Senior Manager, Legal Project Management

White & Case LLP•New York, NY

7d•$157,600 - $216,700

About The Position

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. 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.

Requirements

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
5+ years relevant work experience including client-facing roles

Nice To Haves

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

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