Legal Operations Graduate Scheme
What is Legal Operations?
Legal Operations uses innovative solutions to optimise the way legal services are delivered to our clients. We use the best combination of people, process, tech and data to deliver the highest quality legal advice faster and at the right price.
What is the Legal Operations graduate scheme?
This graduate scheme is structured around five areas: Knowledge & Learning, Innovation, Technology, Process Improvement and Legal Tech Application. We’ll look at your experience, goals and assessment centre performance before placing you in the ‘home seat’ that suits you best. You’ll spend the majority of the 18-month scheme in your ‘home seat’, and also experience shorter placements within the other areas, to ensure you build experience, knowledge and contacts within Legal Operations.Legal Operations graduates will be expected to contribute to Assistant level roles and projects within ‘home seats’ and whilst on placements. You’ll be given the tools and training to complete allocated tasks, join team meetings and communicate regularly and effectively with our lawyer, trainee and business teams populations.
The scheme will start in September 2023 and, subject to performance expectations being met, there will be an opportunity for a permanent position at Linklaters following the scheme.
Please note all candidates will need to be available for an in-person assessment centre at our Silk Street, London office on 1st August 2023.
Why join?
The legal sector develops rapidly, and so will you. On offer is a wide variety of transferable and sought-after business skills, deep industry knowledge and the freedom to achieve and think differently.
Legal Operations is continually expanding its presence at Linklaters (and in the wider industry). This scheme will give you what it takes to be at the forefront of change.
You’ll work with - and learn from - innovative business professionals with diverse experience across multiple sectors, and alongside our best-in-class legal teams. All of this will build on a holistic in-house and external training programme, providing you with all the tools you need to build your career and make an impact at Linklaters.
During your first few months, you will be sent on the Legal Operations Consortium 4-week course, providing training on the Legal Operations industry, ranging from how law firms operate, learning about ‘the lawyer’s mindset’, setting and reviewing pricing models and what is the latest in Legal Technology.
What skills are we looking for?
You’ll need a strong academic record, and a wide-ranging set of interests and skills outside of your university studies. You’ll have a minimum of a 2:1 degree, in any subject. We’re looking for strong interpersonal skills, commercial awareness, motivation, problem-solving skills and the ability to learn business and legal concepts efficiently.
Who are the five core teams you could be placed with?
LegalTech Application is the use of specialist technology to streamline, automate and facilitate legal tasks through a variety of tools and platforms which historically may have been completed manually. As a firm, we invest significantly in innovative legal technology to solve complex problems for our clients and our business.
Our dedicated LegalTech Application team is on-hand to advise on the most appropriate solutions for each individual matter. We offer a variety of solutions – from 'off-the shelf' software and bespoke tools, to in-house designed Linklaters technology to support contentious and transactional matters, as well as the application of artificial intelligence.
We have a small but growing global team with core members based in London, Germany, US and Asia. The team responds to the demands of our offices and practices globally. This particular role will focus on supporting our contentious matter areas and include eDiscovery but also include exposure to our full suite of transactional tools.
Innovation isn’t a team or an office. It’s an ‘operating system’ that runs across everything we do. Innovation increases value and drives growth. It should impact all of Linklaters; from how we advise our clients to how we run our business.
The Innovation team operates a distributed network of innovation lawyers and advisors across key practice areas and jurisdictions (including Hong Kong, Milan, Berlin, Brussels & Luxembourg), supported by a central delivery team.
We use a variety of methods to identify opportunities to improve client experience, lawyer experience and increase efficiency, we help drive adoption of better ways of working, and support the marketing of Linklaters as an innovative firm.
Knowledge and Learning is critical to the success of the firm and Linklaters greatly values both developing the knowledge and skills of every individual and, crucially, sharing our knowledge across the global firm. We are committed to providing excellent, relevant, and exciting knowledge and learning opportunities that develop capabilities to meet the challenges of the future.
Our Knowledge Technologies teams are responsible for developing systems that empower our people to deliver the knowledge & expertise of the whole firm to every client, on every matter. The tech is the best in the market and used by our lawyers and business development teams every day. The opportunity to work in this area would include full training, and frequent collaboration with our Online Content team, Film & Media team and Technology functions. This role will also offer the opportunity to spend time working within the Digital Learning team, which collaborates across the firm to promote technology’s role in making learning more effective and efficient.
Process Improvement is a methodology closely related to Project Management that is used to proactively identify, develop and embed improvements to ways of working. It provides a framework and tools that help identify, prioritise, plan, deliver and measure the benefits of enhancements that reduce risk, improve quality and maximise efficiency.
At Linklaters, we have a small dedicated Process Improvement team who work directly with our lawyers and clients. Facilitating the analysis of processes and the delivery of improvements, they draw on the range of expertise from across Legal Operations and broader Business Teams, to ensure we continue to provide high quality client solutions that use the right mix of people, process and technology.
The role will offer the right candidate on-the-job training in process improvement, project management, and change management. It will provide the opportunity to develop technical expertise in project management and process improvement methodologies, as well as the necessary soft skills to manage multi-disciplinary project teams and support stakeholders through their project and change journeys.
Technology at Linklaters underpins everything we do, from how we approach our work to our areas of focus. Within our Global Technology function our work ensures that our systems are available on demand and at any time. The team’s role is to lead on delivering, maintaining, upgrading, and running the services that enable our lawyers and business teams to deliver high-quality work for our clients.
Two teams helping to achieve this goal are Software Development and Architecture. Well architected system design is the foundation of excellent solutions and turning that design into reality is the work of skilled software developers.
We are a small global Software Development team based in the UK, Poland & Germany. The team are responsible for all aspects of software development, including planning/design, coding, unit testing, deployment & documentation. Architecture is responsible for translating business strategy from our Partnership into a technology strategy to deliver for the Firm. This covers all aspects of technology that our lawyers and staff use on a day-to-day basis when working together or with our clients.
What will the application process consist of?
Online application: submit your CV and covering letter here.
Online assessment: if your CV generates interest from one of our hiring managers, you’ll be sent a link to complete our online assessment, where we test your critical thinking skills
Virtual interview: if you perform well at the online assessment, we’ll invite you to a virtual interview to learn more about you, what you can bring to the graduate scheme and what your ‘home seat’ preferences are.
Assessment Centre: We’ll then send invites to the assessment centre, held at our Silk Street, London office on 1 August. The assessment centre will provide a chance to see our great offices and meet the teams you could potentially be working. You will be asked to take part in a group case study and interview with your potential ‘home seat’ manager.