Practice Group Manager, M&A and Private Equity

Gibson Dunn is a leading global law firm, advising clients on significant transactions and disputes. Our exceptional teams craft and deploy creative legal strategies that are meticulously tailored to every matter, however complex or high‑stakes. The firm’s work is distinguished by a unique combination of precision and vision.

The Mergers and Acquisitions and Private Equity practices are hiring a Practice Manager (“PM”) in any US office to support day-to-day operations of these practices as well as the implementation of the practices’ strategic initiatives in collaboration with practice group and practice management leadership.

Based in any U.S. office, the Practice Group Manager will be a key element of the firm’s business services function and will join a growing practice management team collectively responsible for supporting practice leaders in the management of their groups, including through: (1) serving as information conduits to support cross-department and cross-office initiatives and projects; (2) strategic planning, reporting, and meeting management;

(3) talent management; (4) supporting the firm’s free market system, pipeline development, and productivity goals; (5) developing practice-specific education and trainings; and (6) supporting initiatives and projects in collaboration with a number of firm departments, including Professional Development, Marketing & Client Development, Knowledge Management, Communications, Recruiting, Diversity, Career and Alumni Services, Technology, Human Resources, and Office Administration.

Communication, leadership, and emotional intelligence are important skills needed in this role along with an understanding of the life cycle of a matter and how attorneys practice in a law firm setting.

The PM will report to the Firm’s Director of Practice Management, US Transactions under the Chief Legal Operating Officer and will work closely with the Firm’s other Practice Group Managers.

• FMS Support: Supporting the firm’s free market system from both an associate and partner perspective, including by helping lawyers identify appropriate staffing for matters and opportunities for new work.
• Attorney Matching: Maintaining knowledge of attorneys’ individual skills, development needs, experiences, and personal/professional aspirations. Review and identify opportunities for lawyers to develop pathways for growth and engage in new matters and areas.
• Utilization and Capacity Oversight: Tracking and monitoring attorney resources for potential over utilization, under utilization, disengagement or time entry concerns. Monitoring individual lawyer capacity and scheduling, including client commitments, work obligations, personal leave, vacations, and holidays for rapid identification of attorney availability. Managing and monitoring attorney availability and utilization to minimize over and under utilization.
• Reporting: Developing customizable, up-to-date, and user-friendly models for displaying attorney resource information.

• Talent Pipeline Management: Working with practice group leadership to manage talent across the group, including through regular assessments of the firm’s recruiting and senior talent pipelines. Identifying gaps to better guide hiring needs.
• Performance Management: Supporting the attorney review cycle in coordination with Human Resources.
• Associate Journey: Working to manage the associate journey for practice groups. This includes mentorship, attorney review support, and other career guidance.
• Professional Development & DEI: Working cross-functionally with professional development and diversity departments to support and promote attorney development and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
• Training: Working with the professional development team to develop practice-specific educational trainings and CLE programming.
• Data Management: Managing tracking of all practice-specific data, including deal collection and reporting, targets, and client outreach.

• Cross-Functional Alignment: Working collaboratively with peers…