as well as for team management of your Club members. You will also have the opportunity to lead cross-Club projects and to develop and launch new services/products. You will also have your own client case-load, making this an exceptionally exciting role for experienced lawyers keen on evolving into leadership and business management within our dynamic and supportive organisation.

Requirements

Licensed to practice Law in the USA or Canada with additional jurisdictions a bonus.
Have at least 6 years’ legal experience post qualification, either inhouse or private practice
Have some experience managing, training and motivating team members
Have familiarity with asset managers, investment banks or other financial services firms
Have experience with independently providing legal advisory services.
Tech savvy and able to adapt to Avantia’s technology suite (e.g. HighQ).

Nice To Haves

Any specific interest in artificial intelligence and legal tech is very welcome!

Responsibilities

With support from your MD and central functions, actively manage the Club’s financial and service delivery performance
Lead new client onboarding: advising on and developing templates and playbooks, agreeing negotiating positions, escalations and handoffs and launching clients into day to day service delivery.
Oversee the intake of new client requests, triage/assessment and allocation to team members
Balance team member workloads for efficiency
Monitor SLAs and intervene where necessary
Ensure overall client satisfaction
Maintain an active client caseload, likely to be at around 40% of the volume of other lawyers in the team, and anticipating that may increase at times to cover short term peaks or team absence
Day-to-day line management of Club lawyers and legal professionals, although you may choose to delegate to / share with more senior team members when appropriate
Absence planning and workload management for team members
Performance management, including active management of under-performers
Actively manage Consultant team members
Forward planning, recruiting, onboarding and training of new team members
Coaching and developing team members and keeping an eye to their welfare
Club social, culture, wellbeing and sense of belonging
Working with the CCO, your MD and Lawyer team, execute Avantia’s account management programme with your Club’s clients, including looking for cross- and up-selling opportunities
Lead continuous improvement programmes for your clients
Manage all escalations and take ownership for overall client satisfaction
Act as a member of the Service Line Leadership Team, led by the MD
As part of the Leadership Team coordinate ensure smooth and consistent service delivery and team management across Clubs
Contribute to Service Line strategy and planning, help to develop and launch new products, improve service delivery capabilities
Support new Clubs and their Legal Directors
Support Service Line go-to-market planning and pre-sales