Practice Manager

ABOUT GOWLING WLG

At Gowling WLG, our commitment to excellence begins with our people. As an international law firm with offices in Canada, the U.K., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, we’re proud to recruit and retain top talent who bring energy, insight, and a singular focus on delivering exceptional experiences – for our clients and each other.

We’re intentional about building a workplace that’s both high-performing and supportive, ensuring that everyone is empowered to do their best work and reach their full potential. Our culture is grounded in our shared values: Raise the Bar, Embrace Differences, and Thrive Together. These values shape how we collaborate, lead, and succeed – across teams, time zones, and career paths.

Whether you’re pursuing a role in law or business services, explore what’s possible and make your mark with Gowling WLG.

PROFILE

The Practice Manager supports the effective operation and performance of the Firm’s practice groups by coordinating business-planning activities, managing operational processes, monitoring financial and performance information, supporting workforce planning and the onboarding and offboarding of legal professionals, and supporting the execution of strategic initiatives and continuous improvement, in partnership with Business Services.

Reporting to the Senior Practice Director, and as a member of the Practice Management Team, the Practice Manager supports the Firm’s Practice Directors and other practice leaders, translates approved priorities into coordinated action and ensures effective follow-through. The role focuses on operational execution, reporting, analysis and coordination; strategic direction. Final decisions remain with the Senior Practice Director.

This role can be based out of our Ottawa Office or Vancouver office.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Analyze financial information, including revenue, production, billings, collections, realization, productivity, utilization, profitability, and matter and client performance.
• Identify trends, variances, risks and opportunities, and develop practical recommendations to support leadership decision-making.
• Prepare regular reporting packages and supporting materials for Practice Directors and practice leadership.
• Participate in annual budgeting and forecasting activities.
• Support business planning by coordinating planning activities, timelines and deliverables, and following up on approved priorities, actions and outcomes.
• Manage initiatives and practice-related projects from planning through implementation and evaluation, monitoring milestones, responsibilities, dependencies, resources, risks and outcomes, and escalating issues or delays as appropriate.
• Support the consistent implementation of Firm and practice group priorities across practices.
• Develop and maintain practice-management processes, tools, dashboards and trackers that promote consistency and accountability and provide visibility over practice performance, strategic initiatives and operational priorities.
• Coordinate meetings, including agendas, materials, minutes, decision records and follow-up on commitments and action items.
• Support continuous-improvement and change-management activities by identifying opportunities to improve processes, reporting and service delivery; developing procedures, templates and best practices; and coordinating communications, stakeholder engagement, implementation support and post-implementation follow-up.
• Assist with workforce planning, capacity and workload monitoring, and flag emerging resource gaps to practice leadership.
• Support the onboarding and integration of legal professionals and coordinate practice-specific engagement, development and knowledge-transfer initiatives with Legal Talent and People & Culture.
• Support the offboarding and transition of legal professionals and coordinate offboarding and knowledge-transfer initiatives with Legal Talent and People & Culture.
• Serve as a central point of coordination between practice leadership and Business Services, including Finance, People & Culture, Legal Talent, Marketing and Business Development, Knowledge Management, Innovation and Technology, and Legal Support Services.
• Perform any other related duties as required.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Commerce, Management, Finance or a related discipline.
• 5–8 years of relevant experience in operations, project management, business management or professional services; law firm experience is considered an asset.
• Demonstrated experience leading complex, cross-functional strategic or operational initiatives from planning through implementation.
• Strong financial acumen and experience preparing, analyzing and presenting financial and operational reports and performance metrics.
• Excellent analytical, strategic-thinking, critical-thinking and problem-solving abilities.
• Strong project-management, change-management, planning and organizational skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities, stakeholders and deadlines.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, relationship-building and stakeholder-management skills, with a collaborative approach and the ability to build trust and influence outcomes without formal authority.
• Advanced proficiency with Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint; experience with reporting, business intelligence, artificial intelligence and project-management tools is preferred.
• Sound judgment and demonstrated ability to manage confidential and sensitive information with discretion.
• Bilingualism is considered a strong asset.

BENEFITS/PERKS

Gowling WLG’s total rewards program is designed to foster a culture where high performance and personal well-being go hand-in-hand. We support your career and life with:

• 100% employer-paid health, dental, and mental health coverage, plus an annual lifestyle spending allowance
• Benefits coverage for Firm members and their dependents from day one
• 20+ vacation days and hybrid work flexibility
• Parental leave top-up for 26 weeks (after 12 months of full-time employment)
• Group Retirement Savings Plan with employer match
• Financial protection through short- and long-term disability, life, accident & critical illness insurance
• Employee & Family Assistance Program, guided CBT, and an internal network of 120+ trained Mental Health First Aid responders
• Recognition awards, appreciation events, and a supportive, collaborative work culture
• Perks and preferred pricing programs, referral bonuses and more
  

The starting range for this role is $101,000 to $125,000. Starting salary will be determined based on an applicant’s individual skills, competencies and unique qualifications. Gowling WLG employees have the potential to exceed this range based on tenure and performance.

This position is currently vacant and is open to both internal and external candidates. Gowling WLG is recruiting for this role to support ongoing firm needs and team operations.

This employer may use tools within our applicant tracking system that include artificial intelligence–supported features, such as automated candidate matching. These tools do not make hiring decisions; all screening, assessments, and selections are reviewed and completed by human recruiters and hiring managers.

Gowling WLG is dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workplace. If you are in need of accommodation or support at any time during the recruitment process, please let us know.