Clio Operate – Weightmans’ work management system, including product strategy, roadmap, adoption, configuration governance, integration alignment and continuous improvement.
You will be the accountable Product Owner for Clio Operate, Weightmans’ business-critical SaaS work management platform. Clio Operate will be used by colleagues across the firm and will become central to how legal work is opened, managed, delivered, governed and reported. The role exists to ensure the product delivers measurable business value, supports compliant and efficient matter delivery, and is adopted successfully by Departments and Teams across the entire Business.
The role holder will translate business, case-handler, client, operational, data, risk and compliance needs into clear product outcomes, prioritised backlog items and deliverable increments. They will act as the bridge between legal teams, Product & Innovation, IT, Data, Risk & Compliance, Finance, Business Change, external SaaS providers and implementation partners.
This is a critical business-facing role, not a purely technical system administration role. The role holder must understand how the firm works, make informed trade-off decisions, represent colleague needs, influence senior stakeholders, and ensure Weightmans gets maximum value from Clio Operate whilst working within the capabilities, constraints, release model and roadmap of an externally provided SaaS product.
This list is not intended to be exhaustive and you will be expected to perform other duties and have other responsibilities that fall within the wider remit of the role.
- Define the product vision, strategy, roadmap and measurable objectives for Clio Operate, aligned to Weightmans’ business strategy, operational excellence goals, client service ambitions and financial objectives.
- Own, maintain and prioritise the Clio Operate product backlog, ensuring enhancements, defects, technical debt, integrations, reporting needs and adoption activities are sequenced according to business value, colleague need, risk and delivery capacity.
- Develop an expert understanding of colleagues’ needs across Departments, client segments, operational teams and business services, using interviews, workshops, feedback channels, product analytics and process observation to inform decisions.
- Translate colleagues’ insight, business requirements and operational priorities into clear user stories, acceptance criteria, process maps, requirements and delivery-ready product increments.
- Lead discovery, validation, design, testing, deployment and continuous improvement activities across the product lifecycle, ensuring the firm builds the right things in the right order.
- Work closely with IT, developers, solution architects, testers, data specialists, information security and third-party vendors to ensure product changes are secure, supportable, scalable, well documented and deliverable.
- Drive improvement of legal workflows, matter lifecycle management, governance, permissions, ethical walls, document/collaboration integrations, reporting, automation and data quality within Clio Operate.
- Ensure delivery is managed through appropriate Agile methods, tailored to Weightmans’ needs, including sprint planning, backlog refinement, demonstrations, user acceptance testing, release planning and retrospectives where applicable.
- Partner with Business Change, Learning & Development, Directors, Heads of Department and SMEs to create adoption plans, training, communications and role-based guidance that help changes stick.
- Monitor product performance, value realisation, usage, adoption, user satisfaction, data quality and operational benefits, reporting progress, decisions, risks and dependencies to relevant governance forums.
- Act as Weightmans’ in-house subject matter expert for Clio Operate, maintaining a strong understanding of the vendor roadmap, platform capabilities, configuration options, integrations and legal technology market direction.
- Ensure product decisions comply with Weightmans’ information security, data protection, confidentiality, SRA, client, audit and other regulatory obligations and compliance standards such as Lexcel and ISO 27001.
- Collaborate with Finance and senior stakeholders to support business cases, investment prioritisation, cost/benefit analysis and value tracking for Clio Operate and related services.
- This list is not intended to be exhaustive, and the postholder will be expected to perform other duties and hold other responsibilities that fall within the wider remit of the role.
In addition to the role within Weightmans, we would like you to enable Weightmans to build relationships with Clio including chairing their Clio Operate User Group and ensuring that Clio view Weightmans as one of their important customers by finding and taking opportunities to partner with them.
The ideal candidate will have a strong understanding of legal work, case management or professional services delivery, combined with the ability to operate as a business-facing Product Owner for a critical enterprise SaaS platform. Experience as a practising lawyer, legal operations professional, product owner, business analyst or legal technology specialist would all be relevant.
The following will be advantageous but not pre-requisites
- Proven product management experience in a software, digital, transformation, legal technology, case management or professional services environment
- Experience owning a product roadmap and backlog, translating strategy, user needs and operational requirements into prioritised, deliverable product outcomes.
- Strong understanding of the product lifecycle from discovery and validation through design, delivery, testing, adoption, optimisation and retirement.
- Experience of complex vendor management with influencing skills that reach across an ecosystem of suppliers, and internal stakeholders.
- Experience of working with multidisciplinary teams including legal users, operations, data, engineering, testing, information security, compliance, finance, business change and vendors.
- Working knowledge of Agile and/or hybrid delivery methods, including Scrum, Kanban, backlog refinement, sprint planning, user stories, acceptance criteria and release management.
- Strong analytical capability, with the ability to interpret data, user research, support trends and operational metrics to make evidence-based product decisions.
