Resource Manager

Clifford Chance is one of the world's leading law firms, helping clients achieve their goals by combining the highest global standards with local expertise. The firm has unrivalled scale and depth of legal resources across the three key markets of the Americas, Asia and Europe and focuses on the core areas of commercial activity: capital markets; corporate and M&A; finance and banking; real estate; tax; pensions and employment; litigation and dispute resolution. The Resource Manager role sits within Finance practice areas and works closely with the Partners and the associates with regards to the allocation of work. The role holder will provide advice and guidance to Partners and associates with a quality service and rapid response to complex queries. The primary objective of the role is to act as a trusted advisor to the business providing strategic advice about manpower planning and resource management. Responsibilities will include acting as the main point of contact for the practice areas delivering day to day deployment requirements. The Resource Manager will have responsibility for allocating work for about 100+ fee-earners across a number of different product specialisations within the Finance Practice. Key responsibilities include: • Act as a trusted advisor to the business in respect to resourcing • To optimise the allocation of work and the deployment of fee-earners to maximise efficient and appropriate staffing of deals • To identify appropriate workload for varying levels of associates and trainees incorporating the individuals' preferences and development goals where possible • To identify and implement practical solutions to alleviate over/under capacity including; mobility and flexibility within the practice, cross-practice and globally • To take ownership of and manage data collection and reporting and to ensure the integrity of the data is maintained • To understand the practice area growth plans and work with the Practice Area Leader (PAL), Practice Area Manager and Senior HR Manager (SHRM) to ensure headcount is appropriately managed to deliver plans • To provide forecast and actual utilisation and availability reports for the PAL and partner group plus any other ad hoc reports that may be requested • To work with administrative support based in the GSSC (off shore service centre) to ensure that the overall resourcing view is accurate and up-to-date • To highlight trends and patterns within resourcing • To ensure any feedback obtained during the work allocation process on associates' performance is passed on to the PAL and the SHRM. • To work with the Global Project Group (GPG) to explore opportunities for Continuous Improvement across all processes • To be responsible for the allocating work for the paralegals and working with Continuous Improvement on internal processes Skills & Experience Your experience will have been gained in a large to mid-size commercial environment, ideally Professional Services. It is essential for you to have experience of professional career development or training or alternatively an in-depth understanding of the legal environment and the skills and personal attributes necessary to succeed in the legal profession. You will be confident and willing to engage with all levels of staff and partners. You will be comfortable with delivering difficult messages to fee-earners and senior management within the Firm. You will need a high attention to detail and excellent organisational skills. You will be proactive and be able to demonstrate new initiatives you have implemented. You will have the ability to work under pressure and to deadlines. You will be of graduate calibre. The ideal candidate will demonstrate the following: • Proven people management skills with the ability to influence decision and outcomes at a senior level. • Ability to manage resourcing conflicts and priorities • Commercially-minded with good operational business acumen to understand the needs of stakeholders • Proven ability to build and maintain strong internal and external relationships. • A respected team player. • Experience of Finance and Industrial Products. • Good analytical skills to analyse information to support business decisions. • Excellent verbal and written communication skills. • Good IT skills including Excel and Retain (or other resource planning tools). • Take on internal Resource Management projects and initiatives. Equal Opportunities It is the Firm's policy to treat all employees and job applicants fairly and equally regardless of their gender, marital or civil partnership status, race, colour, national or ethnic origin, social or economic background, disability, religious belief, sexual orientation, or age. Furthermore, the Firm will ensure that no requirement or condition will be imposed without justification which could disadvantage individuals purely on any of the above grounds. The policy applies to recruitment and selection, terms and conditions of employment including pay, promotion, training, transfer and every other aspect of employment. The Firm will regularly review its procedures and selection criteria to ensure that individuals are selected, promoted and otherwise treated according to their relevant individual abilities and merits. The Firm is committed to the implementation of this policy and to a programme of action to ensure that the policy is, and continues to be, fully effective. All staff are required to comply with the policy and to act in accordance with its objectives so as to remove any barriers to equal opportunity. Any act of discrimination by employees or any failure to comply with the terms of the policy will result in disciplinary action.