The Business Manager acts as the operational lead for a designated division, providing day-to-day strategic, financial and operational support to the Divisional Head.
The role removes administrative and operational burden from divisional leadership, ensuring priorities are translated into action, plans are executed and performance is actively managed. Acting as the central coordinator across partners and business services teams, the Business Manager drives execution, accountability and operational excellence within the division.
Key Responsibilities
Divisional Performance Management
- Monitor and report divisional performance metrics.
- Analyse revenue, utilisation, leverage, billing discipline, recovery and profitability.
- Identify performance issues and recommend corrective actions.
- Track progress against divisional targets and strategic plans.
- Support Divisional Head in addressing underperformance and improvement opportunities.
- Manage international growth and integration.
- Represent the division on relevant firmwide committees, boards and working groups, ensuring divisional priorities are communicated and agreed actions are delivered.
Strategic Plan Delivery
- Coordinate delivery of the divisional strategic plan.
- Maintain divisional action plans, milestones and reporting.
- Track accountability and ensure actions are completed.
- Escalate risks, dependencies and delivery issues.
- Support structured review meetings with divisional leadership.
Support to the Divisional Head
- Prepare briefing packs, performance reports and meeting materials.
- Develop agendas, recommendations and action plans.
- Coordinate divisional leadership meetings.
- Ensure actions are documented, allocated and delivered.
- Anticipate issues and proactively manage priorities.
Partner & Team Coordination
- Act as the operational hub of the division.
- Ensure consistent communication of priorities and decisions.
- Coordinate activity across departments and practice groups.
- Support engagement and communication initiatives.
- Drive alignment between teams and divisional objectives.
Financial Management
- Support budgeting, forecasting and financial planning.
- Monitor key commercial indicators and trends.
- Produce performance reports and business insights.
- Support resource planning and capacity management.
- Work closely with Finance to ensure strong financial discipline.
Lateral Hires & Promotions
- Coordinate divisional hiring and promotion plans.
- Support business case development for strategic hires.
- Manage hiring and onboarding activities.
- Coordinate stakeholder engagement throughout recruitment processes.
- Monitor integration and performance of new hires.
Business Services Coordination
- Act as the primary point of coordination for divisional business services support.
- Ensure HR, Finance, Risk, Technology, Marketing and Talent activities are aligned.
- Monitor delivery of business services commitments.
- Escalate issues where delivery is delayed or priorities conflict.
- Drive effective execution of divisional business plans.
Innovation & Continuous Improvement
- Support implementation of AI, technology and process improvement initiatives.
- Identify opportunities to improve operational effectiveness.
- Coordinate pilots and implementation activities.
- Promote adoption of new ways of working.
- Track benefits and outcomes of improvement initiatives.
Communications & Engagement
- Develop and coordinate divisional communications.
- Support town halls, partner meetings and engagement activities.
- Reinforce divisional priorities and strategic objectives.
- Ensure communications are timely, clear and consistent.
- Foster collaboration across teams and functions.
The firm
Shoosmiths is the law firm clients choose for excellent service, incisive thinking and above all for our ability to focus on what matters. From offices across the UK and Brussels, we support some of the world’s most exciting and ambitious businesses; amazing clients making an impact. We empower our people to be their authentic selves and deliver together in supportive teams committed to excellence and innovation. The first top 50 law firm to achieve ‘Platinum Standard’ Investors in People, our values and culture are not just words on our website but are the heartbeat of the firm.
We have an outstanding benefits package to complement our competitive remuneration system. In addition to the competitive salaries, great working environment and high-quality work, we believe that all staff should be rewarded for their commitment to the continued success of the firm through a comprehensive and flexible range of benefits.
Shoosmiths is proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. Disability Confident is a government scheme designed to encourage employers to recruit and retain disabled people and those with long term conditions. The Disability Confident scheme replaced the Two Ticks Positive about Disabled People scheme. We had been accredited as a two tick employer for many years - Disability Confident broadens and develops that original commitment, and demonstrates we have adopted a proactive approach to employing disabled people and developing their abilities.
As part of our accreditation, we commit to interviewing any applicants with a disability who meet the essential criteria for each vacancy. In some circumstances we may only be able to interview those that best meet the essential criteria due to the volume of applications received.
Further information on the Disability Confident scheme is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/disability-confident-campaign
We are committed to ensuring our recruitment process is inclusive and accessible to and usable by everyone. If you have a disability or long-term condition and would like to receive information in a different way, or need us to make any adjustments, changes or do anything differently during the recruitment process, please get in touch with the Talent Acquisition team on [email protected]. We can consider your needs and requirements, and how we can assist you to apply for our roles. For example we can provide a copy of our application via email so that you can complete it using your own accessibility software.
Our approach to our people is underpinned by our approach to diversity, inclusion and well-being. Our ambition is to build a diverse and ambitious workforce that reflects all backgrounds and talents, and a workplace that is supportive and inclusive, recognises and nurtures talent, and has a strong sense of community between colleagues.
This means that everyone who either applies to or works for the firm is treated equally, whatever their gender, age, ethnic origin, nationality, marital status, disability, sexual orientation or religious beliefs.
If you’d like to learn more about this opportunity or have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact the Talent Acquisition team at [email protected]
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