Senior Analyst, Strategic Applications

Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer is a world-leading global law firm, where our ambition is to help you achieve your goals.

 

Exceptional client service and the pursuit of excellence are at our core. We invest in and care about our client relationships, which is why so many are longstanding. We enjoy breaking new ground, as we have for over 170 years.

 

As a fully integrated transatlantic and transpacific firm, we are where you need us to be. Our footprint is extensive and committed across the world’s largest markets, key financial centres and major growth hubs.

 

At our best tackling complexity and navigating change, we work alongside you on demanding litigation, exacting regulatory work and complex public and private market transactions. We are recognised as leading in these areas.

 

We are immersed in the sectors and challenges that impact you. We are recognised as standing apart in energy, infrastructure and resources. And we’re focused on areas of growth that affect every business across the world.

 

All of this is achieved by supporting the growth of our people, who help us deliver on our ambition – which is to help you achieve yours.

 

Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer: Your goals. Our ambition

The Opportunity

About the Team

Strategic Applications is a revenue-generating legal technology team sitting within Digital Legal Delivery. The team designs, builds, and delivers technology-enabled legal solutions directly on client matters. This is not an internal IT function — the team operates commercially, with the majority of its work charged to client matters and directly tied to live legal processes.

The team's primary focus is the corporate and transactions side of the business, which the firm is actively investing in and growing. Typical work includes M&A transaction management, due diligence workflow automation, contract lifecycle management, and technology-enabled advisory on complex corporate mandates. The team also supports a wider range of legal disciplines, including compliance, volume claims, and regulatory work.

Because the team's output is chargeable and integral to live legal processes, the standard of delivery — technically and commercially — is the highest. Errors, delays, or poorly executed solutions have direct consequences for client outcomes and fee recovery. Every member of the team is expected to understand this environment and to take personal responsibility for the quality and risk profile of their work.

The Solutions Architect and Senior Analyst are two new, complementary roles being introduced to strengthen the team's capability. The Architect is responsible for designing and integrating the technical infrastructure underpinning client solutions; the Senior Analyst is responsible for executing those solutions at the delivery level. The two roles are designed to work in close collaboration and are expected to maintain a shared understanding of the end-to-end workflow on every engagement they work on together.

Role Overview

This role sits within a fee-earning team and a fee-earning practice group (Digital Legal Delivery). The Senior Analyst is a core practitioner and problem-solver, responsible for the hands-on execution of client mandates to the highest standard of quality, accuracy, and timeliness.

This is not a purely technical or tool-operation role. The Senior Analyst is expected to understand the legal workflow they are supporting from end to end — what the client is trying to achieve, where the process sits within the broader matter lifecycle, and why the technical approach being taken is the right one for that context. The ability to connect technical execution to legal outcome is as important as the ability to use the tools and design a solution.

A defining expectation of this role is that solutions and recommendations are developed from the client's need outwards, not from the tools available inwards. The Senior Analyst will regularly encounter situations where a process could be approached in multiple ways; the right approach is the one that best serves the client, not the one that is most technically straightforward. The Senior Analyst is also expected to consult with the Manager and the Solutions Architect to consider the value and commercial considerations when deciding the best approach to take.

The Senior Analyst works in close collaboration with the Solutions Architect, with the two roles forming the core of the team's delivery capability. The Architect sets the technical design and integration framework; the Senior Analyst executes within it, and feeds insight from delivery back into design. Effective collaboration between the two roles is essential.

The Senior Analyst is a primary practitioner across the team's core toolset, including: Clio Operate (ShareDo), Contract Express, DocuSign, HighQ, Legatics. They are also expected to use Generative AI tools as a standard part of their day-to-day work — applying them responsibly, accurately, and in strict compliance with client and regulatory requirements.

