Innovation Business Partner
Bristol - hybrid working available
£65,000 - £70,000 + excellent company benefits
If you’re a lawyer who enjoys problem-solving, improving how work gets done, and experimenting with technology — but no longer wants to practise law — this role offers a clear alternative career path.
Join a progressive professional services firm where your legal background is a strength, not a constraint. As a Senior Innovation Specialist, you’ll move away from fee-earning and into a role focused on designing better ways of working, using technology, data and process improvement to help lawyers and clients achieve smarter outcomes.
This is an opportunity to step out of traditional practice and into a future-focused role where curiosity, creativity and commercial thinking matter more than billable hours.
Key Responsibilities of the Innovation Business Partner
• Improve how legal work is delivered - lead and support projects that streamline processes, enhance collaboration and improve client service.
• Turn insight into solutions - translate real-world lawyer and client challenges into practical tools using legal tech, automation and AI.
• Work with technology, not against it - advise on and implement platforms such as document automation, AI review tools and collaboration systems.
• Act as a bridge - sit between lawyers, technologists and clients, explaining complex ideas clearly and pragmatically.
• Help drive cultural change - support adoption of new ways of working through training, showcases and client engagement.
• Explore what’s next - stay close to emerging technologies and market trends, testing ideas and helping shape the firm’s innovation strategy.
Skills & Attributes of the Innovation Business Partner
• Legally trained or have worked closely with lawyers and understand how legal work really happens.
• Reached a point where fee-earning no longer excites you or suits your circumstances, but problem-solving and improvement still do.
• Comfortable working with (or learning) legal tech such as HighQ, Contract Express, Luminance or DocuSign.
• Enjoy working with people, leading workshops, and influencing change without formal authority.
• Adaptable and motivated by impact rather than traditional career ladders.
• Previous innovation or tech experience is welcome, but not essential. Attitude, insight and the ability to connect ideas matter just as much.
Why join?
You’ll be part of a dedicated innovation function, working closely with senior lawyers and internal business teams while building a long-term career outside legal practice. This is a role with visibility, influence and room to grow - ideal for lawyers who want to stay connected to the profession without practising within it.
Applications can only be considered from those eligible to live & work in the UK without restriction.
Harcourt Matthews is acting as an Employment Agency in relation to this vacancy.
Harcourt Matthews is committed to diversity and inclusion. We value and encourage applications from all ethnicities and welcome everyone regardless of social background, disability, gender identity, and orientation. Diversity benefits us all and challenges our assumptions.
Ref: BHJOB3543_6023