Job Outline
Post No. : / 9046As per Vision HR system if existing post
Post Title: / Legal Practice Manager
Directorate: / Governance and Partnerships
Division: / Legal Services
Section: / Practice Management
Reports To: / Head of Legal (Post No, 9067)
Location: / Bickerstaffe House
DBS Status: / N/A
Grade: / Grade H3
Role Purpose
To play a leading role in the budget management and development of the legal service for Blackpool Council, in particular liaising with external clients about the service provision and developing a sustainable quality business approach for the service overall.
Main Duties and Responsibilities
§ To ensure there is effective overall budget management for the service, in terms of income management and generation, the review of fees and charges and financial estimates for service development.
§ To ensure an efficient and effective legal service by maximising workflow, making optimum use of internal skills and resources and effectively aligning internal and external capacity and customer demands.
§ To ensure the continuing development and management of an ‘Office Procedure and Systems Manual’ that supports corporate and service governance, promoting a culture of consistent focus on quality, client care, risk management and system integration and innovation.
§ To produce and report regular accurate and reliable performance and management information and analysis.
§ To act as central point of contact for ongoing work, providing quotes, progress reports and updates as appropriate
§ To obtain and provide customer feedback to legal staff in respect of delivery of timely advice, chargeable hours completed, customer interaction skills and other matters as required and maintain strong relationships with all key stakeholders.
§ To be the responsible person for the LEXCEL compliant policies and procedures.
§ To work with and support the Head of Legal and the two Deputy Heads of Legal in delivering an effective legal service.
§ To make arrangements for temporary support staff/ locums where required
§ To play a leading role in business development of the service and analysing all options for the delivery of the service.
§ Take a lead in commissioning legal advice and manage the budgets for external advice and ensure that the procurement of external advice delivers value for money, commensurate with the assessed level of risk to the organisation.
Qualifications / Please mark which are Essential or Desirable } / E/D
A degree or professional/ management qualification to level 5 or above (or a candidate part way through such a qualification with a willingness to complete) in a relevant subject area (e.g. finance, legal or business). / E
Knowledge, Skills and Experience
Required / Please mark which are Essential or Desirable } / E/D
Demonstrate the specialist knowledge, substantial experience and technical requirements of the post / E
Substantial experience of the use of relevant computer systems including MS Office package and case management systems, e-research etc. / E
Substantial understanding of good governance, quality management systems and administration within a legal, professional services or similar environment with experience relevant to the functions required. / E
Substantial experience of developing and implementing systems to improve service and organisational performance and efficiency. / E
Excellent document production skills and an ability to generate operational reports to demonstrate business effectiveness / E
Strong organisational, performance and management skills, including substantial experience of workload and resource management, planning and budgeting and risk management / E
Excellent communication and influencing skills with the ability to reflect and question positively and effectively / E
Substantial experience of dealing with internal and external customers, stakeholders and partners, solving complex problems and seeking and implementing ways to improve the service provided / E
Excellent ability to forge and sustain effective partnerships internally and externally / E
Excellent ability to articulate a clear vision for change and manage the process whilst supporting people / E
Excellent ability to maintain a high level of performance and establish clear quality standards and to hold others to account for delivery and performance / E
Sustained ability to work under pressure from different sources as well as organising, prioritising and managing own time and workloads and that of team members. / E
Flexible and adaptable in the work area work and supporting others and encouraging and leading on a positive change culture in the work of the service. / E
Excellent communication skills and ability to liaise and negotiate with others from diverse backgrounds, act professionally at all times and act as a role model in representing the Service and when seeking business opportunities for the service. / E
Excellent ability to encourage others in to take an active part in their own development and to ensure that team development activity is relevant and cost-effective. / E
Considerable understanding of the legal sector and the compliance framework within which the sector operates. / D
Considerable experience of working in a legal practice in either the private or public sector. / D
Substantial management/supervisory experience. / D
Initiative and Independence
The postholder is responsible for managing their own workload and determining their own priorities. They will be expected to resolve serious problems and make major decisions in relation to the legal service without recourse to their line manager. They will also be expected to use their own initiative and deal with unexpected problems in the course of their work.
Jobholder required to adapt to challenging situations and demonstrate a significant degree of independent evaluation judgement and innovative thinking.
Uses discretion and initiative on a daily basis to resolve unanticipated situations to reduce legal risk to the Council.
Relationships/Nature of contacts
The role involves ensuring the needs of the Council are met with regard to legal support and budget management.
The post also works with the fee earning lawyers who work with external clients (including wholly owned companies, other public sector organisations, not for profit/ voluntary sector and schools/ academies) and will be responsible for maintaining and developing the relationship with those clients.
The post holder will also be expected to seek and develop relationships with new fee paying external clients.
Responsibility for Resources (Financial, Physical, Capital, Information)
Financial Resources
To be the responsible budget holder for Legal Services monitoring and advising on budgets, income and expenditure (staffing budget - £760,000 and income £336,000).
