It's no secret that we're an ambitious firm, and our vision and culture truly reflect that. At the heart of this is an outstanding client experience, something that Womble Bond Dickinson prides itself on, and it's something that we've become so well known for. WBD Advance is an essential part of our business, made up of over 70 paralegals, lawyers and legal executives, project managers, data analysts and client co-ordinators. We use flexible resourcing and time-saving technology to deliver a high-quality, cost-effective service for a range of large scale projects.

Our dedicated Paralegal Team, the Legal Solutions Centre (LSC), is now on the lookout for a Team Manager to join their Real Estate department.

So what does the role involve?

This role is all about supporting the Paralegals and Lawyers in our LSC team, so the management and supervisory skills that you bring are vital in this role. We will provide full training to bring you up to speed on any legal aspects so previous legal experience isn't a requirement.

Our fantastic Real Estate Paralegals work on a wide variety of legal projects for high profile clients across the firm, including day to day responsibility for planning and real estate transactions, document production and management, post completion activities and assisting with the delivery of key legal diligence. The LSC has a huge focus on innovation so you would also be involved in implementing new working practices to streamline efficiency. You would work closely with the team to ensure that we are employing the most efficient processes, making use of the advanced technology available within the firm and making sure our paralegals are provided with the tools and training they need to deliver the best service we can to our clients.  The ongoing training and development of our people is fundamental to WBD and you would play a key part in this through regular reviews, appraisals and team training.

This is a team building role and one that will require working closely with many key stakeholders including our matter lawyers, our clients, your fellow managers, IT managers, project managers and, of course, the paralegals.  You would be integral to strengthening those relationships.

Once we've provided you with any required training, you'll also supervise outgoing documents and correspondence and assist in managing the team's financial performance.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Providing training and support to the junior members of the team.
• Managing workflows, quality of service and performance goals.
• Supervising outgoing documents and correspondence.
• Conducting 1:1 reviews, appraisals and providing support to the team.
• Assisting with the recruitment process.
• Some financial management.
• Managing team holidays and other absences.
• Managing key relationships with both internal and external clients.
• Proposing and implementing new working practices to streamline efficiency.
• Working closely with lawyers to manage large scale projects and ensure team deadlines and KPIs are met.

You'll be provided with further training by this supportive team where you can learn from true leaders in their field and build your experience with access to great quality work and great clients. Supported by a collegiate approach, and firm wide commitment to paralegal development, there are few better places to develop your managerial career.

What are we looking for?

If you've previously managed a team and are used to prioritising multiple streams of work to timescales, then this could be the role for you. Previous experience in real estate or law isn't a requirement for this role; what matters more to us are the supervisory and relationship building skills you'll bring with you. We're looking for a leader; someone who can communicate goals and targets to the team and will motivate them to achieve these as efficiently as possible.

You'll also be highly organised, able to effectively liaise with a variety of different people and, last but certainly not least, able to make critical decisions in order to drive the direction of the team.

To be successful in this role you'll need as a minimum:

• Proven experience in people management, with a track record of leading and developing high-performing teams.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite, including skills in Excel.
• Strong problem-solving abilities and excellent communication skills.
• Planning and organizational skills to drive team performance and achieve business objectives.

We are a multi-disciplinary team and our people have a wide range of skills and experience. Whether you've built your experience skills in a law firm or completely different sector, we'd love to hear from you.

We continually work hard to create an open culture that sets us apart from other firms. Our culture gives us much more of a human feel, emphasising that we're more than just suits!

As signatories to the Mindful Business Charter, it's important to us that our people are able to maintain healthy and happy lives, both in and out of work. We have a number of resources and initiatives designed to support health and wellbeing and we're very happy to talk flexible working.

Through our DEI initiatives we create an environment in which difference is valued. We have an Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Group, led by our Board Sponsor, which works with our colleague networks (we currently have firm supported networks for race, ethnicity, and cultural heritage, LGBTQ+, disabilities, neurodiversity, families, and women's career development and we're in constant dialogue with our people about how we expand our networks to better support everybody). Find out more about DEI at WBD here. We encourage applicants from all social backgrounds, ethnicities, disabilities, gender identities and sexual orientations.

We are committed to ensuring our recruitment process is inclusive and accessible to all. If you have a disability or long term condition and need us to make any adjustments to give you the best possible recruitment process, please let us know by contacting the recruiter on the right hand side of this page. Please also let us know if you need this job advert or the application form in a different format.

We will offer an interview to candidates with a disability or long-term condition who meet the minimum criteria for this role. You can opt into this scheme within the application form. Your response to this question is only used for this purpose, is only visible to the recruitment team and is not used for data monitoring. 

We are an in-house recruitment team and will always aim to fill our roles directly in the first instance. If you're an agency, please click here for ways that you can work with us.