LPA Manager

King & Spalding is a leading global law firm with a commitment to excellence, innovation, and the seamless delivery of legal services. We harness innovative technology and exceptional talent to meet the complex needs of our clients in a fast-paced and dynamic legal landscape.

King & Spalding is seeking a Legal Practice Assistant Manager to lead, support and develop a team of circa 15 Legal Practice Assistants in the London office, operating within an SRA-regulated environment. We are seeking a confident and experienced people leader who can support and develop a high-performing team in a fast-paced, high-volume law firm environment. The successful candidate will be calm under pressure, organised, and able to manage competing priorities while maintaining excellent service levels. They will be comfortable handling challenging conversations, applying firm policies fairly and consistently, and partnering effectively with lawyers and business services stakeholders.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Lead, supervise and develop a team of circa 15 Legal Practice Assistants (LPAs), ensuring consistently high standards of service delivery across the practice.
• Ensure the team operates within relevant SRA rules and firm guidelines, maintaining appropriate compliance standards for yourself and the team and escalating issues appropriately.
• Ensure high standards of professional conduct across the team, including timekeeping, responsiveness, attention to detail and confidentiality.
• Allocate LPAs to lawyers and matters, maintaining appropriate capacity, coverage, continuity, and an equitable distribution of workload.
• Act as the primary point of contact for lawyers regarding LPA support, service expectations, allocation changes, escalation points and feedback.
• Monitor incoming demand, priorities and competing deadlines; reassign work promptly to protect service levels and manage risk.
• Maintain oversight of team workflows, including task planning, urgent coverage, handovers, and coordination of absence cover.
• Ensure each LPA has clear objectives, understands required standards, and receives regular coaching, guidance and performance feedback.
• Conduct regular 1:1 meetings, check-ins and team communications to review workload, wellbeing, development needs and operational updates.
• Manage HR-related matters within the team as first point of escalation, including absence management, return-to-work discussions, performance improvement support, probation support and conduct issues, working closely with HR as required and escalating appropriately.
• Lead performance review processes for the team, including gathering stakeholder feedback, delivering balanced reviews, agreeing development plans and tracking progress, liaising with HR on process requirements and timelines.
• Work in conjunction with HR on people initiatives and requirements, including policy implementation, employee relations support (as needed), wellbeing initiatives, and training/development planning.
• Handle challenging conversations with professionalism and confidence, applying firm policies fairly and consistently, documenting actions as required, and partnering with HR where appropriate.
• Manage day-to-day team logistics, including rota planning, hybrid working (WFH) arrangements, job shares, annual leave cover and resourcing for peaks in demand.
• Act as a role model for the firm's values and behaviours, fostering a collaborative, inclusive and high-performing team culture.
• Identify training needs and implement solutions to keep the team current on firm systems, practice requirements and evolving technologies (including AI-enabled tools), partnering with relevant internal teams as appropriate.
• Drive continuous improvement by reviewing processes, templates and ways of working, and implementing changes to improve quality, efficiency and client service.
• Coordinate projects and operational initiatives with other departments (e.g., HR, IT, Finance, Business Development) to improve service delivery and alignment.
• Share best practice and collaborate with other people managers/line managers across the firm to support consistency and continuous development.
• Use data and feedback to anticipate resourcing issues, identify trends (capacity, demand, service gaps) and propose practical solutions.
• Maintain appropriate oversight of compliance and operational standards, ensuring the team adheres to firm policies, confidentiality requirements and document/records protocols.
• Support recruitment activities as needed, including role scoping, interview participation, onboarding planning and integrating new team members into the team and culture, working closely with HR on process and approvals.
• Manage a small personal allocation of lawyers/matters, delivering high-quality LPA support while balancing day-to-day team leader responsibilities.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Previous supervisory/line management experience is essential.
• Demonstrable experience managing performance reviews, providing feedback, and supporting performance improvement.
• Strong communication skills (written and verbal), with confidence liaising with lawyers and handling challenging conversations.
• Experience supervising LPAs (or equivalent legal support professionals) within a law firm/professional services environment.
• Proven ability to organise, prioritise and delegate effectively, maintaining quality and accuracy under pressure and to tight deadlines.
• Fair, consistent and solutions-focused approach, with sound judgement and the ability to maintain confidentiality at all times.
• Experience managing team logistics such as rotas, hybrid working arrangements, leave/absence cover, and resource planning.
• Strong IT capability, including proficiency in Microsoft Office and a willingness to adopt new tools and technologies (including AI-enabled systems) to improve team ways of working.

The Firm offers a generous total compensation package with annual bonus in recognition of individual merit-based performance. Eligible employees may participate in King & Spalding's comprehensive benefit program, including private medical insurance with Bupa, life assurance (4x salary), critical illness insurance (2x salary) and income protection insurance, 7% firm pension contribution, gym membership/wellness allowance contribution, Employee Assistance Programme, season ticket loan, cycle to work scheme and 25 days annual holiday.

King & Spalding LLP (K&S) is committed to providing equal employment opportunity to all applicants and employees in full compliance with all state, federal, and local laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, genetic information, age, disability or any other status protected by applicable law.

We are proud of our remarkably cohesive culture, which now encompasses more than 2,500 lawyers and business professionals worldwide. We seek to attract and develop the very best talent to work with us.