Location: Belfast
Workplace: Hybrid
Role Type: Two year fixed-term contract
Close Date: Monday 4th November 2024
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 teammates in both legal and professional services such as finance, IT, marketing and business support.
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.
The programme:
Be at the forefront of business and build a career that has long-lasting potential, our Baker McKenzie Graduate Programme offers graduates from any discipline the opportunity to gain experience and broaden your skillset in six month rotations across four departments: AML (Anti-money Laundering), Legal Project Management (LPM), Procurement and Process & Quality.
The programme will provide you with the opportunity to experience a career in four different business areas, allowing you to gain a deep understanding of the Firm, build relationships with colleagues across departments and develop transferrable skills that will allow you to decide on the best career path for you.
You will receive a comprehensive one week induction at the start of the programme to get you up to speed with the Firm processes and policies. At the beginning of each rotation, you will receive department specific training and you will be assigned a mentor who will assign your work and provide daily support. The mentor will work alongside the department manager to oversee your progress and development.
Midway through each rotation, there will be an informal review of your progress and development. At the end of each rotation, a formal evaluation will occur with your mentor and department manager, to feedback on your progress.
The core responsibilities will differ as you rotate around each department allowing you to gain a broad skillset.
About the Departments:
Anti-Money Laundering:
The Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Compliance team is responsible for supporting Baker McKenzie offices in meeting their local AML Compliance regulatory obligations where new clients are onboarded or new matters are undertaken. As one of the largest international law firms in the world Baker McKenzie will unfortunately always be a target of would-be money launderers. The firm has a duty to identify and prevent the use of their services by those who seek to abuse them. Such activities are important in order to safeguard Baker McKenzie from legal, reputational and financial risks. Through compliance with Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Sanctions regulation, policy and guidance, the firm can seek to ensure business is conducted only with reputable clients, involved in legitimate business activities, using funds derived from legitimate sources.
Key Activities:
* Researching and providing 'Know Your Client' details
* Name screening to check for political exposure, sanctions and adverse media
* Risk assessing clients and matters against factors such as service to be offered, client entity type, jurisdiction(s) involved, industries involved
* Beneficial ownership research
* Document collection and verification
Procurement:
The Procurement, Strategy and Operations (PSO) team is responsible for the purchase of goods and services for the Firm through ongoing contract and vendor management, ensuring the Firm's budget is spent in the most cost effective and efficient means possible through the appropriate supply chain under the most favourable terms and conditions.
Key Activities:
* Maintain and update the contract's database, including validating content and ensuring key data/legal points are tracked
* Assist members of the team with various internal purchasing requests ranging from physical goods to software
* Assist the Senior Specialist and Analyst in maintaining the Procurement Department's central knowledge repository in Microsoft OneNote
* Shadow and/or assist the Procurement Analyst with the allocation process of incoming work, enquiries and renewal contracts to specialists based in Belfast, Tampa, Chicago and Colorado
* Shadow on calls between vendors and specialists and participate in bi-weekly PSO Team Meetings
Legal Project Management:
At Baker McKenzie we are at the forefront of Legal Project Management (LPM), believing a structured approach to complex matters results in increased efficiency, cost certainty, and the ability to meet challenging deadlines. We have a global team of Legal Project Managers covering all regions and practice groups, who work alongside our lawyers to provide creative and practical support to legal projects. The LPM team provides expert project management support to legal projects, including the planning, controlling, closing and review of legal matters, through scope definition and process design, matter management, bespoke fee reporting and the deployment of advanced technology platforms.
Key Activities:
* Design and implement projects to run in the most efficient and coordinated manner, to ensure the project is completed on time and on budget;
* Track and manage budget via detailed financial reporting; track timeline and scope through the duration of a project;
* Leverage technology to reduce administrative burden, organize project deliverables, and increase efficiency;
* Utilize the Firm's non-legal resources (e.g. in Service Centres), PBS teams, and innovative approaches to grow profitability.
Process and Quality
As a specialist team, the Process and Quality team focus on ensuring Baker McKenzie’s professional business services (PBS) and other operations are as effective and efficient as possible. As champions of continuous improvement, they provide support in service design and review, quality monitoring and reporting, coaching Lean Six Sigma (LSS) and service improvement projects, and workforce planning and management
Key Activities:
* Encourage and coach teams to lead and initiate LSS and service improvement projects
* Support service owners and managers in identifying opportunities for improvement in quality, effectiveness and/or efficiency
* Conduct an unbiased, independent review of important areas and processes of a service
* Provide collaborators with technical tools to identify multiple causes and address solutions
* Contribute to significantly reduce the costs and improve the productivity of our services
* Develop an agile and flexible mindset to opportunities based on quality-related data
* Support the development of reports and dashboards to drive continuous improvement within the services.
Technical skills, qualifications and experience:
* 2:1 degree in any discipline (Applicants must have graduated by September 2025)
* Attention to detail and strong time management skills
* Excellent verbal and written communication
* Strong interpersonal skills
* Ability to work within a team
* Proficient on MS packages, specifically Excel
* Shows initiative
* Ability to be innovative in problem solving
* Creative thinker
* Solutions orientated with an analytical approach
Personal qualities
These personal qualities represent the shared characteristics of high performers across Baker McKenzie, regardless of job level or location.
Know how:
· Willing to learn and show an enthusiasm for different department rotations
· Able to move through a variety of tasks requiring different approaches, knowledge, and expertise, with agility of mind and capacity for analysis
Dedication:
· Driven by a strong personal sense of integrity and upholds exemplary quality standards.
· Hardworking, adaptable and displays high levels of attention to detail.
Personal Impact:
· Creates a positive impression at all times.
· Invests in, nurtures and builds a network of productive relationships
Humanity
· Respectful to all stakeholders, regardless of their position
· Treats delicate or confidential issues with empathy and discretion.
· Has care and concern for others and a genuine interest in others as people