Careers

We have an exciting opportunity for a Business Operations Manager to join our Business Support team.

This is a fantastic time to join Bevan Brittan. The business is growing and the Business Operations Manager role plays a key role in supporting and driving this. There will be plenty of opportunity to make a difference for someone who is flexible, keen to learn, support and work collaboratively with Department Heads and other Business Operations Managers in other legal departments.

We have 4 legal departments across our offices in Bristol, London, Birmingham and Leeds. Each legal department is supported by a Business Operations Manager (BOM). The role of the BOM is to:

• Provide comprehensive, operational management support to assist the Department Heads (DHs) in driving forward improvements.
• Ensuring best practice throughout the annual cycle of running of the department.
• Acting as a bridge between DH and Directors and DH and departmental partners, as well as a link to the BOMs in the other departments to ensure consistency of approach.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Management Support

• Assisting with departmental Partner and fee earner meetings, e.g. diarising, preparing agenda and papers, taking minutes, circulating actions and follow-up.
• Scheduling and running bi-monthly operational Department Head meeting with other departmental BOMs.
• Maintaining an annual tracker of the key deadlines in the annual cycle of the management of the department.
• Project Management of departmental initiatives/work-streams including maintaining and updating of action registers etc.
• Supporting and coordinating the updating of department business plans, working closely with Team Heads and Partners as needed. Coordinating partners for actions and initiatives and delivery against objectives.
• Planning and delivery of department away days.
• IT kit approval administration.

Financial

• Central filing and retrieval of all management financial information regularly used by DHs.
• Assist with budgets, e.g. pulling together statistics and compiling spreadsheets
• Basic analysis, e.g. reviewing fee earner utilisation data provided by Finance and distilling and providing top line info for DH on a weekly basis
• Monitoring KPIs
• Liaising between Finance and partners as to aged lock up. Chasing and reporting to DH.
• Streamlining the process of write-offs. Monitoring leakage as against WIP.

Risk & Best Practice

• Supporting departmental Best Practice Partner and DH.
• Monitoring departmental performance against agreed Risk and Best Practice objectives.
• Liaising with Risk & Best Practice team as required.
• Weekly chasing and reporting to enable individual analysis of partner performance
• Coordinating and ensuring delivery against audit requirements

Business Development

• Liaising with BDM team as required to develop assessments, reports and team plans.
• Coordinating and chasing up partners in relation to submissions for directories.
• Ensuring CVs / fee earners' website profiles are kept up to date.
• Maintaining and keeping up to date departmental database of marketing information for use in tenders.

Knowledge Management and Training

• Scheduling internal training with Knowledge Director and department training partner / Professional Support Lawyer (PSL).
• Logging requests for external training, monitoring spend against budget and liaising with regular external training providers regarding upcoming events.

HR

• Administrative support for recruitment.
• Assisting with coordinating appraisals and objective setting.
• Administration support in relation to promotions, annual pay and bonus review.
• Operating the departmental holiday approval process.

Transformation

• Assisting with identification of transformation opportunities.
• Supporting and coordinating project work.
• Management of departmental HighQ sites.

THE INDIVIDUAL

Skills and experience required:

• Significant experience as a senior or board level PA / management assistant
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Experience of working with highly sensitive and confidential information
• Ability to work collaboratively and efficiently with the other BOMs to ensure coordination and consistency across the legal teams
• Good knowledge of financial processes
• Demonstrable influencing skills
• Confident in having challenging conversations
• Project Management experience
• Excellent attention to detail
• Highly organised and proactive
• Occasional travel to other office locations may be required
• Advanced Microsoft Office Skills, particularly on Word, Excel and PowerPoint

ABOUT US

Bevan Brittan is a UK-Top 100 commercial law firm providing a comprehensive range of legal services from offices in Bristol, Birmingham, Leeds and London.

The firm advises businesses across construction, energy & resource management, higher education and financial services, complementing the firm's market leadership within housing, local government and health and social care.

We currently employ over 500 people, including 86 Partners, and our award-winning teams provide construction, commercial, corporate, property, regulatory, employment and litigation (commercial and clinical negligence) legal advice.

Bevan Brittan was named among 'The Times Best Law Firms 2021' and has recently won three major industry awards, along with being shortlisted as a Finalist for a further eleven.

Bevan Brittan is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applicants from all backgrounds.

Work-life Balance

We offer a substantial benefits package to all employees, which includes 25 days holiday (plus the option to buy up to an additional 5 days), a generous pension scheme and private medical insurance through Vitality (including "phone a GP service", discounted gym membership and 'Vitality' Partner discounts).

All of our people are entitled to a biennial private health assessment through Nuffield Health and are included in the group life assurance scheme. We also have an Employee Assistance Programme (free telephone support and counselling service) and a cycle scheme (Save Tax & NI on a bike for cycling to work).

Where possible, we want to offer all Bevan Brittan people flexibility to work their week in a way that suits them - we operate a hybrid working model based on the needs of our clients, teams and that of the individual. Our core business hours are 9am - 5:15pm Monday to Friday, however we are open to individuals working more flexibly around those times and would welcome a conversation with you if you have any questions.

Responsible Business

To us, being a responsible business is second nature; a core part of Bevan Brittan's identity, running through our culture and embodied by the clients we serve.

Bevan Brittan seeks to play an active role within its local office communities. Through regular fundraising events, support for local initiatives and annual charity donations at Christmas, we have established a culture of giving within the firm. In December 2021 we donated a total of £60,000 to our four regional office charities, with each charity receiving £15,000 to help fund their vital services.

Our current selected charity in Bristol is Great Western Air Ambulance.

We want to demonstrate our commitment to these causes through actions rather than words; colleagues from across the firm are already heavily involved, living and breathing the four pillars of our Responsible Business strategy:

• Community Engagement
• Environmental Sustainability
• Equality, Diversity & Inclusion
• Wellbeing

Collectively, these four pillars ensure we look after our colleagues' wellbeing; offer an environment in which all can progress on merit, regardless of personal circumstances or background; give something back to the communities in which we work; and protect the environment.

Bevan Brittan is proudly a carbon neutral firm. We have achieved the UN's Climate Neutral Now accreditation and our environmental sustainability plan is focussed on achieving our net zero carbon target.

Each lawyer has the opportunity to undertake pro bono legal work for local charities and not-for-profit organisations. This has seen colleagues support the Great Western Air Ambulance Charity (Bristol), Moseley Road Swimming Baths (Birmingham), Yorkshire Cat Rescue (Leeds), Great Western Credit Union (London), and several others.