Resource Manager

Department/Division: Practice Management- Corporate Team
Duration: Permanent
Type of Role: Hybrid (3 days per week to be office based)

Reference number: 9837

The Team/ The Department

Resource Management is a new area of support for Dentons to fulfill a strong need that has been identified initially within the Corporate practice. The role will be positioned within the wider Practice Management team who operate as senior-level support to the Divisional Leader and Practice Group Leaders in helping to set the strategic direction, priorities and day-to-day running of the Division.

The Corporate practice covers teams across London, Scotland and Milton Keynes as well as offering additional support in Ireland.  The group operates on a "one-team" basis with resource shared across offices.

The Role

Dentons is seeking a commercially minded and operationally strong Resource Manager to design, implement, and embed a structured resource management methodology within the Corporate team.

This is a transformation-focused role. The successful candidate will establish consistent work allocation processes, improve utilisation and capacity planning, enhance visibility of pipeline demand, and support equitable distribution of work across fee earners. The role will play a critical part in improving profitability, lawyer development, client service delivery, and overall operational efficiency within the Corporate practice.

Longer term, there may be an opportunity to expand the team to encompass additional practice areas in a broader firm roll-out.  This is an opportunity for an individual seeking a role with strong growth potential.

Responsibilities

Design & Implementation of Resource Management Framework

• Develop and implement a structured resource management methodology tailored to the Corporate practice.
• Establish clear work allocation principles, governance processes, and escalation pathways.
• Introduce capacity planning and forward-looking demand forecasting processes.
• Define and monitor key resource metrics (utilisation, realisation, leverage, availability, stretch allocation, etc.).
• Create dashboards and reporting frameworks to provide transparency across partners and leadership.

Work Allocation & Capacity Management

• Oversee day-to-day allocation of work across the Corporate team to ensure:
  • Appropriate skill matching.
  • Fair and transparent distribution of work.
  • Balanced utilisation.
  • Development opportunities aligned with career progression.
• Manage pipeline visibility by working closely with partners to anticipate upcoming matters and resourcing needs.
• Identify resourcing gaps and propose solutions (lateral hires, secondees, flexible staffing, cross-team support).

Stakeholder Engagement & Change Management

• Partner closely with Corporate partners to embed new allocation processes and drive adoption.
• Act as a trusted advisor to partners on resource planning and workload management.
• Work collaboratively with HR, Finance, and Practice Development teams to align resource strategy with performance, promotion, and hiring plans.
• Lead change management initiatives, including training, communication, and process documentation.

Data & Reporting

• Analyse utilisation trends, capacity data, and financial performance indicators.
• Produce regular reports for practice leadership on resource deployment and optimisation.
• Provide data-driven recommendations to improve profitability and team effectiveness.
• Support strategic workforce planning.

Continuous Improvement

• Identify inefficiencies in current allocation practices and implement improvements.
• Benchmark against best practice resource management models within professional services.
• Embed a culture of proactive planning rather than reactive staffing.

Required experience, skills, and attributes

Essential

• Proven experience in resource management, workforce planning, or operational management within a law firm or professional services environment.
• Experience implementing structured resource management processes (not just administering allocations).
• Strong understanding of utilisation, financial metrics, and matter economics.
• Ability to influence and build credibility with senior stakeholders and partners including skills around constructive challenge and push back.
• Strong analytical capability and comfort working with data and reporting tools.
• Excellent organisational and communication skills.

Desirable

• Experience working within a Corporate or transactional practice group.
• Familiarity with legal practice management systems.
• Experience in change management and process transformation.

Personal Attributes

• Commercially aware and solutions-focused.
• Confident and resilient when influencing senior stakeholders.
• Collaborative and relationship-driven.
• Highly organised and proactive.
• Strong emotional intelligence and ability to adapt approach to "win hearts and minds" across a variety of stakeholders and personalities.
• Comfortable operating in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment.

Firm Profile

Across more than 80 countries, Dentons helps you grow, protect, operate and finance your organisation by providing uniquely global and deeply local legal solutions. Polycentric, purpose-driven and committed to inclusion, diversity, equity and sustainability, we focus on what matters most to you. www.dentons.com

Inclusion and Diversity

We are committed to building an inclusive culture here at Dentons where our people can thrive, regardless of their background or circumstance. As well as being the right thing to do, it makes good business sense too. A richness of backgrounds, experiences and perspectives helps us best serve our clients and the communities in which we operate. You can find out more about inclusion and diversity at Dentons here: Inclusion and Diversity

Dentons is committed to providing equal opportunities for all. We welcome applications from everyone including of any age, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, nationality, neurotype, disability, or with parental or caring responsibilities. We are also “Happy to Talk Flexible Working” and welcome conversations about flexible working arrangements.

Dentons is a Disability Confident employer. Candidates with a disability may choose to apply under the Disability Confident Scheme. We will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the role. Where application volumes are high, we may offer interviews to those who best meet the minimum criteria, consistent with our approach for all candidates.

During the application process, all applicants have the opportunity to tell us about any adjustments or support they require so they are able to perform at their best. Any information you share with us during the application process is treated in confidence.

If you have any questions about this or the role criteria, please email recruitment.matters@dentons.com. 

NO AGENCIES PLEASE

If you are interested in applying for this position, we welcome direct applications via our careers page, but if you have any questions beforehand, please email  recruitment.matters@dentons.com. Enquiries only please – applications will not be accepted via email.

Please note that we will not accept unsolicited CVs sent to the business, nor will we accept any associated terms of business.