Global Work Allocator

Overview of the firm and function

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is a major international law firm, providing business law advice of the highest quality. We want to be the law firm that clients turn to for legal advice where it most matters, wherever in the world that may be. The Firm has over 2,400 lawyers in 28 offices around the world, providing a comprehensive service to national and multinational corporations, financial institutions and governments.

Our people make our firm - we are a people business and want to create a welcoming and supportive environment where all can flourish. We see diversity as a strength which creates fresh perspectives and generates new ideas. We enjoy our work and are determined to do an outstanding job. We deliver best when working in teams. Our culture is a product of the combined mindsets and behaviours of our people which is through the Being Freshfields principles, outlined below,

• we show respect to everyone
• we are there for one another
• we are open with each other
• we are positive role models

We think and work globally - we don’t just say we are one firm; we act like one firm right across the world. We work wherever our clients need us. This is how we define ourselves, not by reference to where we have offices. Cross-border work isn’t just what we do, it is what we excel at. We understand what it really takes to work across different legal systems and commercial environments and to bridge language and cultural gaps.

We aim to add value in everything we do - we are passionate about helping our clients succeed. We use our experience and creativity to help clients make judgements and achieve their goals. In everything we do, we seek to make a real difference to the communities in which we operate.

The Client Delivery Group brings together a diverse mix of talent and skills from the Freshfields Hub, Lab and Innovation teams, as well as project managers into a single, global team. The seamless incorporation of these teams and smarter service delivery reimagines our overall client offering.
Freshfields is committed to promoting equality and diversity and to developing a culture that values differences, recognising that employees from a variety of backgrounds make important and positive contributions to our business and how we service our clients.

About the Client Delivery Group and Work Allocation

The Freshfields Hub provides transactional support to the global firm, using established processes and procedures to ensure consistent and high-quality work. The Work Allocation team supports the Hub and the wider CDG by triaging and allocating all inbound requests from the global firm. The team manages capacity and ensures that resources are effectively utilised.

Role summary/purpose of job

A highly established magic law firm based in Manchester is looking for a Global Work Allocator to join their Freshfields Hub department. The Work Allocation team ensures that all inbound firm-wide service requests to the Client Delivery Group are appropriately processed and that delivery resources within the global Freshfields Hub are utilised effectively.

Key responsibilities and deliverables

As a member of the Work Allocation Team your role is to provide high quality support to the Client Delivery Group acting as the first point of contact for worldwide fee earners requesting support on a range of tools and services.

More specifically you will:

• Schedule, scope and plan Hub associate, paralegal and legal technologist availability for projects by using knowledge of personnel skills to ensure fee earner requirements are met and a quality service is delivered in a timely manner.
• Coordinate the work allocation and resource planning processes between regional teams of the CDG.
• Assist fee earners with ad hoc pieces of advice, including advance notice for long term projects with large teams, support outside normal hours of operation, bespoke projects falling outside standard services/products and how these can be taken forward, sending follow up queries as needed.
• Ensure that all project risk is captured, and mitigation plans are in place.
• Be a point of escalation for the work allocation team, making judgment calls and resolving/escalating issues and risks as appropriate to the relevant manager.
• Support requests received for the translation teams; liaising with external service providers when capacity to pick up translations in-house is limited.
• Coordinate the smooth handover of work from one work allocator to another subject to shift patterns.
• Attend regular meetings with the other Work Allocators, Delivery Managers and the Legal Tech Operations team, etc to ensure high quality and consistent service from all teams for which you allocate work.
• Work alongside the continuous improvement function to enhance the efficiency of delivery of the service to all fee earning teams.
• Provide assistance with general project management tasks as the situation requires.

Key requirements

Essential

• Positive, dedicated, and professional attitude.
• Good communication skills, ability to deal with people at all levels.
• Able to work both independently and within a team, to remain calm under pressure and to work to tight deadlines in allocating work to different functions and CDG teams.
• Good coordination skills.
• Good time management.
• Meticulous, organisational and problem-solving skills.
• Good technical skills, including SharePoint, Excel, Word, PowerPoint.
• Reliable, flexible, forward thinking and service-oriented, willing to stay and complete the job when the occasion requires and have a strong sense of responsibility and ownership.

Desirable

• Keen interest in learning how to allocate work to a large team using different work allocation software.
• An understanding of process mapping.