Freshfields is offering paralegals new roles to improve the interaction between its lawyers and support services in a client delivery revamp.
Paralegals, whom the magic circle refer to as ‘legal solution specialists’, can now become relationship managers who are tasked with helping practice groups access and engage with Freshfields’ client delivery group more easily.
The position was created last year as part of the firm’s broader strategy to unite diverse skillsets and expertise from Freshfields’ hub, lab and innovation teams, alongside legal project management groups.
Relationship managers are required to engage with corporate or dispute resolution lawyers, for example, to explore ways that the 380-person client delivery group can apply its efficiency-driven services. Relationship managers can then receive and pass on lawyers and clients’ feedback on the solutions provided.
According to Olivia Wyld, the global head of Freshfields’ client delivery group, relationship managers will “really build the bridge between the two [practice groups and the client delivery group] so that they become and they are becoming more integrated”.
Current relationship managers, who are split across dispute resolution and global transactions practice groups, tend to have a legal background and have previously worked with Freshfields for a number of years.
The position – which Wyld described as a “progression opportunity” – is occupied largely by former paralegals and legal project managers. However, Freshfields does not require relationship managers to possess previous legal experience. “It’s a great way to learn additional skills,” she added.
Wyld previously spent over seven years as the director of Freshfields’ global centre in Manchester. When she was appointed to her role last March, operational management of the Manchester office was passed onto Mark Higgs, Freshfields’ UK chief operating officer.
Since then, Wyld has overseen the introduction of a new system whereby the client delivery group is alerted whenever a new client matter is opened so they’re able to offer relevant solutions from the outset.
Having spent last year bringing together Freshfields specialists (including technologists, data scientists, project managers, process improvement experts) under the client delivery group, Wyld will spend the next year better embedding this offering within firm’s practice groups.
The firm also plans on growing its legal project management team which, after evaluating the demands of practice groups, could see roles developed internally or filled with external recruits.
Members of the client delivery group are spread across seven offices: Manchester, London, Berlin, Frankfurt, Dusseldorf, Hamburg and Hong Kong. It operates separately from Freshfields’ new global shared business services centre in Bratislava.
