We are seeking a Knowledge Consultant to join Sheridans on a 12 month fixed-term contract.
ABOUT SHERIDANS
Sheridans is a leading London law firm whose lawyers combine the in-depth legal knowledge and breadth of expertise and experience required to give unparalleled advice to their clients.
Since 1956, Sheridans has represented individuals and organisations across a wide variety of sectors, providing quality advice which is commercially focussed and personally delivered. Specialist lawyers in leisure, media and entertainment work closely alongside the firm’s corporate finance, employment, real estate and dispute resolution groups to provide a truly bespoke service to its clients.
ABOUT THE OPPORTUNITY
This position is newly created for Sheridans and will focus on identifying the need for, creating and maintaining core reference materials on complex legal matters to support Partners and Associates in all aspects of their work and client relationships, ensuring accurate, relevant and up to date information and tools are available within the Firm.
The role involves producing high quality knowledge content for internal and external use, designed to ensure that we are providing a consistently high quality of service to our clients and to support our fee earners’ development in terms of legal knowledge, best practice and commercial awareness.
Your clients will be the Partners and lawyers in the Firm. You will receive ongoing project assignments and overall direction from the Managing Partner and Knowledge Management Group.
RESPONSIBILITIES
- Establishing and maintaining a centralised precedent bank, ensuring precedent management and security and identifying and reviewing appropriate external precedents for use and publicising them to the Firm’s practice areas
- Creating, maintaining and improving precedents, templates, standard form documents and process maps needed to promote efficient, streamlined work production and support delegation
- Strategically manage knowledge work products to maximise their use, including ensuring appropriate use internally (and externally, where necessary) and maintaining key knowledge projects to ensure they are up to date
- Working with the Managing Partner and Knowledge Management Group to prepare and implement an ongoing Knowledge Plan that is aligned to the Firm’s business plan
- Working with the Managing Partner and Knowledge Group to develop the Firm’s knowledge plans and towards the achievement of the plan’s objectives
- Working together with the Managing Partner and Knowledge Management Group to ensure consistent approach is being taken across practice areas
- Monitoring legal developments, legal trends and regulatory changes, analysing key impacts and communicating this to the Firm, incorporating these changes into other knowledge work products
- Continually striving to establish Knowledge as a core part of every lawyer’s role, engaging actively with all lawyers in the Firm and encouraging them to share their own knowhow and expertise with colleagues as openly as possible
- Working with the Technology function to design, develop and build user-friendly and flexible platforms to store knowhow and deliver it intuitively to lawyers, adopting common systems across the Firm’s practice areas
- Consider, and if appropriate, assist to implement any additional tools, technology solutions or platforms which might assist the fee earners
- Where appropriate, schedule one-on-one meetings and presentations to promote Knowledge systems and best practices
- Responsibility for the Firm’s training including identifying knowledge needs, developing training and presentation materials and delivering modules as required
The above is not an exhaustive list of duties, and you will be expected to perform different tasks as necessitated by your changing role within the Firm and the overall business needs.
SKILLS, EXPERIENCE & QUALIFICATIONS
The successful candidate will be able to demonstrate the following:
Skills & experience
- Experienced lawyer with strong sense of commerciality alongside technical excellence
- Previous experience of working in a knowledge role, or undertaking significant knowledge projects within a fee-earning role is strongly preferred
- Understands and promotes connections between knowledge management, training and business development
- Strong legal research and excellent legal drafting skills
- Self-starting approach to tasks and projects and ability to work on own initiative
- A methodical approach to work with a strong focus on accuracy
- Proactive in seeking out thought leadership ideas to improve ways of working
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with experience liaising with senior internal stakeholders
- Enthusiasm, resilience, and a professional approach, with an excellent customer service ethic
- Ability to liaise with, persuade and influence colleagues at all levels
- Ability to remain organised, prioritise and multi-task particularly when managing a large workload under pressure and to tight deadlines
- Ability to work confidentially, remaining discreet at all times
- Flexibility towards working out of regular hours at busy times
Qualifications
- Qualified as a solicitor within England & Wales with at least 5 years post-qualification experience
EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES
Our aim is for all staff to feel welcomed at Sheridans and ultimately be their true self at work. We are proud to promote inclusion & diversity among clients, candidates, and staff as an equal opportunities employer. It is our policy to support people who hold Protected Characteristics (under the Equality Act 2010) both internally and externally through supporting practices based solely upon merit.