Manager of Associate Relations

New York, NY

Responsibilities

• Act as lead liaison to the Associate Committee, including facilitation of membership process, full- and sub-committee oversight and management of all committee activities. Suggest innovative ways to raise firm-wide awareness of committee initiatives.
• Seek opportunities to enhance communication between associates and partners, fostering a sense of firm community and increased attorney morale. Collaborate with other departments in culture building events.
• Collaborate with the professional development team, partners and senior leadership to design and implement programs focused on associate feedback, retention, career management, morale, and other areas, tailoring such programming to the needs and requests of the associate and special counsel populations.
• Leverage evaluation feedback and other information to develop and implement comprehensive legal and practice career development initiatives. Oversee associate exit interview process and conduct all exit interviews.  Collaborate with practice area leaders to address themes as appropriate.
• Serve as a main point of contact for all associates, counseling on any work-related goals, challenges or areas of concern.
• Help coordinate mentor initiatives, including first-year, summer associate and associate pairings. Make recommendations for enhancing current mentor program.
• Collaborate with Associate Committee and Manager of Benefits and Wellness to facilitate firm-wide wellness initiative through expanding existing resources, providing increased educational programming, enhancing firm partnerships with outside resources and developing proactive policies in support of employee well-being.
• Build and develop the firm’s internal coaching program (candidates should be certified by a reputable coaching organization or have a desire to become a certified coach).
• Participate in attorney feedback process as needed. Sit in on first year check-in meetings and junior associate annual reviews when requested.
• Coordinate with senior leadership, Associate Committee, practice group leaders and other departments to facilitate firm-wide and practice group town halls.
• Participate in summer program. Act as a resource for summer associates with an emphasis on facilitating their transition to law firm practice.  This role may assist with summer associate orientation, training and work distribution.
• Work closely with Director of Professional Development and Recruiting on general management of the Professional Development Department’s day-to-day activities. Delegate work to more junior members of the Professional Development team.  Keep up with market trends and gather competitive intelligence to recommend policy or procedural changes when needed.  Facilitate some industry associate satisfaction surveys.
• Work on additional special projects and perform any and all other duties as may be requested by the Director of Professional Development & Recruiting.

Requirements

• D. strongly preferred
• Minimum three years of experience in a large law firm environment, as a practicing attorney and/or in a managerial professional development role
• Certification by a reputable coaching organization or a desire to become a certified coach
• Excellent interpersonal and organizational skills
• Strong client service orientation
• Must be highly motivated to work in fast paced environment and able to multi-task
• Excellent oral and written communication skills