Legal Project Manager
Cognia Law, South Africa

Cognia seamlessly extends corporates, banks and law firms’ legal capability to deliver sustainable outcomes. Our goal is to connect the legal sector, moving it from a siloed approach to integrated partnerships. We help in-house legal teams by bringing simplicity to complex matters and replacing broken procedures with efficient processes.

Cognia is a Chambers-ranked law company which integrates how legal services are provided so our team, partners, clients and communities thrive together with people at the heart of what we do. We encourage our people to bring their whole self to work and focus on enabling them to realise their full potential.

For more information, please visit www.cognialaw.com

The successful candidate will be working as part of a team of legal professionals to provide LPO and LSO services to Cognia Law’s clients.

This will include providing support as required across all of Cognia Law’s legal service lines, including contract management accounts/ projects, contract analysis/ summarisation projects, transactional due diligence accounts/ projects, and litigation support accounts/ projects.

• End-to-End project management of legal projects: from project scoping and set-up, through to execution and successful completion.
• Working as part of Cognia’s Delivery team to understand our clients challenges and requirements, and help deliver practical and innovative solutions.
• Facilitate team briefings and training, encompassing material creation and execution.
• Effectively manage teams of 10+ resources, ensuring productivity and maintaining high-quality standards.
• Proactively address risks, issues, and changes throughout project lifecycles.
• Skilfully manage stakeholder relationships to foster collaboration and understanding.
• Lead lessons learned and project close-out activities for continuous improvement.
• Exercise control over project scope and budget to meet client expectations.
• Manage relationships clients, end-clients and other external stakeholders.
• Plan, organise, and control the delivery of work, ensuring efficiency and effectiveness.
• Develop new Project Management tools and methodologies to enhance project delivery efficiency.

• A tertiary qualification in Law, Commerce or Information systems with law being desired.
• Project management certification would be advantageous.
• 4+ years experience as a business facing project manager in Legal services sector. (Experience in Financial services or Professional services sector will be considered).
• Maturity and professionalism to be directly customer facing with international law firms, corporate clients and investment banking institutions.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Excel, with the ability to analyse data and generate insightful reports.
• Articulate and confident.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills
• High attention to detail.

• Admitted Attorney
• Legal Tech certification (e.g Relativity, Nuix, RAVN, Kira)
• Numeracy
• Data Analytics/AI Data Modelling

Honest communication

• Effectively articulates own views and rationale for them
• Communicates complex topics/concepts in simple ways
• Practices active listening
• Where they do not know the answer, they will be open but then take steps to find out and provide an update

Being agile

• Self-starter that is results focused
• Make suggestions for improvement from observations of other areas of the business or from external market
• Quickly understands complex information and applies it to current situations
• Adapts to fast-moving work environment where requirement and deadline frequently change

Bringing the values alive

• Prepares own development plan and takes responsibility for driving it, whilst utilising the resource and opportunities Cognia provides
• Suggests ways to further reinforce the Cognia values
• Highlights if other team members are struggling to balance work and wellbeing.

Building strong relationships

• Takes time to understand team members’ pressures in a wider context
• Publicly acknowledges help from others
• Actively encourages collaboration with others from across the business in projects
• Develops network inside and outside Cognia

Delivering excellence

• Views work as an opportunity to highlight ability and value to Cognia
• Retains fo

Job Rewards and Benefits