Key Responsibilities

Client Matter Execution

• Execute data loading, configuration, and workflow tasks on live client matters, proactively identifying process improvements, data quality issues, and format improvements and raising them with the manager promptly.
• Maintain data tracking and audit trails in accordance with client and regulatory requirements, demonstrating clear understanding of why these records matter in a legal context.
• Manage and maintain data templates for use across client matters, ensuring they remain accurate, consistent, and fit for purpose as matters evolve.
• Generate client reporting and data dashboards, proactively identifying opportunities to improve or streamline the client experience — for example, where data is not optimised or an alternative visualisation would better serve the client's needs.
• Troubleshoot user issues on live matters, identify recurring patterns, and proactively propose targeted training or process changes where trends indicate a systemic need.
• Manage user access and maintain data security with a clear and demonstrable understanding of the firm's and regulators' requirements.
• Archive projects and workflows in line with matter lifecycle requirements.
• Understand the commercial context of every engagement: be aware of how your work contributes to the team's fee recovery, and flag promptly if scope, timeline, or resourcing creates a risk to commercial delivery.

Generative AI — Client Delivery

• Use Generative AI tools — including LLM-based legal assistants and AI-driven document review and contract analysis platforms — to execute client matter tasks, including document analysis, data extraction, and drafting support.
• Validate and quality assure all Gen AI-generated outputs before they are incorporated into client deliverables, ensuring accuracy, completeness, and fitness for purpose. Never treat AI output as final without independent verification.
• Identify opportunities within live client matters where Gen AI can reduce time, improve accuracy, or enhance the quality of client reporting, and raise these proactively with the managing team.
• Apply Gen AI tools in strict compliance with the firm's data handling, client confidentiality, and AI governance requirements at all times.
• Support the testing and quality assurance of Gen AI-enabled workflows as they are deployed on new or evolving client engagements.

Solution Design & Build Support

• Map user requirements and legal workflows end to end — including the people, systems, data, and handoffs involved — working with the Solutions Architect, Manager, and Senior Manager to engineer and refine solutions.
• Engage directly with business stakeholders and wider project teams to understand client challenges; apply your understanding of legal processes, practice team operations, and technology to propose solutions that are grounded in client need rather than technical convenience.
• Investigate operational procedures, identify key risks, challenges, and sub-tasks, and contribute structured analysis to the recommendations being developed by the team.
• Support user acceptance testing (UAT) on new and updated solutions, applying a structured approach to test scripting, defect logging, and sign-off to ensure solutions are fit for purpose before deployment on live matters.
• Actively engage with the team backlog, identify where tasks can be progressed, and execute in accordance with project and team guidelines.
• Report on the progress of assigned tasks in a concise and timely manner; proactively identify impacts and recommend mitigating actions where tasks are not progressing as expected.
• Create data templates, liaise with clients and legal teams for inputs, and present recommendations clearly and constructively.
• Actively review product roadmaps and identify continuous improvement opportunities on existing solutions, raising them with reference to commercial and risk implications.

Risk & Governance

• Identify and escalate risks on live client matters promptly. Understand that in a chargeable, legally consequential environment, risk identification is not optional — it is a core professional responsibility.
• Maintain rigorous standards of data security and client confidentiality at all times, including a clear understanding of GDPR, SRA requirements, and the firm's internal information governance framework.
• Understand the implications of errors in a billable environment — both commercially (in terms of write-offs, client relationship damage, and fee recovery) and legally (in terms of the firm's obligations to its clients).

Qualifications, Skills and Experience

Technical Skills

• Proven, hands-on experience with the team's core toolset, including: Clio Operate (ShareDo), Contract Express, DocuSign, HighQ, and Legatics, Microsoft power suite
• Strong practical experience with collaboration, workflow, and automation tools; including but not limited to the above platforms and Kira.
• Proficiency in process mapping, including the ability to map a legal workflow end to end using tools such as Visio, Miro, Lucidchart, or equivalent.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel, including data manipulation, template design, and structured data management.
• Experience with data visualisation and reporting tools, with Power BI or equivalent strongly preferred.
• Formal business analyst experience, including workflow design, user story writing, and requirements workshops.
• Experience supporting or leading UAT processes, including test scripting, defect logging, and structured sign-off procedures.
• Exposure to or experience of incorporating Generative AI legal assistant tools into legal automation workflows (e.g. Legora, Harvey, CoCounsel).
• Knowledge of agile project management and proven experience of applying design thinking to development projects.
• Experience working within a structured project team environment.

