General Manager, Australia

Company Description

Who we are

We are one of the largest international law firms in the world. With over 30 offices across the globe, we strive to exceed the expectations of our clients, providing them with the highest-quality advice and legal insight, which combines the firm’s global standards with in-depth local expertise.

Our firm, work and people span jurisdictions, cultures, and languages. We offer our clients a truly international perspective. We believe every career should be rewarding and stimulating - full of opportunities to learn, thrive, and grow. That’s why we’re so proud of our inclusive, friendly, and team-based approach to work.

You’ll find our clients in commercial and industrial sectors, the financial investor community, governments, regulators, trade bodies, and not-for-profit organisations. But no matter who they are or why they’ve reached out to us, we provide a world-class service every step of the way. And that’s possible thanks to the entrepreneurial spirit and conscientious approach to work that you’ll find across all of our teams.

Whichever area of the business you join, you’ll become an integral part an innovative, diverse and ambitious team of people. Clifford Chance is a place where the brightest minds and the best of colleagues meet

Job Description

The role

The General Manager ("GM") will report to the Regional Chief Operating Officer ("RCOO"), Asia Pacific, and the Office Managing Partner ("OMP"), Australia, to ensure that the operational support is in line with business strategy.

The General Manager ("GM") bears overall responsibility for the operational and financial management of the Australia offices. The GM will play a key leadership role as part of the office management team working with the OMP, partners and Business Professional teams in the office.

The General Manager will work closely with the Australia Partners to develop and implement the Firm's strategy for the Australia offices, and will provide leadership and direction to the Business Professional teams (working with regional and global functions), helping to ensure that their business objectives and activities are aligned with the wider firm objectives and the service provided is as efficient as possible across both Sydney and Perth.

The business professional functions and the practice areas across Asia Pacific are managed and supported on a regional basis, therefore the General Manager for Australia will also be required to work closely with the relevant business professional heads to deliver an effective service. They will also work closely with other GMs in the region to ensure there is consistency of the firm's operations and on global and regional projects to align processes and resources.

The GM will play an important role in orchestrating the delivery and execution of global and regional projects and initiatives at the local level, ensuring alignment with the corresponding global or regional function. In addition, local projects or initiatives may be undertaken where appropriate and provided that prior approval has been received from the appropriate regional or global function to maintain strategic coherence. The General Manager is expected to engage proactively and constructively with regional functional teams, fostering an environment of collaboration that enables the realisation of the most effective global and regional solutions and results for the Firm.

The General Manager will ensure professional standards and compliance to key policies is maintained and adhered to.

Key Responsibilities

General

• Overseeing the smooth day-to-day running of the Sydney and Perth office operations.
• Providing leadership, direction and coordination to Business Professional teams and providing strategic advice and support to the OMP, local PALs and partners
• Acting as the designate of the OMP(s) for administrative duties, as appropriate, and serving as a central point of contact for all partners, lawyers and Business Professionals located in the office(s)
• Ensuring all business professional activities are integrated, co-ordinated and meeting the needs of the offices. Balancing priorities between functions and managing the overall impact of activities on the offices
• Oversight of the office Affinity Groups and strengthening office culture
• Supporting the firm’s Transformation initiatives, identifying new opportunities to leverage technology and AI as well as using operational hubs for activities which can be off-shored to drive efficiencies in the business. 
• Responsible for the office Facilities & Operations teams, including secretarial services
• Providing input and taking the lead in the development of office-wide business improvements and supporting the implementation of these improvements
• Project managing, or representing the office on a range of ad-hoc projects and addressing the related change management issues
• Implementing local communications to support local/regional/global projects
• Ensuring the offices have suitable premises to meet the current and future needs of the business.

Risk & Compliance – in conjunction with respective Functional Leads

• Supporting strong and consistent communications of risk and compliance policies and standards across the offices.
• Assisting the OMP in addressing areas of non-compliance in the offices
• Ensuring that appropriate business continuity and risk management processes are in place
• Leading the local crisis management team
• Ensuring the offices have appropriate physical security arrangements in place.
• Ensuring the office is in compliance with all local laws and statutory and regulatory requirements, including but not limited to local Bar rules, professional indemnities, practicing certificates, and visas
• Working with the Compliance team to ensure the office follows global and local compliance and risk requirements, including mandatory training

Financial and commercial management - in conjunction with the Head of Finance

• Overseeing the annual budgeting process
• Implement a robust control environment as expected by the ELG and the Audit & Risk Committee.
• Monitoring financial performance, working capital management and costs against budgets and reporting to management and partners on a regular basis
• Authorising investment and expenditure within agreed limits
• Managing the relationship with external tax advisors and ensuring the Australia office finances are managed in a tax-efficient manner
• Managing working capital management and the approval of fee arrangements and write-offs
• Ensuring internal financial controls are monitored on a regular basis with particular reference to maintaining a sufficient segregation of responsibilities to prevent unilateral withdrawal of funds.
• Ensuring all recommendations made by internal or external auditors are implemented effectively
• Monitoring cash balances held in the office to ensure that they are sufficient but not excessive for the needs of the office. 
• Promote compliance with the authority limits set from time to time and involve the firm's procurement experts on any procurement activity which is strategic and/ or any expenditure that has a one-off or annual value in excess of £100,000 (or local equivalent) or such lower limit as may be deemed appropriate locally

