Lead Knowledge Lawyer - Tax

Location:

Belfast

Workplace:

Hybrid

The opportunity:

The Lead Knowledge Lawyer for Tax will develop, manage, and execute knowledge strategy, including practice group and legal content projects, training, and knowledge initiatives for the Group within the context of the Firm's knowledge and the Group’s strategies.

The role-holder will create and make first-class, practice group-specific knowledge easily available to the Group and its lawyers, increasing the quality, consistency, and cost-effectiveness of the advice the Firm gives its clients and developing the practice expertise of the Group’s lawyers.

Working at Baker McKenzie:

Baker McKenzie is the world’s leading law firm with offices all over the world. Our Belfast Centre is home to over 400 colleagues in both legal and professional services.

We offer one of the best workplace benefits packages in the business with comprehensive private health cover, income protection, life assurance and a full employee assistance plan. These and a host of other benefits make us one of the most desirable companies to work for in Belfast.

We are committed to promoting inclusion, diversity, and equity for all and are confident we can provide a career as individual and as exceptional as you.

About the role:

As part of this role, the successful candidate will:

Responsibilities:

Knowledge and Expertise:

• Precedents. Review, draft, develop, and automate the most complex of the Group's precedents and other legal content
• Practice-specific know-how, including market practice and current awareness; Deeply understand the Group’s services, the external market practice about them, and the Group’s knowledge base and use that knowledge to optimize opportunities for know-how creation, including precedent and guidance materials, internal and client training, current awareness updates and client alerts as well as contributing legal and market practice knowledge relating to the Group to the Firm’s client solutions, legal services, and broader Firm initiatives
• Monitor and spot forward-looking Group issues and trends and translate their legal impact into know-how for the Group’s lawyers in a commercial way; Possess a fundamental understanding of the work performed by the Firm's other practice and industry groups to connect their work to the Group and vice versa; Enhance internal awareness of Group-specific issues and equip lawyers to talk about them irrespective of their practice group
• Lawyer requests: Be a sounding board and trusted advisor to lawyers on complex legal issues and devise systems for capturing and analyzing lawyer inquiries to produce know-how to address gaps. Respond to ad hoc inquiries from lawyers with on-point, thorough, and timely answers. Develop a reputation as a ‘go-to’ expert for the Group
• Know-how development: Devise and implement a strategy to ensure that know-how is comprehensive and up-to-date across the Group. Ensure that know-how best practices are followed throughout the Group and contribute to developing them. Working with Knowledge Services, collate, review, and develop Group-specific samples, know-how, and other legal content. Collect and input the Group’s know-how into the Firm’s global knowledge repository and populate global, multijurisdictional databases and resources. Identify gaps in know-how and work to fill them, ensuring that content development is progressive
• Internal and client training: Devise training plans and menus linked to the Group's business strategy, and develop a bench of practice-specific expert lawyers; Identify opportunities for using different media and collaborate with the Learning and Development team on related skills, alongside collaboration with Sectors on industry-related legal training; Link the Group's training program to broader Firm training initiatives
• Client-facing knowledge: Establish the agenda for thought leadership campaigns after discussions with key stakeholders, ensuring alignment with the Group's strategy and advocating for focused analysis rather than just reporting "news." Create processes to ensure timely and relevant horizon-scanning products are created across the Group. Identify ways to structure work and work output to produce tangible products, including training, for lawyers and clients
• Policy initiatives and capacity: Work with the Group on policy initiatives and lobbying, including offering training and knowledge-sharing sessions, responding to consultations, and generally maintaining good channels for dialogue with political and governmental individuals and bodies
• Stakeholder and team management: Act as a trusted adviser to the Group's management and key stakeholders, particularly across the Firm’s main alliances; Proactively contribute to senior stakeholder discussions in an effective/engaging/strategic manner; Proactively devise and deliver knowledge components of the Group's key strategic goals and seek constructive feedback on priorities/deliverables /performance from key stakeholders regularly; With regards to the management of Knowledge team members, demonstrate an effective leadership style, utilizing sound management and coaching skills

Service Orientation:

• Relationships: Promote an integrated, "one global team" mindset among the team and implement and influence the knowledge culture throughout the Group; Establish and nurture long-term relationships with key decision-makers across the Firm to help achieve results and coach and facilitate the building and establishment of long-term relationships by members of their team; Ensure that Knowledge work for the Group is recognized and rewarded. Connect the Group work with the work of Knowledge Lawyers in other practice and sector groups for the wider benefit

Work Management:

• Operations and innovation: Redefine the Group's Knowledge services and best practices and promote them among lawyers in the Group; Promote an innovative and quality-focused mindset and challenge the KL team to consider how to deliver services more effectively and efficiently; Promote greater use of offshore Service Centers, integrated use of project managers, and other technology tools to manage costs and improve efficiency in the Group
• Systems: Act as an internal champion for Knowledge systems, ensuring the engagement of all lawyers in the Group; Identify and implement Knowledge system changes (technological and behavioral) needed to enhance the delivery of legal content
• Strategy, alignment, and integration: Build and implement a comprehensive global Knowledge Plan for the Group. Align the Group’s Knowledge Plan with its business plan, the Firm’s strategic framework, the Knowledge strategy, and the relevant Sector groups’ knowledge strategy
• Create a single joint community among fee-earning lawyers, Knowledge Lawyers, and other Knowledge and business professionals within the Group and across countries and regions
• Emphasize and illustrate the cross-practice/sector group nature and impact of Group know-how

Skills and Experience:

• Law degree
• Current license to practice law (or eligibility for one)
• Extensive post-qualification experience as a practicing lawyer with direct involvement in Tax
• Excellent English language skills (verbal and written) and the confidence to communicate in a multi-cultural, multi-level environment
• Experience working directly with senior counterparts on strategy and execution
• Training development and delivery experience a bonus
• Excellent time management and organizing skills; ability to prioritize and manage time to meet deadlines
• Strong word processing and spreadsheet skills
• Experience in or willingness to learn document automation, AI, and other legal technology