Growth & Future of Legal Business Lead

The Growth & Future of Legal Business Lead is a senior role within the Learning & Development function. You will design and facilitate coordinated working sessions that bring together Partners across practice groups and regions with key stakeholders, including AI specialists and Knowledge Lawyers, to navigate the most strategically significant questions facing the firm's legal business.

You will work closely with the Director of Learning and Development, Partners, the Knowledge & Information function, and other Centres of Excellence to develop and deliver a structured learning and development offering that supports the firm to develop a coherent and commercially rigorous approach to the future of legal business.

Key Responsibilities

Cross-Practice and Cross-Regional Working Sessions

• Design, develop, and lead high-quality working sessions across practice groups and regions, bringing together Partners, Associates, Knowledge Lawyers, and AI & tech specialists in structured conversations about shaping the firm’s legal future.
• Ensure working sessions foster coordinated, cross-functional dialogue, moving beyond siloed practice group conversations to build a shared, firm-wide understanding of strategic choices and trade-offs involved in areas such as AI adoption, client strategy, pricing, and growth of the right work from the right clients.
• Develop a clear programme architecture for cross-practice and cross-regional working sessions, ensuring the portfolio of sessions is coherent, cumulative, and designed to build shared strategic capability over time.
• Work closely with L&D Managers and Advisors to coordinate scheduling, design, facilitation, and follow-up of working sessions across the firm's global offices.
• Engage Partners and Practice Group Heads in the design and sponsorship of working sessions, ensuring the programme is well-connected to live business priorities and championed at senior levels.
• Develop a publishable point of view on how professional services firms can grow and what the future of legal businesses might look like.

AI, Technology, and the Future of Legal Work

• Act as the firm's primary learning and development point of expertise on embedding AI, efficient use of legal technology, and exploring the future of legal work.
• Curate and integrate high-quality external inputs into the firm's internal working sessions, ensuring conversations are informed by the best available external thinking.
• Work closely with the firm's Knowledge & Information function, AI specialists, and technologists to ensure working sessions are technically credible and practically relevant.
• Design facilitated sessions that help practice groups and regions develop a clear view of how AI adoption affects their client portfolios, work types, pricing models, and utilisation.
• Monitor developments in AI, legal technology, and the broader legal services market, translating emerging insights into timely working session content.

Coordinated Discussion of Strategic Trade-offs

• Design and facilitate structured conversations that enable Partners and senior leaders to engage with strategic trade-offs inherent in the firm's business model.
• Develop simulations, facilitation frameworks, and decision-support tools that help practice groups and regions surface and work through complex trade-offs in a structured way.
• Ensure trade-off discussions are conducted at the right level of granularity and that outputs are captured and made available to senior stakeholders.
• Work closely with Finance, Pricing, Knowledge & Information, and other functions to ensure trade-off discussions are grounded in accurate data and sound commercial analysis.

Portfolio-Focused Programme Design with External Inputs

• Design and manage a coherent programme of working sessions and learning interventions, ensuring the overall offer is strategically sequenced and cumulative in its impact.
• Identify, commission, and integrate high-quality external inputs into the firm's working sessions, ensuring external perspectives add genuine strategic value to internal conversations.
• Develop a clear framework for evaluating the quality and impact of external inputs.

Providing Strategic Direction

• Provide clear strategic direction to the pool of L&D Managers and Advisors working across the growth and future of legal business portfolio.
• Set clear priorities and quality standards aligned to this book of work.
• Act as a coach and mentor to L&D Managers and Advisors, supporting their professional development.

Stakeholder Engagement and Governance

• Build and maintain strong relationships with senior stakeholders across the firm, acting as the primary point of expertise and accountability for all growth and future of legal business learning activity.
• Represent the Growth and Future of Legal Business programme in relevant governance forums and leadership meetings.

Programme Evaluation and Continuous Improvement

• Use evaluation data and stakeholder feedback to drive a culture of continuous improvement across the portfolio.
• Monitor external developments in AI, legal technology, and professional development practice to ensure the firm's programme remains innovative and evidence-based.

Requirements

• Significant experience in a senior learning and development, strategy, knowledge management, or organisational development role within a global professional services firm or law firm.
• Demonstrated ability to set clear strategic direction and exceptional delivery while fostering a high-performing team culture.
• Understanding of the strategic challenges and opportunities facing global law firms, including the implications of AI and legal technology.
• Experience of designing and facilitating complex working sessions and strategic dialogue processes.
• Ability to build trusted relationships with senior stakeholders across a matrixed organisation.