Fund Finance Professional Support Lawyer

Mayer Brown is an international law firm positioned to represent the world’s major corporations, funds, and financial institutions in their most important and complex transactions and disputes. We are recognized by our clients as strategic partners with deep commercial instincts and a commitment to creatively anticipating their needs and delivering excellence in everything we do.

We are a collegial, collaborative, and diverse firm where highly motivated individuals with an unwavering commitment to excellence receive the opportunity, support, and development they need to grow, thrive, and realize their greatest potential all while supporting the Firm’s client service principles of excellence, strategic partnership, commercial instinct, integrated strengths, innovation, and collaboration across our international firm.

If you enjoy working with team members whose defining characteristics are exceptional client service, initiative, professionalism, responsiveness, and adaptability, you may be the person we are seeking to join our Knowledge Management department in our Charlotte office as a Fund Finance Professional Support Lawyer.

The Fund Finance Professional Support Lawyer works with the Global Chief Knowledge Officer, the Fund Finance Partners, the Finance Professional Support Lawyers globally, and other Partners and Practice and Departmental leaders, to provide Knowledge support to the Global Fund Finance team, and specifically to manage and oversee certain production-level activity and related practice resources for Global Fund Finance matters.  This will include but not be limited to focusing on the organization and upkeep of a portfolio of Fund Finance-related model documents/standard forms, the efficient and high-quality execution of 15 defined tasks in relation to Fund Finance matters, and the assessment and adoption of advanced tools and technology to help the Fund Finance team keep pace with innovative approaches to the delivery of legal services.

The growing Fund Finance team has taken a variety of steps to create efficiencies, optimize resources and standardize tasks, with the idea of utilizing the best-suited skill set for each task in order to reduce cost while maintaining excellent quality.  This Professional Support Lawyer (PSL) role is designed to bring order and leadership to what to date have been ad hoc improvements, and to create a defined, distinctive service function that can operate efficiently without direct Partner oversight of routine tasks and processes and without Partners or other matter team members having to assign tasks to particular individuals on what will become the production team.  This PSL role will help further streamline processes, and then oversee production generally, ensuring that we maintain quality control.  This person will manage work assignments among the Fund Finance production team, develop training materials and conduct training as needed, and manage metrics and data analytics.  This person also will help us stay current with rapidly evolving improvements in practice-related technologies that can help improve client service delivery.

This role also will assists with other tasks as requested by the Fund Finance Partners and the Global Chief Knowledge Officer.

Essential Functions:

• Maintenance of Fund Finance Forms Platform:
  • Oversees the organization, accessibility and upkeep of a portfolio of over 300 general and client-specific Fund Finance-related model documents/standard forms and establishes processes to ensure that these forms are compliant with client policies and business needs as well as market standards
  • Ensures that these documents are stored and secured in conformance with Firm, Practice and client policies and requirements

• Enhanced Assignment Coordination, Feedback Integration and Workflow Efficiencies:
  • Coordinate Fund Finance matter activities among attorneys and support staff
  • Oversee a set of 15 predefined tasks that can be accomplished by the Fund Finance support team as a service offering
  • Implement a Fund Finance production program feedback system for continual process refinement and performance improvement
  • Address issues generally to ensure timely, high-quality deliverables from the Fund Finance production process

• Coordination of the Assessment and Implementation of New Legal Technologies:
  • Become the point person to help assess the need for, facilitate adoption of, and become a power user of new, complex legal technologies, reducing or simplifying the need for attorneys to learn and adapt to these systems
  • Be the primary user of these technologies, ensuring their effective integration into our work processes and leveraging them to enhance productivity and service quality, and ensuring that appropriate other production team members have the knowledge and training needed to help implement and gain adoption of new tools and processes
  • Coordinate with Mayer Brown’s Innovation, Legal Project Management, Knowledge Management and Information Technology teams to stay current regarding new legal technology trends to assess their potential benefits and integration into our Fund Finance practice

• Focusing on adoption of existing processes relating to Fund Finance including the Electronic Closing Binders (ECB) process, the Global Knowledge Bank (GKB), Finance matter taxonomy updates, and Fund Finance-related intranet page maintenance
• Participation in initiatives to collaborate with relevant clients to improve Fund Finance matter processes
• Coordination of multi-functional projects as needed
• Collaboration in the annual departmental budgeting process
• Assistance with other departmental administration functions as needed
• Performing other duties as assigned or required to meet Firm goals and objectives

Education/Training/Certifications:

• Juris Doctorate degree
• Licensed to practice law in the relevant jurisdiction (North Carolina or Illinois)
• Lean/Six Sigma certification a plus
• Project Management certification a plus

Professional Experience:

• Fund Finance practice experience in a law firm or corporate law department
• Experience in Knowledge Management system & operations preferred
• Prior supervisory or lead experience building teams required

Technical Skills:  

• Proficiency in Microsoft Office products, required
• Ability to assess the need for and to help implement (with support from the Firm’s Innovation and IT teams) cutting-edge tools and technology that can help create efficiency and improve quality in the delivery of Fund Finance legal services, particularly relating to due diligence, digital signatures, transaction management, deal workflow, document automation, and matter planning and budgeting

Performance Traits:

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, able to communicate effectively and in a professional manner with all levels of the Firm and outside vendors
• Ability to work in a diverse team environment and effectively support the demanding needs of the Firm
• Ability to work under pressure, meet deadlines with shifting priorities
• Strong knowledge of process and project management principles and methodologies
• Demonstrated experience leading medium to large scale projects, preferably at a global scope
• Must be a self-starter with a high level of initiative
• Strong customer service skills, able to anticipate needs and exercise independent judgment
• Strong attention to detail, organizational skills and the ability to handle multiple projects 
• Maintains confidentiality and exercises discretion
• Exercises solid strategic thinking and problem-solving skills

Management Accountabilities:

• Manages processes for direct reports in regards to performance appraisals, annual compensation, goal setting and performance counselling
• Demonstrated leadership and supervisory experience
• Operational budget analysis and recommendations
• Conducts analysis of staffing levels and participation in the recruitment process
• Able to determine and implement change processes to improve workflow efficiencies
• Process- and service-oriented with strong leadership and project management skills
• Able to set priorities and delegate in an efficient manner

Physical Requirements:

• May require occasional lifting of up to 20 lbs.