Job and Person Specification
Job Title: Innovation Manager
Location: UK / Remote-friendly – access to London and Manchester offices preferable
Salary: Competitive, plus benefits
Reports to: Hayden Cooke, Chief of Staff
About the Company
gunnercooke is a Top 75 law firm recognised by over 80 industry awards. Launched in 2010, the firm has rapidly grown to over 500 lawyers across 14 global offices in the UK, US, Germany and Austria. Our breadth of expertise covers some of the most interesting and important emerging disciplines, from ESG and charity law, to blockchain and competition.
Collaboration is at the forefront of our award-winning culture and is what sets our firm apart from the rest. gunnercooke operates as a fee share model meaning our professionals join as self-employed advisors, free to design and develop the practice they’ve always wanted. Our firm brings together the most ambitious and commercially-minded people, who build and work in dynamic teams of their choosing, to best suit their clients’ needs.
Our purpose is simple; to deliver a positive impact for our clients, provide a better life for our people and to leave a better world than we found. Our charitable arm, the gunnercooke foundation, enables us to directly engage with communities on social issues and to help charitable organisations grow.
The Role
We are seeking an Innovation Manager to help us implement cutting-edge legal technology to deliver exceptional client service and to foster a culture of innovation and collaboration across the firm. You will play a key role in ensuring our partners and teams stay ahead of the curve by shaping our technology strategy, identifying the most impactful technology, advising on implementation, and supporting adoption - always with a keen understanding of how innovation serves our fee-earning professionals and clients.
The ideal candidate will have 2+ years’ practising experience in a top law firm and proven experience in technology, legal technology, legal operations, or innovation in a legal or professional services environment. If this isn’t you but you think you’d be great at the role, please do still apply as we recognise that great talent can take different paths.
The ideal candidate will be resilient, commercially driven, and champion our culture and values being Compassionomics, Laser-like Focus, Humour, and being Boundaryless.
Responsibilities
Legal Tech Strategy
* Contribute to gunnercooke’s strategy for adopting legal technology to deliver a better service for our clients and a better life for our people
Monitoring Legal Tech Developments
* Stay abreast of emerging legal technology trends, tools, AI advancements, and market developments, and share information on opportunities internally
Working with Suppliers and Recommending Solutions
* Build relationships with legal tech vendors and assess new solutions for suitability
* Evaluate tools and provide strategic recommendations on which solutions to trial or adopt
Planning Pilots, Supporting Roll-Outs and Implementation
* Lead implementation planning for new technologies and pilots
* Lead on pilots and roll-outs of new technologies that we adopt
* Lead on gunnercooke’s internal technology marketplace where a range of solutions are made available to our fee-earners
Driving Internal Engagement and Adoption
* Support partners and teams with adopting new tools and workflows
* Run demos, create user guides or FAQ materials, and provide everything from firmwide to one-to-one support where needed
* Identify champions within the firm to help promote adoption organically
Fostering Internal Collaboration
* Encourage knowledge, data sharing and aligned working practice across the firm to derive the most value from the technology adopted
* Help build internal communities of interest around key tools and innovation themes
The Person
Skills and Abilities
The following skills, abilities, personal attributes and experience are required for this role:
* Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
* Analytical, commercial and solutions-driven mindset, with the ability to translate tech potential into practical benefits.
* Strong understanding of legal workflows and the needs of fee-earners, ideally in a dispersed or self-employed model
* Ability to think strategically, with an understanding of how the legal landscape will evolve and how our strategy should align with it
* Comfortable working independently and in a highly flexible environment
Personal Attributes
* Be able to build excellent working relationships with a wide variety of colleagues and partners.
* Be very people oriented – want to be helpful and sort things out for people.
* Thrive on spinning many plates with a cool head and to empathise with those you are spinning them for.
* Willing to travel to London/Manchester (and to international offices if the opportunity arises) and occasionally work unsocial hours if business need dictates.
* Be a good team player demonstrating loyalty and commitment to the firm and your team.
Experience
* 2+ years practising experience in a top law firm
* Proven experience in technology, legal technology, legal operations, or innovation in a legal or professional services environment
For more information about gunnercooke please visit www.gunnercooke.com