Skip to main content

This job has expired

Group Head of Knowledge, Real Estate

Employer
DLA Piper
Location
Any DLA Piper office worldwide
Salary
Competitive
Closing date
12 Nov 2019

View more

Vacancy Type
Other specialist roles, Knowledge Management
Contract Type
Permanent
Experience Level
Head of Department
Role Classification
Other Professional

Job Details

Description

THE OPPORTUNITY

At DLA Piper, we never stand still. That's one of the reasons why we were recently named by the Sunday Times as the 'Most Innovative Law Firm in Europe'. Our agenda for radical change, and our constant striving to do the very best for our clients, means that even all the offices in our extensive network, across the UK and beyond, need to be best in class to support our groundbreaking legal innovations.

Our Knowledge function is on a transformational journey and is currently seeking a highly motivated and driven Real Estate lawyer to spearhead Real Estate's team knowledge offering internationally (we are open to receiving applications from lawyers interested in joining any of our offices across the international network). In return, we will give you unrivaled support, as well as access to an ever-changing, fascinating and broad diet of work to help elevate your career to the next level.   

MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

    
To develop, lead and manage the Group's Knowledge strategy (covering initiatives directed both internally and to clients) to support the Group's overall business strategy and the firm's overarching Knowledge approach. The role will champion the firm's vision for Knowledge across the Group and represent the Group in the firm-wide Knowledge community. The role has two primary areas of focus:

• To champion, promote and represent the technical and international expertise of the Group to clients and the market generally. This involves leading the Group's client and market facing Knowledge strategy. The role is expected to be actively involved in the implementation of the strategy such as developing content, running client knowledge sharing portals, delivering client training and speaking at industry conference. Where appropriate, involvement with pitches and participation in key client relationship management may be required. 
• To take overall responsibility for the quality of the Group's legal practice ensuring lawyers in the Group have the required technical knowledge and skills, commercial acumen and advisory techniques required to drive profitability. A significant part of this role will involve close working with each local Real Estate Group to establish local Knowledge activities in alignment with the International Group and firm-wide strategies. Travel should therefore be expected.
    

ABOUT YOU

Key areas of responsibility: 

Strategic leadership

  • Advising the International Group Head on knowledge issues and participating in key strategic decisions as an active member of the Group's management team alongside the Head of Operations, Head of Marketing & BD and HR Partner. 
  • Supporting the Director of Knowledge in the development and implementation of the International Knowledge strategy and to take a lead role on International Knowledge priorities as appropriate.
  • Developing and leading the Group's Knowledge strategy in line with the firm's overarching Knowledge approach and initiatives through identifying, implementing and managing projects to deliver the strategy. Working with the Group's Knowledge Partners to support development and implementation of local plans.
  • Building relationships with the Group's partners to identify where expertise lies and championing and facilitating the sharing of expertise and promoting common interests, best practice, ideas and initiatives between teams. This will include supporting the development and execution of ideas for Group meetings and conferences
  • Acting as the Group's practice quality expert and supporting the Group partners to determine best practices for adoption by the Group to ensure the quality of the Group's legal practice, including implementing appropriate new legal technology. Ensuring knowledge content produced by the Group is of a consistent high quality through implementing appropriate checks and processes.
  • Building relationships with other Group Knowledge Heads, Country Knowledge Heads and managers of the central Knowledge Services teams and to represent the Group in firm-wide knowledge sharing objectives.

Markets and clients

  • Working closely with the Group's Marketing & Business Development team and the International Group's partners to identify and develop opportunities to showcase the expertise and insight of the Group as well as individuals, through market leading thought-leadership publications and other external-facing products with technical content.
  • Taking overall responsibility for ensuring the high technical quality of non-matter related external-facing activities undertaken by the Group. Direct involvement in such activities, such as drafting publications and delivering training, is expected where appropriate
  • Where appropriate, supporting the Group's Marketing & Business Development team with preparation of content for use in marketing publications
  • Supporting key international client pitches as required, including attendance where appropriate. On-going direct engagement with clients to support continuing client relationships may be required, such as delivering tailored client training programmes (both face-to-face and webinars), implementing specific knowledge projects or setting up of other knowledge-related value added services
  • Developing and implementing a comprehensive international client training programme which should include effective feedback mechanisms to ensure the on-going success of the programme
  • Promoting and championing the firm through speaking at relevant industry conferences.

Knowledge Development

In relation to the development and implementation of the Group's Knowledge strategy, it is expected that the role will involve:

  • Identifying, developing and maintaining the knowledge resources required for the Group to deliver high quality services to its clients efficiently, such as standard documents, precedents, technical advice memos and practical know-how guidance
  • Working closely with the central Knowledge Services team to ensure the Group has access to the external databases and information resources it needs
  • Identifying, designing and delivering training to meet the Group's core technical learning needs
  • Capturing expertise and feedback from lawyers leaving the firm
  • Acting as a "sounding board", conducting complex research and supporting the Group's partners to form "house views/positions" as appropriate
  • Ensuring that lawyers in the Group are kept aware of legal, regulatory and commercial developments relevant to the Group's business and providing analysis of the impact of significant developments and how they will affect the Group's business and its clients
  • The role must lead "from the front" and play a full and active part in the substantive delivery of projects (e.g. development of know-how documents or delivery of training) where he or she has relevant technical expertise

People Management

  • Providing leadership, management, guidance and appropriate supervision (including on-going training, coaching and undertaking performance reviews) to the Group's Knowledge team so that the team embraces and demonstrates the firm's values of being bold, collaborative, supportive, innovative and exceptional

Financial Management

  • Managing the budget covering the areas of responsibility.

