People & Development Manager

What is LOD?

LOD is the leading flexible legal service provider across seven locations in the UK, South Africa, US, Asia and Australia. We are both changing the way in which clients buy legal services and providing talented lawyers with a new way of working. We’ve achieved some of the fastest growth in our sector by creating and leading a new professional service category. That growth continues as we launch new services, responding to the way our lawyers want to work and clients want to engage them. This role offers an opportunity to be part of this story.

LOD has caught the imagination of the changing legal marketplace for ‘new law’ services. We now have a team of around 600 lawyers and consultants of the highest quality working with an inspiring client list from globally recognised multinationals to start-ups.

Work at LOD:

LOD has the spirit and excitement of an entrepreneurial growth business. LOD’s HQ team is at the core - they are the people that look after our lawyers and clients work to build the LOD business. So, working in the HQ team offers you a chance to shape how things are changing in the legal industry. What you do will have a direct effect on how our lawyers and clients work with us.

Ideals at LOD:

We see daily that giving people the chance to work differently can have a positive impact on the world. We run LOD for our lawyers and for our clients with that in mind. It’s also crucial for our employees in the HQ team - each employee has a chance to truly engage and to make a difference in what they do. We’re agile, solutions focussed, collaborative and fun.

Role Summary: 

Our People & Development team are a key part of our business in being responsible for looking after our teams of working lawyers, paralegals and non-lawyers whilst they’re representing LOD on assignment with our clients.
You’ll join our People and Development team working to ensure we select, onboard, and retain top quality individuals for a variety of LOD clients. The role will be varied and will cover a range of responsibilities including onboarding, day to day care and development as well as delivering on a talent strategy that fits the South African market and continues to position us an employer of choice against our competitors. The priority of our People & Development team is to deliver core activities that attract and retain the best talent in a competitive and fast-paced market. Our South African office has been growing since we opened it around two years ago. We have Senior Lawyers on assignment in increasingly complex teams and the support required for this population has evolved in turn. As such, we’re seeking our first South Africa based People & Development team member to join us, reporting into our UK based People & Development Director to help us to create a sophisticated and agile talent management programme that supports those core activities of attraction and retention whilst creating our own South African community of flex- talent.

Management of the assignment life cycle from onboarding onwards: You will run the induction process and HR processes for all lawyers, paralegals and support staff starting and leaving assignments based in South Africa. This includes processing engagement letters, assignment notifications and all onboarding items using our automated onboarding platform. You’ll also be responsible for liaising with teams internally at the client to ensure their own
onboarding processes are complete for each of our starters.

Line management and on-assignment care and development: You’ll have line management responsibility for your lawyers and paralegals, in addition to coordinating on the day-to-day care and development of our senior lawyer pool. You’ll go beyond ensuring that they all receive a responsive level of support whilst on assignment to deeply knowing and understanding what makes our people on assignment tick. You’ll be involved in variety of conversations including rate/salary negotiations, contract extensions, redundancies, offboarding and day to day queries plus assisting on any learning and development opportunities you identify. Prioritising the retention and wellbeing of our talent as the foundation of your work. Conversations will be varied, so we are looking for someone who is willing to partner with the business and our people in an advisory capacity to ensure the best experience for our people.

Troubleshooting: Linked to your day-to-day role in supporting the team, you’ll use your initiative to assist in troubleshooting and solving problems across a range of issues and will use creative commercial problem solving to identify solutions and execute them.

Co-ordination and communication: You’ll be responsible for communicating any key commercial issues to senior members of the client team and working with them to ensure the right solution is delivered quickly and efficiently. In particular, this role requires deep understanding and collaboration within our Structured Teams function, so we'll need you to develop partnerships with HQ delivery managers (largely based in the UK) who allocate work to our LODs, and work side by side on people support within the context of project delivery. There is a level of commerciality and pragmatism required to balance the needs of our people with the commercial needs of our clients, and you’ll be at the forefront of these challenges.

A talent strategy built for continuous learning & development: Working with the Director of People & Development to structure and implement career development frameworks as well as delivering meaningful events focussed on professional development for our people. Some training session delivery may be required.

Projects and global collaboration: Assisting the broader People and Development team and UK Head of People and Development on projects as they arise. Examples have included lawyer events, training, system and process enhancements. You are joining at a moment of unprecedented growth of our South Africa office and as such, will be expected to take the lead as a prominent, senior voice in delivering exceptional service and LOD values to our South African flex-talent colleagues.

These are the things that we look for in the whole team working at LOD HQ:

• The ability to make an impact through taking ownership, good organisational skills and using initiative with a focus on the end result (talent attraction and retention).

• Authentic and clear communication skills, emotional intelligence and the ability to build and maintain relationships both internally and externally.

• An ability to make wise decisions, seeing the big picture and root causes without losing your eye for detail.

• A curious personality and open mind to thrive, learn and engage in an entrepreneurial team and to find solutions to difficult problems.

• A habit of ownership and solution-finding. Our boarder HQ team uses our People & Development team as the centre of expertise on talent management issues and as such, you will be expected to advise and take the lead.

• A genuine interest in the changing legal market and in ensuring that our LOD lawyers and clients receive the best possible experience throughout their dealings with us.

• A wish to develop long term relationships with our flex talent population, prioritising the time needed to do so. You will be expected to know each of your team personally through proactive and regular contact to ensure they’re supported throughout their assignments and will take a position as their ‘first port of call’ whenever they need help.

In addition to the general attributes noted above, our ideal candidate for this role will also:

• Quickly gain credibility and respect from highly qualified professionals.

• Have demonstrable experience in managing employees through complex HR issues.

• Be experienced in engaging with technology, the internet, and social media in a business context. We use a lot of technology at LOD to automate our processes, so you’ll be confident in using technology in your day-to-day work.

• Be creative and open-minded yet not afraid of using data and processes.

• Be ready to step in and support with recruitment needs where required.

• Be confident as a standalone representative of the People & Development team in South Africa, and able to virtually collaborate with our broader UK based team.

• Ideally have some understanding of the legal or other professional services sector.