Mills & Reeve is a successful, ambitious top 40 UK law firm, with 1,300 people including 171 partners and over 800 lawyers working across seven UK offices, with clients including global and UK based businesses, FTSE 250 and AIM listed organisations, high net worth individuals and landowners, more than 120 universities, colleges and education bodies and over 100 healthcare organisations. Continued strong financial performance in the last financial year has seen their turnover increase by 14.1% to £168 million, surpassing their own ambitious growth targets.
The firm is rightly proud to have been placed in “The 100 Best Companies to Work For” for a record 20th year running; achieved Best Companies three star accreditation, which reflects extraordinary levels of workplace engagement; achieved a Platinum status from Investors in People, an award only achieved by 6% of the organisations assessed, and recently been ranked in The Sunday Times Best Places to Work For list in 2024 as one of the Best Big Companies. See https://www.mills-reeve.com/.
The role of the Chief People Officer (CPO), building on from the great work done by their retiring predecessor, is to work collaboratively with the senior leadership team to achieve the firm’s 2030 vision with includes a strategic objective to be a leader in people experience. The CPO will be accountable for developing a workplace environment which attracts, motivates, and retains people who can develop, thrive and be themselves at work. As the firm continues to grow it is essential they keep excelling so they are not complacent and feel they can always improve. The CPO will provide the leadership in driving excellence in people initiatives to ensure the firm retains such a strong employer brand into the future.
The CPO will report to the Managing Partner, Claire Clarke and be a member of the firm’s Central Operations Group (COG), comprised of the Business Services Leaders. It has seven direct reports at Director, Head of and Manager level and a total team of c35 people.
The CPO has responsibility for all areas of people operations including:
- High level people strategy
- Leadership of the people function
- Operational excellence
- Financial management
- Diversity, inclusion, and wellbeing
- Recruitment and selection
- Reward and recognition
- Learning and development
- Talent management
- Employee engagement and relations
- Partnership people processes e.g. appointments, reviews, development and progression
A role specification is available which goes into detail about how this hire will create and implement the people vision, strategy, and objectives.
It is expected your background and experience will include:
- Experience of either working at CPO level (or equivalent) in a role of similar scale and complexity e.g. matrix structure, multi-site or someone working in a larger organisation looking for a step up into a C-suite level position
- Experience of leading and engaging a dispersed people team and a successful track record of building strong relationships with and influencing key stakeholders
- Experience of working in the professional services sector is preferred and ideally with some exposure to working within legal services
You will also recognise yourself in the following attributes:
- Credible and persuasive leader with excellent people skills and a high level of emotional intelligence
- High levels of drive and resilience
- Strong business and commercial understanding and with a good appreciation of the financial levers that enable a professional services firm to succeed
- Ability to build rapport, consensus and trust at all levels in an organisation and develop relationships with a transparent, inclusive, and open communication style
- Political astuteness to read situations and influence and gain support from a broad group of senior and influential stakeholders
- Willing to challenge constructively without being confrontational whilst understanding the need to listen to the specific views of partners, colleagues and clients
- An excellent communicator with an adaptable communication style which helps influence and build consensus
- Proven leadership and management of an effective team and creating a sense of common purpose and cohesion
- Able to effectively coach, mentor and develop others and provide open and honest feedback to individuals
- Excellent project management skills and able to drive change management
All offices will be considered as a base for this hire. Accessing Birmingham, London and Cambridge on a regular basis will be an important factor to consider.
This role is being managed in tandem by Laura McNair and Gary Jones.
Equal Opportunities
As a responsible business, it is important that we represent the diversity of our people, our clients and our communities. We believe that the firms that thrive are those with the most diverse team; that's why we work so hard to source the best talent from the broadest pool possible. As an equal opportunities employer we strive to accommodate anyone who may have specific needs. If you require reasonable adjustments to be made during the selection process, please talk to a member of the recruitment team so that any required adjustments can be made in advance.