Physical Resources
To be responsible for the management of the filing system both manual files and those held on the case management system. To be responsible for any IT equipment issued to the postholder.
Information
To have access to confidential, sensitive information and data (e.g. Children’s services), politically sensitive information and performance management data.
Responsibility for People (including supervision/training of staff or clients)
The postholder will directly manage three practice management staff and will also work with the other managers in the service to help facilitate training for legal staff as identified. In particular the postholder will be responsible for arranging training to ensure the service continues to meet the Lexcel standard and also any training needs in relation to use of the case management system.
Mental and Emotional Demands
Mental Demands
The postholder will be expected to solve complex problems and make decisions at short notice, in sensitive environments. Works under very high levels of work-related pressure, e.g. from deadlines, interruptions or conflicting demands on the jobholder outside the jobholder’s control from clients and to meet urgent short deadlines for projects and court cases. Work requires prolonged periods of concentrated mental attention.
Emotional Demands
The postholder will be expected to deal with high levels of pressure and competing demands and manage conflict situations, in undertaking their role.
Planning Requirements
Lead on business planning for the legal services in a period of up to approx. 18-24 months.
Works under very high levels of work-related pressure, e.g. from deadlines, interruptions or conflicting demands on the jobholder outside the jobholder’s control from clients and to meet deadlines for projects and court cases.
Work requires prolonged periods of concentrated mental attention.
Jobholder required to adapt to challenging situations and demonstrate a significant degree of independent evaluation judgement and innovative thinking.
Uses discretion and initiative on a daily basis to resolve unanticipated situations to reduce legal risk to the service.
Day-to-day allocation of work to the team and continuous monitoring of the same and development of improved processes and methods of working.
Key Facts and Figures
N/A
Working Conditions (This information is used to carry out any pre-employment medical questionnaires and to evaluate the Job Evaluation Working Conditions factor)
Manager Assessment of Working Conditions (percentage of time involved)
Manual Handling – Heavy Loads (over 25KG) / 0% / Manual Handling – Light to Moderate (under 25KG) / 0% / Vibrating plant/ tools/ equipment / 0%
Noise / 0% / Repetitive work activity/ operations / 0% / Prolonged standing/ walking / 0%
Prolonged sitting in a constrained position / 0% / Confined spaces / 0% / Extremes of temperature (e.g. very hot / cold) / 0%
Adverse weather conditions (e.g. frost, rain, etc.) / 0% / Working at Height / 0% / Driving HGV/ LGV/ PCV/ Minibus / 0%
Fumes, dusts, gases, etc. / 0% / Solvents, oils, paints, de-greasers, etc. / 0% / Pesticides, herbicides, insecticides / 0%
Detergent or other cleaning chemicals / 0% / Biological hazards (e.g. vomit, urine, blood, sharps) / 0% / Display screen equipment / 0%
The job involves working with (percentage of time involved)
Plant and/or machinery / 0% / Vehicles (including driving) / 0% / Electricity / 0%
Welding / 0% / Food Handling / 0% / Animals / 0%
Working alone / 0% / Working with vulnerable people / 0% / Working with people with special needs / 0%
Working with members of the public / 0% / Other (please state):
Frequency of Risks that may apply whilst working in a people related environment
Risk of Abuse / None / Daily / Weekly / Monthly / Risk of Aggression / None / Daily / Weekly / Monthly / Risk of Injury / None / Daily / Weekly / Monthly
Job Outline
Vision and ValuesBlackpool Council's new Council Plan outlines what our vision and priorities will be during from 2015 to 2020.
Blackpool might not be the biggest and the brightest but it isn’t without its challenges. We have majorsocial and health issues to deal with, whilst needing to develop and innovate so our town meets the changing desires of modern day audiences.
We need to take advantage of other opportunities - in fields like energy generation - with the same vigour our predecessors had, when building iconic attractions such as the Winter Gardens, the Tower and Tower Buildings, the Pleasure Beach, and of course the true one-off that is the Blackpool Illuminations.
Our vision for Blackpoolis that it will be:
“The UK’s number one family resort with a thriving economy that supports a happy and healthy community who are proud of this unique town”Our Priorities
We have two priorities:· Priority one - The economy: Maximising growth and opportunity across Blackpool
· Priority two - Communities: Creating stronger communities and increasing resilience
Our Values
· We are accountable for delivering on the promises we make and take responsibility for our actions and the outcomes achieved
· We are committed to being fair to people and treat everybody we meet with dignity and respect
· We take pride in delivering quality services that are community focussed and are based on listening carefully to what people need
· We act with integrity and we are trustworthy in all our dealings with people and we are open about the decisions we make and the services we offer
· We are compassionate, caring, hard-working and committed to delivering the best services that we can with a positive and collaborative attitude
Equal Opportunities:
We do our utmost to ensure that here is no unjustified discrimination in the recruitment, retention, training and development of staff on the basis of their age, sexuality, religion or belief, race, gender or disabilities.