Skills, experience and characteristics

  • Strategic and commercially astute
  • Attuned to the dynamics and drivers affecting the Group's business internationally and able to actively forecast changes to the markets in which the Group operates
  • Able to translate strategy into specific plans and strong project management skills to deliver those plans
  • Understands and actively seeks the appropriate application of technology for effective knowledge sharing and efficient high quality service delivery
  • Understanding of knowledge management strategy and implementation in a professional services environment and preferably experience of high quality implementation in a legal services organisation

An expert facilitator

  • Exceptional interpersonal skills with the ability to connect influence and collaborate in a multi-cultural environment across multiple geographies. Proactively engages others and can lead, inspire and motivate through building strong relationships and instilling confidence in others to encourage dissemination of best practice and new ideas
  • Experience of working in a large matrix organisation with multiple reporting lines and across multiple geographies
  • Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills to assess competing priorities and provide structured solutions to address them
  • Highly organised and able to co-ordinate and deliver projects across multiple teams. Demonstrate project management experience, preferably in a partnership environment
  • Team management experience, with experience of working virtual team settings and of managing teams and working effectively with others with little direct face to face interaction

Quality oriented

  • Excellent technical academic credentials and broad in-depth relevant practical experience.
  • Experience of developing knowledge resources and delivering training.
  • Ability to assess quality beyond own immediate technical expertise
  • Self-aware, confident and resilient. Must be a self-starter and takes ownership for tasks, progressing them independently but seeking direction and advice as appropriate. Able to work under pressure and remain focused

ABOUT US

DLA Piper is a global law firm with lawyers located in more than 40 countries throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific. Our global reach ensures that we can help businesses with their legal needs anywhere in the world. We strive to be the leading global business law firm by delivering quality, service excellence and value to our clients and offering practical and innovative legal solutions to help them succeed. Our clients range from multinational, Global 1000, and Fortune 500 enterprises to emerging companies developing industry-leading technologies, as well as government and public sector bodies.

OUR VALUES   

In everything we do connected with our People, our Clients and our Communities, we live by these values:

  • Be Supportive - we care about others, value diversity and act thoughtfully

  • Be Collaborative - we give, we share and we join in

  • Be Bold - we stand tall and challenge ourselves to think big

  • Be Exceptional - we exceed standards and expectations

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

At DLA Piper we are working hard to ensure that our talent pool is diverse. For us, diversity isn't just about visible differences, it's the unique blend of talents, skills, experiences and perspectives that makes each of us an individual.

We know it's crucial to have a culture and environment where those differences are genuinely valued and that's why we strive to be a business where everyone can thrive, develop and succeed based on their talent. Our aim is to build an inclusive and supportive culture where all our people feel they belong and can achieve their best.

We support anyone with a disability or long term health condition to ensure they have the opportunity to perform at their best.

If you have not done so already, please let us know if you require any support so we can make the right adjustments and considerations, should they be required.

AGILE WORKING   

We recognise that people have responsibilities and interests outside of their career and that as a business, we all benefit from working flexibly. That's why we are open to discussing with candidates the different ways in which we are able to support requests for agile working arrangements.

PRE-ENGAGEMENT SCREENING   

In the event that we make an offer to you, and where local legislation permits, we will conduct pre-engagement screening checks that may include but are not limited to your professional and academic qualifications, your eligibility to work in the relevant jurisdiction, any criminal records, your financial stability and references from previous employers.

Company

DLA Piper is a global law firm with lawyers located in more than 40 countries throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific, positioning us to help clients with their legal needs around the world.

We strive to be the leading global business law firm by delivering quality and value to our clients, and we achieve this through practical and innovative legal solutions that help our clients succeed.

We’re proud to serve an international client base that includes more than half of the Fortune 250 and nearly half of the FTSE 350 companies. We help the world's top companies with their business-critical issues. Many of the deals we work on are complex and challenging – transcending not just practice areas, but borders, languages and legal systems. With offices throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific, we represent more clients in a broader range of geographies and practice disciplines than virtually any other law firm in the world. Our lawyers have wide experience in arbitration, banking, competition and trade, as well as corporate crime and corporate finance. We have strong practices in employment, energy, hospitality and leisure, insurance, intellectual property, litigation, mergers and acquisitions and have developed key teams in pensions, private equity, real estate, tax, and technology

As a firm we are committed to diversity and to building an inclusive culture for all of our people, where differences are genuinely valued. For us, diversity isn't just about visible differences, it's the unique blend of talents, skills, experiences and perspectives that makes each of us an individual and we know it's crucial to have a culture and environment where those differences are genuinely valued.

Company info
Website
Telephone
+44 (0)20 7349 0296
Location
160 Aldersgate Street
London
EC1A 4HT
GB

Get job alerts

Create a job alert and receive personalised job recommendations straight to your inbox.

Create alert