From Office Junior to Operations Manager

From  an Office Junior to Becoming an Operations Manager, Alissa reflects on nearly 10 Years at mlplaw and shares her highlights in our Q&A!

• What’s your proudest achievement over the 10 years you’ve been here? Have there been any key changes or major milestones?

I would say that my proudest achievement over the years is becoming part of the Senior Leadership Team and being a team lead to mlpower.

I feel privileged to be able to contribute to the future of the business and to help make it a great place to work. Being a team lead is also one of my proudest achievements because for me, being able to support, encourage and help others grow and develop is a great opportunity to have.

I was lucky to have great support when I started nearly 10 years ago (and still do!). The challenge and encouragement I had throughout my journey allowed me to grow and progress, and to be a team lead now and to have the opportunity to be that manager to someone else, is something that makes me really proud.

• What else do you get involved with?

Well, being in Operations, I get the opportunity to be involved in lots of different areas. I like to say that in my role, I wear a lot of different hats!

I am currently a member of our MLParty team which arranges the social events each year such as our annual summer BBQs and Christmas parties. We also host and arrange more informal socials, such as dinners, and activities after work. One of our social events that stands out to me, was a Halloween themed social doing a walk around Altrincham learning about its ‘horrible histories’’. It was definitely memorable!

I am also really proud to be a member of our People and Wellbeing team, which works hard on being a great place to work with great people. We’ve had many wonderful highlights as a team and 2023 was a particularly successful year for us being shortlisted for a number of People awards, and becoming the first (and currently only) law firm to be members of the Greater Manchester Good Employment Charter.

I also have the opportunity to help our other internal teams that do such wonderful work, such as our marketing team, and our Doing the Right Thing in our Communities team.

• What do you do as part of the Great People and Great Place to Work team?

As part of the Great People and Great Place to Work team I help deliver on our strategy that focuses on what it means to be a good employer, such as training and development, communication, recognition, growth, vision and values, benefits and much more!

Examples of how I help the team include leading our firm communications, and arranging and actioning on team and business feedback. From an operational point of view, ensuring we are doing the hard work behind the scenes to be in a position and have the opportunity to be a great place to work for new and current talent.

The work we do in the team is not only about maintaining a great culture, but how we can improve, take responsibility, and continue growing and supporting our people.

• How have your roles and responsibilities changed?

In the nearly 10 years that I’ve been at mlplaw, there has been a lot of change to the roles I have done. However, what hasn’t changed throughout the years is no matter the role I was in, I always knew that no matter your title, you played an important role in providing excellent client service.

When I first started, I was an Office Junior who also helped with Reception. I then became a Legal Assistant and then transitioned into an Accounts and Operational role.

I am now a member of the firm’s Senior Leadership Team working on the Operations of the business as well as working on strategies to implement improvements and innovations which enhance our client service, and the day to day efficiency of the firm.

In addition, I look after the business’ support team, which works hard to provide high quality support service to our departments and clients. I believe that my years at mlplaw and the experience I have had within my different roles has given me useful insight when it comes to being a team lead and looking after my team.

• Are there memorable projects you have worked on?

I’ve had a lot of memorable projects since being an Operations Manager, and can think of a couple of  that stand out.

I led the innovation to our new online HR system which has streamlined and automated our HR process and has allowed us a new way to recruit, onboard new starters, and allows current team members to have access and visibility to their personnel information, book their holidays, see their entitlement, and much more!

Lastly, and more recently, I arranged the migration of our IT system and Case Management system. This was probably the biggest project I have led to date, and the most impactful (all whilst planning a wedding and getting married within a couple of weeks after the migration live date. It was a memorable month to say the least!).

Moving onto a more modern and efficient system is important in ensuring we are providing a first class service and prepares ourselves in the best way for what the future of tech looks like in the legal industry.

The nature of operations means that there’s always more to improve, learn and research so I’m intrigued to see what projects the next 10 years in my role brings me.