Assistant Practice Manager - Bristol

Job Introduction

DAC Beachcroft is recruiting for an Assistant Practice Manager to join our Bristol team.  As part of the Practice Management Team, the Assistant Practice Manger will contribute to the delivery of the firm’s budget and business plan and will provide support for the day to day operational management of the firm.  The Assistant Practice Manager's role is central to the delivery of our purpose – helping our clients and our colleagues succeed, creating sustainable value.  The ideal candidate will have previous experience of working in a professional services firm.

Role Responsibility

Financial and Operational Delivery

• Assist with target setting for new joiners and target adjustments for existing colleagues
• Collate and analyse information on key performance metrics (e.g. utilisation and realisation)
• Assist the Practice Manager(s) with the financial management of the Clusters (billing, productivity, cash collection)
• Support in the day to day running of the Clusters (e.g. procuring appropriate services from Business Services)

Process and Performance Improvement

• Work with the Practice Manager(s) and Finance Business Partners to identify areas where business performance within the Cluster(s) could be improved 
• Work with available data to identify patterns, trends and underlying issues and support the Cluster Heads and Practice Manager(s) in formulating strategies to tackle these

Projects

• Act as the Practice Management representative/point of contact on central projects (e.g. matter inception, electronic working, process improvement, new system deployments)
• Undertake ad hoc projects as required by the Clusters and/or Practice Manager(s), for example:
  • Putting together and implementing processes for client on-boarding following panel appointments or new client wins
  • Improving return on investment from secondments
  • Implementation of and compliance with MI reporting requirements

Compliance

• Ensure that the Clusters understand and comply with relevant Corporate Governance and quality standards
• Help to ensure that required standards are met/exceeded, ISO9001 and ISO27001, consistent use of ‘case management systems’, internal protocols and the execution of Firm policies
• Handle confidential information in line with the firm's data security protocols

The Ideal Candidate

• Previous experience in a professional services environment
• Good standard of spoken and written English
• Significant experience in a professional environment, ideally in an operational support role
• Highly numerate and attention to detail.  Able to analyse and draw conclusions from financial data.
• Solutions-oriented – looks for ways through problems and able to deal with ambiguity
• IT literate with a good command of Excel
• Excellent communication skills, able to build influential relationships at all levels within the firm
• Flexible in terms of travel

About the Company

We are a leading international legal business with over 2,500 colleagues and a diverse range of capabilities. We have 11 offices in the UK as well as offices in Dublin, Madrid, Paris, Singapore, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Miami. We also have associations/alliances with firms in Malaysia, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Central America, the USA, Australia and Germany.

We are a broad-based commercial firm with a strong heritage in insurance, health and real estate. This is complemented by a fast-growing Business Advisory capability. We represent a wide range of clients, ranging from household names to government departments and NHS bodies. We act for all of the UK’s top-ten insurers, we are market leaders in the provision of strategic, commercial and regulatory advice to providers and commissioners in the health sector, and in real estate we advise all of the UK’s top-12 housebuilders.

We have an impressive legal pedigree, with 142 Chambers UK 2021 practice area and individual lawyer rankings. In Legal 500 UK 2021, the firm received a top tier ranking for 37 of its practice areas, and 58 DACB lawyers were singled out in the ‘Leading Individual' rankings.

Our successes have been recognised by the legal industry and the markets in which we operate. These accolades include two top prizes in the ‘Excellence in Business Development’ and ‘Excellence in Technology & Innovation’ categories of the 2020 Law Society Excellence Awards – the highest accolade for law firms in England & Wales. Our health sector team won the ‘Crisis Management Team of the Year’ award at the 2020 British Legal Awards for its support to the NHS at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and our Cyber & Data Risk team received the ‘Business Development Innovation Award’ at the 2020 Legal Innovation Awards, as well as ‘Cyber Law Firm of the Year’ at the prestigious Insurance Insider Cyber Rankings Awards, for its market-leading suite of digital tools to help our clients prepare for and respond to cyber and data risk crises.

Our vision is to be leading business advisers, recognised for our insight and our outstanding commitment to clients, and for being the place where talented people want to work. For further details on our work and our culture, please visit www.dacbeachcroft.com.

Application Details

At DAC Beachcroft, we don’t just accept your differences we celebrate them.  From bespoke solutions for our clients, to treating you like an individual.  Our strength comes from your diverse ideas and bringing the whole you to work. So if you’re good at what you do, come as you are.  We welcome direct applications and are happy to talk flexible working.

We also want you to be at your very best.  Please feel free to let us know of any changes we can make at any point in the recruitment process that will help support your application.  If this opportunity sounds of interest to you, please make an application and submit your CV.  Your application will be dealt with in the strictest of confidence.

Note for Recruitment Agencies – the DAC Beachcroft recruitment team is responsible for managing all current vacancies through direct hiring and referrals wherever possible.  We do work with recruitment agencies and where we require external support we will formally release those vacancies to the agencies on our Preferred Supplier List deemed best placed to assist us.  Speculative CVs sent by any agency to any DAC Beachcroft employee without a specific request by the recruitment team will not be accepted and with no introduction fee applicable.  Our recruitment team can be contacted at recruitment@dacbeachcroft.com

DAC Beachcroft