Business planning and strategy

• Analysing financial results to identify business trends and critical insights. Using this analysis to make recommendations on improving business performance
• Providing input into the offices business plans - taking an active role in assessing and improving financial performance
• Working with regional commercial team to establish a price/profitability analysis structure to assist partners in pricing jobs and monitoring profitability of work undertaken

Human resources - in conjunction with the Senior HR Business Partner

• Supporting the implementation of global and regional People and Talent Strategy and work with the partners to ensure processes and systems are embedded
• Ensuring business professional teams are appropriately resourced, balancing service levels with cost effectiveness
• Monitoring and managing fee earner headcount against utilisation and pipeline of activities. Regularly reviewing practice area and subgroup performance
• Ensuring completion of performance management practices and using performance management as a means of development and reporting
• Promoting training and development for both legal and business professional employees

Information technology – in conjunction with IT Manager

• Working with Regional Technology Director and the local IT function to ensure that the technology infrastructure meets the current and future requirements of the offices
• Ensuring that local needs are understood by the IT function and these are balanced against global priorities
• Ensuring the business is using the technology in the correct way and following best practice in its use

Business development - in conjunction with the BD&M Manager

• As there is currently no regional functional lead for BD&M, the General Manager will have reporting responsibility for the BD&M Manager. The structure may evolve as the function embeds a new global operating model in the coming years
• Working with local Business Development support, to ensure that fee-earners are adequately supported in relation to client focus activities; marketing; pitching and pricing
• Ensuring that local needs are understood by the Business Development function and that these are balanced against global priorities

Procurement, Travel and Group Bookings

• Ensuring the offices are following best practice in terms of purchasing/procurement methodologies with suppliers. Offices to use global preferred suppliers where possible
• Ensuring all preferred suppliers adhere to procurement best practice in terms of vendor management, contract management, confidentiality etc
• Ensuring all travel is booked in line with the Firm's travel policy

Project Management

• Managing local projects working closely with the local project manager, department heads, global projects group where relevant
• Implementing local communications to support local/global project implementations
• Ensuring the offices adopt best practice from continuous improvement projects

People and Team Management

Working with Regional HR Business Partners and local HR Specialists in:

• Ensuring local Operations and Services are appropriately resourced
• Working with functional leads to ensure the office has adequate optimal headcount, including considerations of cost effectiveness such as alternative locations for replacement roles
• Leading and coordinating a senior team within the office, ensuring objectives are cascaded, in coordination with regional function heads
• Acting as a sounding board, ensuring function managers work collaboratively and effectively in meeting the business needs within the region and the office
• Providing pastoral care support in the offices, including offering emotional and spiritual support to colleagues, ensuring their wellbeing and fostering a supportive and inclusive environment

Key competencies required: 

Analytical thought and problem solving

• Making decisions that solve the immediate problem and prevent it from occurring again
• Preparing for potential problems and contingencies in case things go wrong
• Taking prompt action to resolve problems quickly
• Making pragmatic and practical decisions about how centrally driven initiatives should be implemented locally

Communicating and influencing

• Communicating in a manner which demonstrates an understanding of the underlying causes of others' feelings and behaviours
• Delivering difficult messages with confidence, clarity and sensitivity

Commitment and self-motivation

• Driving to assess the alignment of current practices to team/department priorities, even if the status quo makes this difficult
• Remaining positive for the benefit of others even during stressful and changing circumstances
• Promoting a culture of continuous improvement around standards and how decisions are made
• Ensuring a seamless service is provided for clients by coordinating activities across departments

Leading and developing others

• Acting as a role model/coach to others and encouraging staff/direct reports to use a similar approach
• Promoting and supporting an environment that values continuous learning and the development of the Firm's learning resources
• Acting as a figurehead, building commitment to achieve goals

Organising and managing resources

• Planning departmental resources in order that work flow is efficient, fairly allocated and flexible to changing demands
• Encouraging others to manage work in a proactive and systematic way
• Improving inefficient working practices
• Working to raise the overall performance level of the department/function

Working relationships

• Lobbying and sounding out key decision-makers in order to build support
• Reviewing what support can be provided to stakeholders to meet any changing demands
• Resolving conflicts within the immediate team or across multiple teams within the business

Organisational and strategic thinking

• Demonstrating an understanding of the critical forces that will shape the future business environment
• Incorporating observed issues, and trends into working practices and direction for the team
• Demonstrating an understanding of the Firm's financial and management structures in order to meet budget target
• Making decisions to meet the longer term needs of clients and the business

Qualifications

Your experience

• Business graduate or equivalent. MBA and/or Accountancy qualification would be beneficial.
• Previous experience required in leading and managing high performance teams, preferably in a professional services firm. 

Additional Information

Equal opportunities statement

At Clifford Chance, we understand that our true asset is our people. Inclusion is good for our team and their families, our firm and society.

We are committed to treating all employees and applicants fairly and equally regardless of their gender, gender identity and expression, marital or civil partnership status, race, colour, national or ethnic origin, social or economic background, disability, religious belief, sexual orientation, or age. This applies to recruitment and selection, terms and conditions of employment including pay, promotion, training, transfer and every other aspect of employment.

We have a variety of flourishing employee networks. These networks are a place for colleagues to share experiences and advocate for change wherever they see an opportunity for improvement.

Our goal is to deliver an equality of opportunity, an equality of aspiration and an equality of experience to everyone who works in our firm. 

Find out more about our inclusive culture here

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