- Excellent stakeholder management, influencing, facilitation, written communication and presentation skills, including the ability to communicate complex technical concepts in plain business language.
- Strong commercial awareness, with the ability to assess benefits, costs, risks, dependencies and trade-offs.
- Understanding of information governance, data protection, confidentiality, role-based access, auditability and regulatory considerations relevant to a law firm environment.
- Experience with Azure DevOps, product roadmapping tools, analytics dashboards or comparable product management platforms would be beneficial.
- Product Owner certification, Agile qualification, legal operations experience or relevant professional services background
- Knowledge of legal processes, matter management, document management, client portals, finance systems, CRM, risk systems, integration patterns, APIs, automation, AI-enabled workflow improvement or reporting
Product strategy and roadmap: Develop, implement and continuously refine the Clio Operate product vision, roadmap and prioritisation framework, ensuring product decisions support Weightmans’ strategic, operational, client and financial objectives.
Operational excellence: Help the firm achieve its Operational Excellence goals by using Clio Operate to simplify and standardise processes where appropriate, reduce friction, support better matter visibility, improve data quality and enable more efficient, consistent and profitable service delivery.
User value and adoption: Champion the needs of fee-earners, legal operations, business services teams and clients, ensuring the product is usable, trusted, adopted and capable of supporting effective matter delivery.
Governance, risk and compliance: Ensure configuration, permissions, data flows, reporting and platform changes are governed appropriately and comply with information security, data protection, confidentiality, regulatory and client obligations.
Delivery leadership: Provide clear direction to delivery teams, vendors and stakeholders so that product outcomes are delivered predictably, transparently and with appropriate quality controls.
Value realisation: Define success measures, monitor performance and report on progress, benefits, usage, adoption, risk and return on investment.
Vendor and market alignment: Maintain effective relationships with Clio and other relevant vendors, tracking product roadmap changes, support issues, enhancement opportunities and market developments.
Discovery and user insight: Run structured discovery with practice groups and operational teams to identify pain points, opportunities, regulatory needs, client requirements and workflow improvements.
Backlog and prioritisation: Create and maintain a transparent backlog covering enhancements, defects, configuration changes, integrations, data/reporting needs, training improvements and technical debt, with clear prioritisation criteria and decision records.
Workflow and configuration governance: Work with legal and technical stakeholders to assess workflow design, no-code/low-code configuration, permissions, ethical walls, automation rules and matter templates, ensuring consistency without unnecessary rigidity.
Integration and platform alignment: Collaborate with IT, Data and vendor teams to align Clio Operate with the wider technology landscape, including document management, Microsoft 365, finance, CRM, client portals, risk/compliance and reporting platforms where relevant.
Data and reporting: Support the development of reliable reporting and product analytics, including adoption, matter lifecycle, work-in-progress, operational performance, data quality and margin/value measures where available.
Testing and release management: Define acceptance criteria, coordinate user acceptance testing, support release planning, manage release notes and ensure changes are communicated and supported effectively.
Change and adoption: Work with Business Change and Learning & Development to create adoption plans, demonstrations, training materials, role-based guidance, FAQs and feedback loops.
Support and continuous improvement: Review support trends, incidents, user feedback, defects and enhancement requests to identify root causes and prioritise improvements.
Commercial and financial management: Contribute to business cases, benefits tracking, budget planning and investment decisions relating to Clio Operate and associated services.
Process improvement and innovation: Continuously review and enhance workflows and product capability to boost efficiency, quality and user satisfaction. Identify appropriate opportunities for automation, analytics and AI-enabled ways of working that improve user experience, matter delivery, data quality and client service, while maintaining responsible governance.
Firm-wide collaboration: Work collaboratively across practice groups, client segments, IT, Product & Innovation, Legal Operations, Data, Risk & Compliance, Finance, Marketing, Business Change and third-party partners.
Communication and engagement: Provide clear and timely communications to stakeholders, including product updates, roadmap decisions, release notes, benefit tracking and risks.
Culture and values: Lead by example in upholding the firm’s values – including Collaboration & Innovation, Teamwork & Respect, and Integrity – and help embed our purpose of “See the Possibility” for our clients, our people and our business.
Professional development: Maintain awareness of legal technology, case management, workflow automation, AI, data governance and product management best practice, sharing relevant learning with colleagues.
If you meet our criteria and think this is a job where you could bring enthusiasm and commitment, then we look forward to receiving your application.
Come and join our award-winning organisation and be part of a team where people truly matter.
Weightmans is a Leading national law firm, with strong international capabilities.
Weightmans has been recognised as a leading employer for the 19th consecutive year at Britain’s Top Employers awards, and ranking top 10 in the list, the firm has also secured top positions in Chambers UK.
Why work for us? Take a look: Work for Weightmans: voted a top employer | Weightmans
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