Legal & Commercial Skills

• Demonstrable experience of a law firm environment and supporting legal process via technology. Experience should include at least one of the following — with M&A and due diligence experience particularly valued given the team's strategic focus:
  • M&A transaction management or due diligence workflow
  • Contract lifecycle management
  • Compliance or regulatory workflow
  • Volume claims or litigation support
• Ability to demonstrate end-to-end understanding of at least one legal workflow type — not just the technology used, but the legal process, the people involved, the data flows, and the client outcome being pursued.
• Awareness of matter economics: understanding of how legal matters are scoped, priced, and tracked, and how the work done by this role contributes to or affects fee recovery on client engagements.
• Strong problem-solving skills, with a solution-focused and proactive approach to managing multiple concurrent projects.
• Excellent communication skills, including the ability to articulate technical concepts clearly to non-technical audiences (including lawyers and clients) and to present recommendations constructively.
• Ability to prioritise effectively in a fast-paced, rapidly changing environment with awareness of wider team priorities and commercial deadlines.
• Consistent, exceptional attention to detail — particularly in the context of client deliverables where accuracy is a professional and commercial requirement.
• Ability to think strategically, ensuring that continuous process improvement is formally captured, implemented, and disseminated across the team.

Personal Attributes

• Approaches every engagement client-need-first: asks what the client is trying to achieve before reaching for a technical solution.
• Understands legal workflows end to end and can connect technical execution to legal and commercial outcome — not just to a list of system tasks.
• Takes personal responsibility for the quality and risk profile of their work, in full recognition of the chargeable, legally consequential nature of the environment.
• Collaborative and generous with knowledge: works closely with the Solutions Architect and wider team, shares insight from delivery, and contributes to a culture of continuous improvement.
• Commercially aware: understands the relationship between their work and the team's fee recovery, and takes this seriously as a professional obligation.
• Proactive and constructive in raising risks, errors, and improvement opportunities — does not wait to be asked.
• Demonstrates rigorous attention to detail and maintains this standard consistently across all deliverables, regardless of pace or pressure.
• Enthusiastic about legal technology and Generative AI, balanced by sound judgement about when and how to use them appropriately in a client context.

Measures of Success

The following measures will be used to evaluate performance in this role:

• Delivery quality: Client matter tasks are executed accurately, completely, and on time. The volume and severity of errors on chargeable matters is the primary baseline measure.
• Risk record: No material data security incidents, client confidentiality failures, or AI governance breaches attributable to this role. Risks that arise are identified and escalated promptly.
• Commercial contribution: The role's utilisation and delivery quality demonstrably supports the team's fee recovery. Scope creep, write-offs, or over-runs attributable to delivery issues are minimised.
• Client satisfaction: Clients and supervising partners express confidence in the quality of the work produced. Where client feedback is available (formally or informally), it is consistently positive. Repeat instructions are a positive indicator.
• Innovation contribution: The number of process improvement recommendations raised and implemented — reflecting the expectation that the Senior Analyst proactively identifies better ways of working and follows through on them.
• UAT effectiveness: New and updated solutions are tested thoroughly before deployment. Issues identified during UAT are documented and resolved before go-live; post-deployment issues attributable to inadequate testing are minimised.
• Collaboration: The Solutions Architect and wider team benefit from the Senior Analyst's delivery insight. The two roles operate as a coherent unit, with shared understanding of the end-to-end workflow on every engagement they work on together.

Note: Applications close at midday 12:00pm (BST) on Friday 29 May 2026

Team

Digital Legal DeliveryFull time

Location

Belfast

Contract type

Permanent Contract

Diversity & Inclusion

We are committed to attracting people from all backgrounds and creating a respectful and inclusive culture where everyone thrives. We see this as essential to our success, including our ability to innovate and achieve sustained high performance. This is a key part of our Values—Human, Bold, and Outstanding.