Practice Manager (Corporate) NEW

A&O Shearman is a new global industry-leading law firm, with 48 offices in 28 countries worldwide. Our fluency in English law, US law, and the laws of the world’s most dynamic markets, enables us to provide unmatched insight and seamless delivery to clients. We work on challenging and important deals and disputes that have the potential to shape the future.
 
We offer exceptional opportunities for our people; opportunities to work for the world’s leading businesses; to transform the status quo, and to deliver your best work, helping you and your career to thrive, while delivering unparalleled outcomes for our clients.
 
Whether you’re helping clients solve complex challenges, transforming the ways we manage our business, or ensuring the smooth-running of our operations, this is an environment where you can belong and excel. We provide first-rate training and development, we are committed to an inclusive environment, and we provide support and ways of working that help you optimize your wellbeing.
 
What truly defines a career with us? We recruit the best and ask for the best of you. And together, we will redefine success.

Department purpose
The U.S. Corporate Department encompasses several practice groups, including U.S. Capital Markets, CEPG, Tax, as well as Global Financial Markets and Real Estate. Together, these groups are comprised of 37 partners across the Americas. The global management of these practice groups is overseen by the Practice Group Leader, with support from the Global COO and Global Heads of HR, Finance, and Business Development. To further enhance operational efficiency, the Global COO seeks additional support for the U.S. side of these practices.

Role purpose
The purpose of the role is to provide dedicated support to practice group co-heads and Global COOs. The main overall purpose of this role is to contribute to the development of the practice group strategy and business plan and to help the US and global management team to implement this strategy and its priorities.  

Role and responsibilities
The responsibilities of this role include, but are not limited to:
Supporting the development of strategies and plans for the Practice Group. Managing, prioritizing, and ensuring the timely follow-up on a diverse range of issues for the Practice Group Leadership
Managing and prioritizing a range of issues for the Practice Group, ensuring timely follow-up.
Collaborating with Global COOs, Finance, BD, and HR to ensure projects and tasks for the practice groups are completed efficiently.
Ensuring that the Practice Group Heads/Co-Heads and management team are equipped with the necessary information to fulfil their management duties.
Coordinating with Finance to obtain statistics on billings and collections for partners in the Americas and diaries for partners and associates to prepare analyses of billings, collections and activity level trends for budget purposes and otherwise as well as assisting in monitoring and reporting on the timeliness of billings, collections and diaries.
Working with Global COOs to streamline processes related to the annual cycle (e.g., partner conferences, management roadshows, partner compensation, budget and investment plan, lateral hires, annual partner reviews, compliance certification).
Supporting the practice group in preparing agendas and materials for regular meetings and management trips.
Collaborating with the U.S. PG leads, U.S. BD Leads, and the global Management team on the content and delivery of Practice Group Partner Conferences as requested.
Supporting PGLs, the Global COOs and Global Head of Finance in the planning and execution of the annual global compensation process and budget process for the practice.
Assisting the Global COOs with partner candidate preparation.
Collaborating with Global COOs and the management team to create content for departmental updates, partner conferences, meeting minutes, presentations, and business planning templates.
Providing ad-hoc support for both ongoing and ad-hoc projects or initiatives.

Key relationships 
US Practice Group leaders
Americas partners
Global COOs, Global Head of Marketing/ Head of HR/ Head of Finance, US HR Managers
US M&A business function leaders and team members in BD, HR and Finance

Key requirements
It is essential that the post holder is:
Able to contribute to discussions in meetings of management and partners with confidence, particularly in the context of Corporate practice groups.
Able to demonstrate a deep understanding of a combination of Capital Markets, CEPG, Tax, Global Financial Markets, and Real Estate processes.
Able to work collaboratively and think creatively to solve complex problems and develop innovative strategies within the Corporate sector.
Able to challenge and shape an agenda and influence others to get things done, especially in high stakes Corporate environments.
Possessing of strong leadership skills.
Able to operate with tact and discretion pragmatically in an environment where issues are confidential, complex and lines of reporting are ambiguous, which is often the case in CEPG, Tax, Global Financial Markets, and Real Estate,
Able to maintain confidentiality and handle sensitive information with care
Able to interpret law firm financial reports accurately and with confidence.
Ideally possessing 3-6 years of relevant business management experience in professional services firms, with a strong preference for experience in some or all of the practice groups this role covers.
Aware of and able to implement relevant Finance, HR and other Firm policies in respect of partners and staff tailored to the unique needs of each individual practice group.
Able to ensure compliance with regulatory and firm-specific policies during Capital Markets processes.
Able to understand and juggle a wide range of issues and projects at the same time.
Able to produce high quality work product on tight deadlines.
Proficiency with PowerPoint and Excel
Working with a solutions-oriented mindset, seeking to understand first based on data and insight from a range of sources across functions or practice areas.
Able to draft appropriate high quality internal communications in a range of media (emails, presentations etc.) and communicate clearly and effectively.