SENIOR PRACTICE MANAGER, CORPORATE

McCarter & English is seeking a Senior Practice Manager for any of our office locations. The Senior Practice Manager will collaborate with a cross-functional team to provide exceptional legal services to clients in the corporate transactions practice. A key responsibility of this role is to drive operational excellence, working closely with the Director of Matter Performance & Service Innovation and the Chief Strategy Officer. The goal is to lead corporate partners, fostering growth by embedding data-driven decision-making, scalable business processes, and disciplined project management. The salary range for this position will be $180,000 - $195,000 annually, depending on experience.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES

Practice Operations Excellence

• Assess partner write-off requests to reinforce sound financial judgment and recommend appropriate actions to achieve strong service delivery and performance.

• Evaluate new business intake requests for strategic and financial risk, recommending mitigation measures and collaborating with Firm Counsel to support client acceptance decisions.

• Spearhead talent development efforts by overseeing associate performance evaluations, aligning staffing models to the growth plan, upskilling timekeepers, and optimizing employee onboarding.

• Liaise with Human Resources and Lateral Partner Recruiting to secure resources and track ROI.

• Drive practice performance by leading assignment allocation, translating client expectations into clear quality standards, and delivering high-caliber client service.

• Design repeatable playbooks for M&A transactions and run post-deal retrospectives to capture lessons learned.

• Build dashboards that propel the growth strategy with an emphasis on live deal progress, client experience, workforce management, write-offs, and profitability.

• Support the implementation, use, and further development of technology and workflows that integrate strategic thinking and operational effectiveness into the culture of the practice.

Growth Planning & Performance Analytics

• Advise the partners on a multi-year business growth plan, including market segmentation, competitive positioning, pricing models, and new legal service and product development.

• Manage quarterly objectives and financial forecasting in support of partners’ P&L ownership responsibilities by defining and monitoring KPIs and producing quality insights for firm management meetings.

• Act as a subject matter expert for a range of topics, including strategy execution, fee estimating and margin analytics, tech-enabled service delivery, and change and project management methods.

• Collaborate with Marketing to build business development operations models that deepen client relationships, promote services, and achieve an optimal client mix.

Legal Project Management

• Guide client teams to support the efficient management of engagements throughout the full matter lifecycle and identify opportunities to improve our service delivery through alternative uses of people, processes, and technology.

• Contribute to developing legal project management methodologies and tools by collaborating with colleagues within the firm, LPM team, clients, and vendors.

• Provide project management and process improvement mentorship and training across the firm.

• Facilitate a culture of continuous improvement through strong team interactions, accepting and providing constructive feedback, and a personal commitment to quality, innovation, and follow through.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• 6 years (or 3 years with an MBA or Juris Doctor from a top institution) of operations, strategy, practice, or engagement management experience.

• Bachelor’s degree in related field or equivalent years of relevant experience.

• Strong Excel, data analytics, and modeling skills.

• Advanced communication, presentation, and stakeholder management skills with the ability to collaborate with a cross-functional team of clients, senior partners, junior team members, business professional staff, other outside counsel, and vendors.

• A record of implementing pragmatic, creative, and effective solutions to scale a business line, product, or service with a particular emphasis on client satisfaction, financial performance, and value creation through execution.

• Adept with change management methodologies that produce measurable results by identifying which levers drive outcomes, influencing partners, and inspiring others.

• Entrepreneurial mindset that enjoys experimentation, is comfortable with ambiguity, and has stamina and grit.

• Willingness to challenge assumptions and propose alternative, bold solutions.

• Flexibility to work extended hours, including weekends and holidays.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Fluency in corporate transaction lifecycles, exposure to M&A workflows, or experience in a deal-heavy industry.

• J.D. or MBA

• Demonstrated experience working directly with high-profile clients for large scale portfolios (e.g., PE portfolio operations, IB deal team, consulting, in-house counsel, etc.).

• Capacity to envision next-generation legal service and design radically new models that usher in industry transformation.

Note: While the list of essential duties is intended to be as inclusive as possible, there may be other duties, which are essential to particular positions within the class.

Other Compensation:

• Eligibility for discretionary bonus.

Benefits (if FTE requirements met):

• Firm-Paid: Basic life and accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D) insurance and short-term (ST) and long-term (LT) disability benefits.
• Health & Wellness: Comprehensive medical/prescription drug coverage (the Firm pays a share of the cost), including a high deductible health plan with an annual Firm health savings account (HSA) contribution.
• Employee-Paid Voluntary Benefits: Dental and vision coverage, supplemental health plans (accident, cancer and critical illness), flexible spending accounts, optional life and AD&D insurance (supplemental employee, spouse and child) and supplemental STD coverage.
• Retirement: 401(k) plan offering three types of contributions: pre-tax, Roth and after-tax contributions.
• Time Off: Paid Time Off (PTO), paid holidays, and leaves of absence to support work-life balance (e.g. parental leave)

Additional Benefits:

• Free and confidential employee assistance program (EAP) and behavioral health services program
• Firm-paid back-up child/elder care, academic support and pet care program
• Tax-advantaged college savings 529 Plan
• Employee discounts through Working Advantage

McCarter & English, LLP is an Equal Opportunity Employer.