Associate Business Consultant

Aderant is a global industry leading software company providing comprehensive business management solutions for law firms and other professional services organizations with a mission to help them run a better business. We are motivated by a collective desire to drive the legal industry to the forefront of innovation. With over 2,500 clients around the world, including 95 of the top AmLaw 100 firms, we are changing the outside perception of the legal sphere; where there was once resistance to modernization, we are creating a culture that embraces new ideas and technology.

At Aderant, the “A” is more than just a letter. It is a representation of how we fulfill our foundational purpose, serving our clients. It embodies our core values and reminds us that to achieve success, every day must start with the “A”. We bring the “A” to life by fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration, and personal growth. We encourage our diverse teams to bring their whole selves to work - ideas, experience, and passion - to drive our mission forward.

Our people are our strength.

Aderant

Associate Business Consultant

Job title

Associate Business Consultant

Function

Professional Services, EMEA

Level

Associate

Reports to

Manager, Business Consulting (EMEA)

Location

United Kingdom, hybrid, with travel across EMEA

Contract

Permanent, full time

About Aderant

Aderant is a global leader in legal technology. Our software runs the business of law for many of the world’s largest and most respected law firms, covering practice management, time and billing, matter pricing and the data that partners use to run their firms. Professional Services is the team that puts that technology to work: we lead the implementation, configuration and adoption programmes that turn a software purchase into a change in how a firm operates.

The role

The Associate Business Consultant is the entry point into the business consulting career path at Aderant. The role exists so that we can build consulting capability deliberately rather than only buying it in: delivery discipline, client confidence, product depth and fluency with AI assisted ways of working, all developed inside live client engagements under the direction of our senior consultants and architects.

This is a structured role, not a sink or swim one. You will join with a defined 90 day ramp, a named mentor, phased chargeability expectations and clear checkpoints. The expectation is progression to Business Consultant within 18 to 24 months.

We are not looking for someone who already knows our products. We will teach you that. We are looking for someone who works to deadlines, is comfortable being in front of a client, and treats new tools as an opportunity rather than an inconvenience.

Key responsibilities

Delivery

• Deliver defined configuration, data and documentation tasks on live client implementations, to agreed dates and quality standards, under the direction of the engagement architect
• Build and execute test scripts, support system and user acceptance testing cycles, and manage defect logging and triage through to resolution
• Produce and maintain engagement documentation: configuration workbooks, process definitions, training material and handover packs
• Work to the estimates and plan dates set for each task, flagging slippage early rather than at the deadline
• Record time accurately and daily, and understand how your time converts into client value and practice revenue

Client engagement

• Support requirement and design workshops, initially capturing decisions and actions, progressing to facilitating discrete sessions independently
• Deliver client training on defined product areas
• Communicate progress, blockers and risk clearly and early to the engagement lead
• Represent Aderant professionally on client site and remotely, in an environment where our users are partners, finance directors and fee earners

AI enabled delivery

AI is not an add on to this role. It is part of how we expect the job to be done, and this is the population of the practice we expect to lead on it.

• Use Aderant’s approved AI tooling as a normal part of the working day: retrieving product and client knowledge, drafting and comparing configuration and specification documents, generating first pass test scripts, summarising workshops and meetings
• Apply judgement to AI output. Everything that reaches a client is your work and carries your name, so validate before it goes out
• Identify delivery tasks that can be templated, automated or AI assisted, and put the improvement in front of the practice rather than keeping it local
• Contribute reusable assets, including prompts, agents, templates and checklists, back into the EMEA knowledge base
• Take part in the Professional Services AI Show and Tell series, presenting at least one practical use case within the first year

Development and practice contribution

• Complete the structured onboarding programme and the product certifications required for your engagement portfolio
• Shadow senior consultants across a range of engagements to build breadth before depth
• Own your development actions between reviews, and use your mentor deliberately rather than passively
• Contribute to internal initiatives such as methodology improvement, delivery templates and knowledge management

Your first year

The ramp is defined in advance so that both sides know what good looks like:

Milestone

What success looks like

Day 30

Onboarding curriculum complete, product certification underway, embedded on a live engagement in a support capacity.

Day 90

Delivering defined tasks independently to plan dates, contributing in client workshops, first AI assisted improvement identified. Chargeability building towards 40 per cent.

Day 180

Owning a discrete workstream with architect oversight, leading client training sessions on defined product areas. Chargeability at 60 per cent.

Month 12

A dependable delivery resource on any EMEA engagement, chargeability at practice target, one AI use case delivered back to the practice.

What we are looking for

Essential

• Evidence of consistently working to deadlines under pressure, in a commercial, professional or academic setting
• Clear written and verbal communication, and the confidence to speak in front of clients with support
• Strong analytical and data handling skills, including practical competence in Excel
• Real curiosity about AI tooling, with concrete examples of using it to do work better rather than simply having tried it
• A learning orientation: asks for work, seeks feedback, acts on it, and is not precious about starting at the detail
• Organised and self managing, able to hold several small commitments without dropping any of them
• Right to work in the United Kingdom, and willingness to travel across EMEA as engagements require
• Degree level education or equivalent practical experience. We are open to career changers and to candidates from non traditional backgrounds

Desirable

• Exposure to the legal sector or to professional services firms, particularly around time recording, billing, pricing or finance processes
• Familiarity with SQL, reporting tools or data mapping
• Placement, internship or graduate scheme experience in a client facing environment
• A second European language

Career path

Associate Business Consultant, then Business Consultant, then Senior Business Consultant, then Principal Business Consultant. Progression to Business Consultant typically takes 18 to 24 months and is based on demonstrated delivery independence, client confidence and certification, not on tenure alone.

Why this role, and why now

Aderant Professional Services EMEA is delivering some of the largest legal technology programmes in the region, including multi jurisdiction implementations for global law firms. We are deliberately building an associate layer so that consulting capability is grown, retained and shaped around how we want to deliver, including how we use AI. Joining at this level means learning the craft on genuinely complex work, with senior people around you who are accountable for your development.