Head of Legal Learning

Head of Legal Learning

Firm Description

Hogan Lovells is one of the leading global law firms with a distinctive market position founded on exceptional practice breadth, deep industry knowledge, and a 'one team' global approach. Formed through the combination of two top international law firms, Hogan Lovells has over 40 offices in the Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. With presence in major financial and commercial markets worldwide, we are well positioned to provide excellent business-oriented advice to our clients locally and internationally.

Our people are key to our success, which is why we seek to recruit and retain the most talented individuals in all regions of our global practice.

Department: HL Learn

HL Learn, the global Learning and Development team, is part of the firm’s People function and supports the People strategy across each of the firm’s regions (Americas, APAC, and EMEA) through a range of global, regional, and local development programs, workshops, e-learning, and other career development activities. Within HL Learn, the Legal Learning team is responsible for practice-wide legal training initiatives for junior to mid-level lawyers.

Role Overview

The Head of Legal Learning is a strategic role, working closely with the Global Chief People Officer, Global Chief Learning Officer, Global Head of Talent Management, the firm’s partners, Heads of Knowledge, Knowledge Lawyers, and Practice Group HR Business Partners, lawyers and other Business Team departments. The role is responsible for championing and driving the implementation of the firm's practice-specific skills.

Key Responsibilities / Accountabilities

• Build on existing practice-specific training to set a regional and global strategy for our practice area training, focusing primarily on Corporate and Finance, Litigation, Global Regulation, and IPMT.
• Work with key stakeholders to ensure our lawyers have access to best in class legal training and leverage the firm’s knowledge and learning to support the firm’s strategic objectives.
• Collaborate with HL Learn, Heads of Knowledge, and Knowledge Lawyers to ensure effective deployment and maximize the sharing of legal and practice-specific training resources across practices.
• Manage the Legal Learning team, including day-to-day needs, development, and recruitment; inspire and lead the Legal Training Managers and Legal Training Coordinators through clear articulation of the legal learning practice strategy.
• Work with Information Technology teams to ensure our e-learning and learning management systems and tools are fit for purpose and keep pace with emerging technologies (e.g., AI).
• Work closely with key stakeholders to ensure strategic legal practice-specific learning and objectives are reflected in the firm’s approach to changing hybrid working practices, workplace design, DEI, and lawyer career path initiatives.
• Keep up-to-date with training and learning trends, law firm business trends, e-learning technology and hybrid working trends, and integrate key practice skills and expertise needed for the lawyers of the future into training.
• Drive cultural change across the firm in line with HL Learn principles, embedding a culture of commitment to legal education excellence, curiosity, continuous learning, innovation, engagement, and exceptional client service delivery.
• Monitor uptake of legal learning opportunities and analyze the quality of legal/practice training to drive our legal learning strategy and program development.
• Participate in the annual budgeting process and manage the Legal Learning budget.
• Specific duties or responsibilities may be reviewed to reflect changes in personnel and management structure, staff location, or services.

Person Specification

Qualifications & Training

The successful candidate should have previous experience working in a similar role in a law firm or other professional services entity. They should have a career characterized by clear patterns of success and achievement, being a lawyer or having a background in legal learning with an understanding of practice-specific legal training.

A background in technology tools to build a hybrid learning approach is also beneficial.

General Attributes

• Able to think strategically and translate strategy into deliverable action.
• Able to lead a regionally dispersed team and work collaboratively in a globally distributed management team.
• Able to build relationships with and take direction from functional leadership and senior stakeholders.
• Able to motivate and persuade lawyers to contribute to legal training and adhere to legal learning processes.
• Able to help deliver or facilitate legal learning sessions and workshops.
• Able to demonstrate mastery of both the practice and business of law, identifying new areas of opportunity for legal training.
• Strong understanding of how to adapt learning programs for different learners/environments.
• Strong intellectual capacity with the ability to apply new ideas.
• Strong leadership, project management, and change management skills.
• Exceptional communication and influencing skills; able to operate with credibility at partnership level.
• Excellent team player – collaborative, accountable, challenging.
• Commercially minded, action-focused, pragmatic.