Practice Manager Crime (1981)

Practice Manager Crime

One Pump Court

Salary: £45,000 - £47,000

Type: Full time, 40 hours (Monday to Friday)

Location: Temple, London

Reporting to: Practice Manager

About One Pump Court:

As a large multi-disciplinary set of Chambers, the members of One Pump Court together offer specialist advice and representation across most areas of law. Their teams excel in their individual areas and share knowledge with their other specialist groups, offering clients a service that is second to none.

Using fearless advocacy and professionalism, One Pump Court provides access to justice for the vulnerable and disadvantaged and fights poverty, abuse, neglect and discrimination.

About the Role:

To deliver a high-quality and efficient clerking service to clients and members of Chambers. This role is specifically focussed on Chambers' Crime Team. The Crime Team currently consists of approximately 19 full time members, and 4 other members who practice crime alongside other areas of law.

The Practice Manager will play a key role in high-level practice management and client engagement. They will be responsible for contributing to the strategic oversight and direction of the Crime Team, supporting the growth of members' practices, developing relationships with professional clients, ensuring effective case management and the smooth running of clerking and administrative functions.

Key Responsibilities:

Practice Management

1. Develop and maintain detailed knowledge of the practices of the barristers clerked by the team.

2. Stay informed of developments and trends within the legal services market, particularly at the Bar, and of regulatory changes affecting clerking services.

3. Provide proactive advice and support to members, ensure members are fully and gainfully occupied with work aligned to their seniority and expertise.

4. Conduct practice development meetings within the current protocols and ensure effective follow-up on agreed actions.

5. Attend meetings with current and prospective clients as required.

6. Produce and analyse data to support the practice team and the Senior Clerk in decision-making.

7. Attend practice team meetings as required.

8. Support PR in collating and providing information for legal directory submissions.

9. Provide coaching, supervision, and guidance to junior members of the team.

Business Development

1. Collaborate with the Senior Clerk and line manager to support strategic business development planning, with a particular focus on identifying and pursuing new opportunities with existing and future clients.

2. Actively contribute to business development initiatives and events as required, including attendance outside standard working hours where necessary.

3. Ensure client care is delivered to the highest standards.

4. Build and maintain good relationships with staff, members and client solicitors.

Current Business and Client Relationship Management

1. Develop, maintain, and strengthen relationships with existing and prospective clients.

2. Build an understanding of other teams' client bases to support effective cross-selling opportunities.

3. Maintain accurate and up-to-date data to support business development activities.

4. Collaborate with PR to contribute to the development and delivery of marketing plans for the team's practices.

Clerking Duties

1. Act as a key point of contact for instructing solicitors and prospective clients, ensuring appropriate counsel is instructed and fees are agreed in line with fair allocation of work policies, in collaboration with the Practice Manager and Practice Assistant.

2. Manage counsel diaries effectively, ensuring barristers are aware of upcoming deadlines and that any scheduling conflicts or day-to-day issues are promptly resolved.

3. Negotiate and agree fees with solicitors for hearings and advisory work. Where necessary, ensure that appropriate retainers are in place and relevant contracts are entered into correctly.

4. List, fix, and move cases in accordance with instructions from instructing solicitors.

5. Endeavour to proactively fill gaps in counsels' diaries should they arise, utilising relationships with professional clients and other criminal chambers.

6. Manage incoming instructions and access to digital case system and common platform.

7. Ensure that legal aid certificates are in place and all case are entered on the system correctly.

8. Undertake specialised criminal billing tasks, alongside Chambers' Billing Clerks, including:

• Proactively bill criminal cases at the earliest opportunity, whether that be at the conclusion of the case or, where possible, before.
• Proactively provide counsel with advice as to how they can most efficiently maximise billing for their cases.
• Assist counsel in making claims for special preparation and wasted costs where appropriate.
• Process complex criminal fee notes, including Crown Court Graduated Fee Schemes and legal aid submissions, and submit claims through the Legal Aid Agency's Client and Costs Management System (CCMS).
• Where required, monitor chambers time recording software and billing inboxes, use the information submitted by members to accurately complete the necessary billing.
• Proactively chase unbilled work.
• Ensure all bills and fee notes are prepared in line with chambers policies, that they are produced accurately and on timely basis.
• Deal with queries regarding bills, invoices and fee notes, or ensure queries are passed to the relevant person in a timely manner with sufficient information to ensure they are followed up.
• Provide counsel with support and guidance on settlement and negotiations of costs.

Other Responsibilities

1. Utilise reporting systems as required to support practice management and oversight.

2. Provide cover and support to colleagues as needed to ensure smooth team operations.

3. Escalate formal and informal complaints or issues of concern to the Senior Clerk in a timely manner.

4. Support the implementation and continuous improvement of practice management systems, including LEX, incorporating feedback from the Practice Assistant and seeking approval from the Senior Clerk where appropriate.

5. Comply with the clerks Quality code & Chambers policies and procedures.

Out of Hours Duties

1. The Practice Manager shall make themselves available at all reasonable times to deal with emergencies faced by either individual members of chambers or solicitors. There is a Rota amongst the clerks to have the emergency chambers phone.

This job profile is not a definitive list of responsibilities but identifies the key components of the role. The specific objectives of the post holder will be subject to review as part of the individual performance review process. All staff are expected to demonstrate flexibility and a willingness to undertake additional duties appropriate to the role as required.

Person Specification

The skills, abilities, experience, and knowledge outlined below provide a summary of what is required to carry out this job effectively; together with the selection criteria required to demonstrate competency to carry out the role.

Key Skills & Experience

1. 5 years' experience in a similar role within a criminal barristers' chambers (or criminal team within a barristers' chambers).

2. Proven experience in generating work for criminal barristers through fostering relationships with solicitors and other chambers.

3. Strong understanding of the legal sector more generally, including relationships between instructing solicitors, lay clients, courts and other chambers.

4. Demonstrated experience in criminal billing, fee negotiation and financial management.

5. Advanced IT proficiency, including experience with LEX diary management systems & producing reports.

Core Competencies

1. Exceptional organisational skills, with the ability to manage and prioritise complex workloads under pressure

2. Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to influence and build credibility with stakeholders

3. High attention to detail, ensuring accuracy in record-keeping and data management

4. Ability to multi-task effectively and meet tight deadlines

5. Strong problem-solving skills, using initiative to develop practical solutions and escalate issues where appropriate.

6. Excellent communication and interpersonal skills and the ability to influence and tactfully deal with complex employee relations issues.

Personal Attributes

1. Friendly, approachable and collaborative.

2. Strong personal moral values and has an awareness of organisational values, norms, and behaviours, embracing the diversity of all colleagues and service users.

3. High levels of integrity and professionalism.

4. Proactive approach to work.

5. Commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusive working practices.

6. Ability to successfully build and sustain well-developed stakeholder relationships.

7. Ability to work autonomously with minimum supervision.

All applicants are requested to complete an Equality, Diversity & Inclusion form, available here.

Closing date for applications: Thursday 21st May 2026

For all enquiries please contact:

ABC Partnership - 0203 890 8190 – enquiries@abcllp.com

To apply for this role please email a comprehensive CV and covering letter to Hudson Brewer – Hudson@abcllp.com & Sarah Willshee – sarah@abcllp.com

All third-party applications will be forwarded to ABC Partnership Ltd.

ABC are committed to equality and to fostering diversity in our profession.

We will treat everyone equally and irrespective of their age, background, disability, gender reassignment, marital or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity status, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.

Please advise us in advance of the interview if you have any access needs (including those arising from neurodiversity) and/or require reasonable adjustments for the interview so that we can make appropriate arrangements.