Senior Director, Paraprofessional Services

ABOUT GOWLING WLG

At Gowling WLG, our commitment to excellence begins with our people. As an international law firm with offices in Canada, the U.K., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, we’re proud to recruit and retain top talent who bring energy, insight, and a singular focus on delivering exceptional experiences – for our clients and each other.

We’re intentional about building a workplace that’s both high-performing and supportive, ensuring that everyone is empowered to do their best work and reach their full potential. Our culture is grounded in our shared values: Raise the Bar, Embrace Differences, and Thrive Together. These values shape how we collaborate, lead, and succeed – across teams, time zones, and career paths.

Whether you’re pursuing a role in law or business services, explore what’s possible and make your mark with Gowling WLG.

PROFILE

The Senior Director, Paraprofessional Services is a newly created role within the Firm that consolidates responsibility for the development, implementation and management of our paraprofessionals (law clerks, paralegals, notaries, and other designated paraprofessional roles) across the Firm's offices and practice groups.

The Senior Director, Paraprofessional Services is accountable for building and leading a high-performing, financially sustainable national paraprofessional model that optimizes how paraprofessional talent is deployed across the Firm. The role will materially improve the productivity and profitability of paraprofessional services by ensuring capacity is aligned with demand, paraprofessionals are performing appropriate high-value billable work, and work is consistently allocated to the right level within client and matter teams. The Senior Director will establish national standards, career frameworks, resource-management practices and service-delivery models for paraprofessionals while identifying opportunities to enhance the value, efficiency, profitability and scalability of the services they provide.

The Senior Director will also lead the evolution of the Firm's paraprofessional workforce, establishing the operating model, talent and performance frameworks, and future-state roadmap required as artificial intelligence, automation and new models of legal service delivery reshape traditional paraprofessional roles.

This position can be based in any of our Canadian offices.

RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Paraprofessional Performance & Profitability

• Own the performance and economics of the Firm’s paraprofessional services, with accountability for materially improving profitability, productivity and contribution to client and matter teams. Establish and monitor performance expectations and key measures (including utilization, billable hours, realization, capacity and financial performance) and work with practice leadership to address material gaps and opportunities.

2. Work Allocation & Resource Optimization

• Ensure paraprofessional capacity is deployed to the highest-value appropriate work across practices and offices. Partner with lawyers and practice leadership to increase the volume and quality of billable work performed by paraprofessionals, while identifying non-billable and administrative activities that can be transitioned to LAAs, specialized practice support or other appropriate resources. Promote effective cross-office and cross-practice deployment to optimize available capacity.

3. Workforce Strategy & Organizational Effectiveness

• Develop and actively manage the workforce strategy for paraprofessional services, ensuring the size, mix, structure and capabilities of the group align with current and anticipated business demand. Use workload, utilization, financial and demand data to inform complement decisions, identify areas of over- or under-capacity, and recommend recruitment, redeployment, restructuring or other workforce actions where required.

4. Talent, Capability & Performance

• Build the capabilities required for a consistently high-performing paraprofessional workforce through clear performance expectations, competency frameworks, talent assessment, career paths, succession planning and targeted development. Partner with People & Culture and practice leadership to address performance and capability gaps and ensure training investments are aligned with evolving client, practice and business needs.

5. National Operating Model & Service Delivery

• Lead the development and implementation of a consistent national operating model for paraprofessional services, including role definitions, service standards, resource-management practices, workflows and governance. Identify and implement opportunities to improve efficiency, scalability, consistency and collaboration while recognizing legitimate differences in practice requirements.

6. Future of Paraprofessional Services, AI & Innovation

• Develop and execute a future-state roadmap for paraprofessional services as artificial intelligence, automation and other technologies reshape legal service delivery. Partner with Technology, Innovation and Knowledge teams to determine which activities can be augmented, automated or redesigned and to evolve existing roles, skills and career paths accordingly. Identify and assess emerging paraprofessional roles and alternative legal-service capabilities that could create new value for clients and the Firm.

7. Strategic Leadership & Practice Partnership

• Serve as the Firm’s senior leader and subject-matter expert for paraprofessional services, advising Executive, Department and Practice Group leadership on the effective use and evolution of paraprofessional talent. Build accountability among practice leaders and paraprofessional managers for utilization, performance, work allocation and talent outcomes, while ensuring services operate in accordance with applicable professional, regulatory, ethical and Firm requirements.

ROLE RELATED COMMITTEES

Requirement to sit on the following committees:

• People & Culture Leadership Team

QUALIFICATIONS

• Minimum of 10 years of experience in a law firm and/or professional services industry with a minimum of 7 years of talent management experience working with paraprofessionals.
• Strong knowledge of paraprofessional roles and legal service delivery.
• Demonstrated leadership experience in a multi-office or multi-practice professional-services organization.
• Experience with workforce planning, resource management, talent development, performance management and organizational design.
• Strong understanding of law-firm economics, utilization and staffing models.
• Experience with process improvement, technology adoption and change management.
• Strong analytical, communication, collaboration and stakeholder-management skills.
• University degree.
• Ability to work with and influence multiple key stakeholders and peers in order to accomplish common objectives.
• Travel to Canadian offices will be required.

This position is currently vacant and is open to both internal and external candidates. Gowling WLG is recruiting for this role to support ongoing firm needs and team operations.

This employer may use tools within our applicant tracking system that include artificial intelligence–supported features, such as automated candidate matching. These tools do not make hiring decisions; all screening, assessments, and selections are reviewed and completed by human recruiters and hiring managers.

Gowling WLG is dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workplace. If you are in need of accommodation or support at any time during the recruitment process, please let us know.

The target base compensation for this role is $200,000 to $250,000 plus eligibility for bonus and other total rewards programs. For candidates with extensive and directly relevant experience, compensation may exceed the posted range.