Senior Manager: Practice Enablement & Adoption - Eurasia
As a member of the Firm's Practice Technology & Solutions team, this role extends the Firm's Technology & Innovation mission into the heart of legal practice ensuring that technology investments are fully leveraged, innovations are adopted, and lawyers and clients experience measurable benefits. They focus on uncovering operational pain points, unmet client needs, and opportunities for innovation, as well as driving the adoption and enablement of legal technology solutions across the firm. The Senior Manager: Practice Enablement & Adoption ensures that all practice innovation efforts are grounded in real-world legal practice and aligned with the firm's strategic goals. Reporting to the Assistant Director: Practice Enablement & Adoption, and partnering with the broader technology and business teams, they function as a connector: between practice groups and our technology delivery teams, between ideas and execution, and between emerging technologies and the Firm's long-term strategy.
Key Responsibilities
* Enable Practice Transformation: Drive the implementation, change and adoption of the firm's agreed AI Strategy within the practice areas. Assist in further evolving the transformation of legal workflows and processes through design thinking sessions, process improvement workshops, pilots, and rollouts in partnership with Legal project managers, pricing, and knowledge professionals.
* Understand Needs & Opportunities: Partner with lawyers, clients, and business services to map and evaluate current processes with an eye to identify where process improvement and technology can deliver greater value. Capture user stories, best practices, insights and maintain a knowledge base of lawyer challenges and opportunities.
* Shape and Prioritize Initiatives: Support the Firm's idea intake process by evaluating, scoring, and prioritizing ideas. Translate feedback into clear problem statements that IT and other business services can act on.
* Increase Awareness and Engagement: Develop targeted outreach through listening sessions, practice presentations, vendor days to increase lawyer awareness and engagement with existing investments and emerging technologies that could help practice/industry/product groups.
* Prototype and Validate: Collaborate with the Practice Solutions team to build prototypes and validate the proposed solution. Work with Practice Technology team to customize templates or pilot/custom-build solutions for practice needs.
* Drive Adoption & Change: Collaborate with Practice Technology and Learning & Development to deliver tailored training, awareness sessions, and direct support. Focus on building confidence, adoption, and measurable ROI for legal technology solutions.
* Collaborate Across Business Teams: Work with other business departments e.g., Knowledge Management, Practice Management, Information Services, Legal Risk Management, Business Development & Marketing to solve the issue holistically. Collaborate with Practice Solutions team to onboard vendors and pilot innovative solutions.
* Horizon Scanning: Monitor legal technology trends and emerging vendors with an eye towards those that might address pain points of our lawyers. Share insights with Firm and IT leadership to inform strategy and future investment.
* Oversee the operational success of the team, including budget tracking, project reporting, and alignment of resources with Firm priorities. Support workforce planning, recruitment, onboarding, training, and ongoing staff development. Manage performance reviews and contribute to merit-based compensation decisions. Lead feedback, coaching, and disciplinary processes as needed.
* Perform other duties as assigned or required to meet Firm goals and objectives.
* Demonstrated leadership and supervisory experience; set priorities and delegates efficiently.
* Conduct operational budget analysis and staffing level assessments; participate in recruitment.
* Implement change processes to improve workflow efficiency.
* Strong leadership and project management skills.
* Manage performance appraisals, compensation, goal setting, and performance counselling for direct reports.
* Align working hours as necessary to support global teams and business partners.
* Strong customer service and problem-solving mindset.
* Effective collaborator in diverse environments; thrive under pressure and meet shifting deadlines.
* Pragmatic, initiative-taking, flexible, and good team player.
* Self-starter with high initiative; meticulous, organized, and multitasking.
* Maintain confidentiality and discretion.
Qualifications & Experience
* JD or Master's degree; however, a Bachelor's degree with relevant experience will also be considered.
* 5+ years’ experience working in legal environment either in a law firm or a legal department or a legal tech solution provider.
* Demonstrated experience of leading strategic legal technology related projects, and particularly in evaluating and implementing legal tech solutions, in a large law firm or corporate/financial institution legal department or enterprise level, strongly preferred.
* Knowledge of the lifecycle of a legal matter is strongly preferred.
* Experience in increasing adoption of legal tech tools and different methods of engaging and enabling lawyers.
* Experience in business analysis, solution design, consulting, and/or client-facing roles.
* Demonstrated use of business requirements elicitation and documentation skills.
Technical Skills
* Required:
o Proficiency in Microsoft Office products.
o Working knowledge of process improvement principles (e.g., Lean, Six Sigma), when to invoke each methodology, and how to deploy process improvement tools (e.g., process maps, fishbone diagrams, root cause analysis).
o Experience with project management principles, including Agile/Scrum and Waterfall methods, together with requisite experience, to determine when to use each method.
* Preferred:
o Strong ability to engage in design thinking, being able to conceptualize and implement a project from end-to-end, knowing which skills and techniques are required for a particular situation.
o Working proficiency in either French, or German, in addition to English.
Performance Traits
* Proven ability to communicate complex technical concepts in clear, non-technical language to stakeholders at all levels.
* Strong customer service and problem-solving mindset.
* Effective collaborator in diverse environments; thrive under pressure and meet shifting deadlines.
* Pragmatic, initiative-taking, flexible, and good team player.
* Self-starter with high initiative; meticulous, organized, and multitasking.
* Maintain confidentiality and discretion.
Mayer Brown is an international law firm positioned to represent the world's major corporations, funds, and financial institutions in their most important and complex transactions and disputes. We are recognized by our clients as strategic partners with deep commercial instincts and a commitment to creatively anticipating their needs and delivering excellence in everything we do. At Mayer Brown, we are committed to creating an inclusive work environment that offers our people the opportunity and support they need to succeed. Our culture promotes mutual respect, acceptance, cooperation and productivity among people from all backgrounds and values different perspectives and ideas. One of our core values at Mayer Brown is to promote inclusion at all levels within the business which is actively supported by our Employee Resource Groups - LGBT+, Fusion (Race & Ethnicity), Multi-faith, Women, Enable (Disability) and Work and Me (Family). We are happy to discuss any reasonable adjustments that individuals may require throughout the recruitment process and once they have joined the Firm.
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