Employer: Government Legal Department

Role: Legal Operations Director

Salary: £98,000 - £120,000 (SCS 2)

Location: London, Bristol, Croydon, Leeds and Manchester. Travel to London at least weekly.

Much more than law

When it comes to nation-changing purpose, few organisations can match the Government Legal Department. Our work touches almost every aspect of UK life. It has a lasting, positive impact on millions of people. People in GLD enjoy a remarkable variety of work and the intellectual stimulation of working at the cutting edge, by not only interpreting the law, but also making it.

The Government Legal Department employs nearly 3000 people, including over 2000 legal professionals and has offices across the UK. As the largest provider of legal services across government, we work on high profile matters that are frequently scrutinised in Parliament and the media. Our teams advise most Government Departments on policy development, prepare and draft legislation, handle high profile public and private law litigation, support our new trade relationships and provide commercial transactional, litigation and property services – and more. Our newly created Chief Operating Officer Group is pivotal to our ambition to deliver legal excellence at greater value and efficiency. It signals the importance of our corporate and operational services and how fundamental they are to GLD being both an outstanding legal organisation and a brilliant place to work.

The role
We are now seeking an experienced legal operations professional to join us to lead the establishment of our newly created Legal Operations Directorate. This is a unique and exciting role offering an unrivalled opportunity to help shape and define our new GLD Legal Operations Directorate - one of your early responsibilities will be to complete the design work for what the structure will look like and how it will operate.

As Director of Legal Operations, you will lead four divisions: Legal Excellence; Bona Vacantia; Legal Delivery; and Legal Communities, with four deputy Directors and a likely total staffing of around 350/400 (following completion to further design work). Through your teams, you will ensure the Legal Operations Directorate meets the needs of GLD in terms of timely, proportionate and value for money legal support services, supporting delivery of the GLD’s strategy. This includes responsibility for identifying and securing the benefits of effective and efficient legal operational service, to legal delivery capability, including through adoption and use of relevant technology and autonomous systems. You will be instrumental to developing GLD’s strategic approach to harnessing the benefits of innovation.

What we’re looking for
To be successful in this post you will have extensive experience leading and transforming a legal operations function in a legal services provider, in-house legal function or other legal service provision context within the private or public sector. A solid understanding of legal enterprise software, tools, and applications that are shaping the future legal landscape is a prerequisite. An outstanding leader you will have led and motivated high performing multi-disciplinary teams with an inclusive culture. This role calls for strong leadership skills and the proven ability to manage workloads and resources across high-calibre, multi-disciplinary teams and directorates. You will have a high level of personal credibility and integrity, alongside a collaborative style. An excellent communicator you will be a talented influencer and relationship builder, who knows what ‘good looks like’ in their field. There is significant transformation across all corporate areas, alongside a new strategy, and the Legal Operations Director will play a key role in the COO Group and wider GLD in securing the anticipated benefits of that transformation. Therefore, this newly created role will suit someone who is change motivated and outcomes focused.

If you are looking to further elevate your legal operations career and if building a high-performing legal operations function in a large, legal environment genuinely excites you, we would like to hear from you.

Applications should be received by 12 Noon Monday 16th September

For more information or for an informal discussion about the role please contact our advising consultants at GatenbySanderson;

Rosanne Sarratt:  rosanne.sarratt@gatenbysanderson.com 

Tracy Wicik: tracy.wicik@gatenbysanderson.com 

Julie Myers: julie.myers@gatenbysanderson.com