Client Services Manager – 12 Months Fixed Term Contract

Client Services Manager – 12 Months Fixed Term Contract

Keen to become part of a truly global, collaborative team of professionals? Your journey begins here.

Department: Marketing & Business Development

Office Location: Birmingham

Reports To: Head of Alternative Delivery Solutions

Working Hours: 35 hours per week, 9:30am to 5:30pm but additional hours may be required. We are happy to consider agile and flexible working patterns. Our approach to hybrid working allows for up to 40% of time working from home and 60% working in the office, please contact a member of the recruitment team to discuss further.

Firm Description: Hogan Lovells is one of the leading global law firms. Our distinctive market position is founded on our exceptional breadth of our practice, on deep industry knowledge, and on our 'one team' global approach. Formed through the combination of two top international law firms, Hogan Lovells has over 40 offices in the Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

With a presence in the world's major financial and commercial markets, we are well placed to provide excellent business-oriented advice to our clients locally and internationally. Our people are the key to our success, which is why we seek to recruit and retain the most talented individuals in all regions of our global practice.

In the UK Hogan Lovells has offices in Birmingham and London. The Birmingham office opened in 2015 and has a number of practice areas including Corporate/Commercial, Construction, Finance, Litigation, Arbitration and Employment (LAE) and Real Estate, as well as our Legal Delivery Centre and Business Team.

Department Description

The Alternative Delivery Solutions (ADS) group includes cost efficient and flexibly managed staffing solutions through our UK Legal Delivery Centre, our US Staff Attorney Program, our US Practice Support and our relationship with third party provider Elevate. We also support some of our UK practice groups with Work Allocation. Our group, along with others across Practice Operations, work closely with our partners and lawyers in designing client solutions. Driving efficiencies to deliver client excellence is at the heart of everything we do.

Our Client Services team was established in September 2023 and is part of the ADS group, assisting to deliver on our commitment to client excellence by putting clients at the center of everything we do.

Role Overview

The firm is experiencing an increase in the volume and complexity of client surveys, supplier questionnaires and requests for information (RFI) from across our global client base. These surveys primarily focus the team is dedicated to providing global support and accurate information in response to client survey requests on key topics such as Inclusion, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG), relationship management and risk. These surveys are driving increased expectations that the firm should make related commitments to clients to achieve certain goals in various areas of responsible business.

The Client Services team plays a vital role in delivering exceptional support to our clients and internal teams. As a business team function, we are fully aligned with the firm's core values – Innovative, Committed, Responsible, Ambitious, and Supportive. By embedding these principles into everything we do, we ensure a consistent, high-quality service that empowers our lawyers and enhances client satisfaction.

The Client Services team collaborates with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to ensure up to date and accurate information is provided, available, helping to meet our client's requests efficiently and effectively.

We are seeking a Client Services Manager on a 12 month's contract to cover maternity leave. The manager will guide the team, allocate work, quality check their output and handle the most complex and high profile client survey requests.

There will also be potential to manage a junior person, who would be a new hire and there will be a lot of stakeholder management and influencing required to be effective in this role.

This role is unique, it combines sensitivity to client expectations with an understanding of current trends and issues in Inclusion and sustainability.

Key Responsibilities / Accountabilities

Manage the team of two Client Survey Co-ordinators on a daily basis, providing:

• Work allocation on a daily basis.
• Monitoring progress of responses and resolving delays if necessary.
• Answering queries on approach where required.
• Quality checking the team's output before delivery.
• Ensuring housekeeping and records and maintained in a timely fashion.
• Handling the more complex and / or high profile client survey requests.
• Producing monthly MI reports to the Head of Alternative Delivery Solutions and leadership.
• Resolving escalations from internal stakeholders as necessary.
• Producing new template responses and updating the team guidance as new matters arise.

Specific duties or responsibilities may be reviewed from time to time to reflect changes in personnel and management structure, staff location or services.

All members of the firm participate in our Responsible Business program.

Person Specification

Qualifications and Training

• Experience working in a law firm or a similar professional services environment.
• Experience working of working with one or more of the following would be a distinct advantage:
• General Counsel's Office, Compliance, Inclusion and / or Sustainability.
• Experience in Project Management and / or Client Account Management.
• Experience working collaboratively on projects alongside different business functions.

General Attributes

The person we are looking for will have very strong people and project management skills with the ability to build rapport and a strong working relationship with stakeholders and SMEs from across our entire global business, often via virtual meetings and sometimes working under time pressure.

They will have excellent written skills and the ability to interpret information from multiple sources and stakeholders to draft strong copy, suitable for an external audience.

• Creates a positive impact with colleagues, peers, partners and clients and is able to demonstrate diplomacy, listening and influencing skills.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with an excellent eye for detail and the ability to write compelling propositions.
• Creative and innovative thinker, creating new pathways where none existed before.
• Effective project management skills including the ability to plan and prioritise work.
• Self-motivated; ability to work with minimal supervision to drive projects to completion.
• Flexible and able to adapt to changes or set backs on a project.
• Maintains the quality and quantity of output under pressure, alongside excellent service delivery.
• Team player who is proactive with a 'can do attitude'.
• Pragmatic, robust, diplomatic and resourceful, with the ability to adapt quickly to different situations and personalities.

Agile Working Statement: Our goal is to embed flexibility across our business by giving everyone the opportunity to work in an agile way, whether as a regular pattern or on an ad hoc basis, and we will be happy to discuss this further.

Equal Opportunities Employment Statement: It is the policy of Hogan Lovells to provide equal opportunities for all employees in relation to recruitment, training and promotion. Decisions in these areas will be made only by reference to the requirements of the job and shall not be influenced by any consideration of racial or ethnic origin, religion, sex , gender and gender identity, age, sexual orientation, marital and civil partnership status, pregnancy or disability.