Events Director (Maternity Cover - 9 to 12 month...

About Legal 500

Legal 500 was founded by John Pritchard in 1987 as the original clients' guide to law firms, the first of its kind. It is now a data driven, AI optimised research platform which benchmarks, informs and connects providers and users of legal services in over 100 countries worldwide.

Our research and data are trusted and relied upon by corporate clients globally as an essential part of the process, both of instructing law firms with new mandates, and when reviewing existing mandates or panels.

We exist to empower both buyers and sellers in the international legal marketplace to make better decisions and have improved outcomes for their organisations. This is achieved by leveraging a trusted, comprehensive research process with a unique, vast, proprietary and constantly updated set of client supplied data, unrivalled in the market.

On the supply side of the legal market, every year Legal 500's team of over 150 researchers, technologists, data analysts, journalists and content specialists collate and review 60,000+ data submissions from law firms and conduct interviews with thousands of leading law firm partners. On the demand side, Legal 500 analyses confidential data from 300,000+ commercial law firm clients to benchmark law firms and lawyers by practice area; industry; jurisdiction; as well as by proprietary client satisfaction metrics, NPS , and other qualitative and quantitative criteria.

Legal 500 is the only source of this depth of global research and data on law firms, lawyers and their clients.

About the Role

We are looking to bring on board a senior Events Leader to provide maternity cover for our Events Director, owning delivery of an ambitious global calendar of 125+ events annually, spanning award ceremonies, summits, dinners, Powerlists and forums for senior in house counsel and the wider legal profession.

This is a strategic and operational leadership role, responsible for driving commercial performance, overseeing multiple specialist teams, and ensuring seamless delivery of high profile international events. You will be accountable for results during the cover period and act as a key member of the wider senior leadership team.

What You'll Do

• Lead execution of the annual global events calendar, ensuring revenue targets, profitability and service standards are achieved, owning financial performance (this includes forecasting, margin management, cost control and contract approval)
• Contribute to FY26/27 event calendar planning, pricing strategies and event viability decisions
• Manage the Events Division, a multi disciplinary team including Sales, Logistics, Delegate Acquisition, Content and Media
• Support recruitment, onboarding and capability development as required, whilst maintaining clarity, accountability and morale across a fast paced, high volume delivery environment
• Ensure end to end project management and high quality delivery of awards, summits, Powerlists and dinners
• Maintain operational discipline, keeping timelines, processes and reporting on track
• Safeguard approval and sign off processes, including CRM accuracy and proactively identify operational risks and implement mitigation strategies
• Drive improvements to efficiency, communication, customer experience and profitability
• Act as escalation point for internal stakeholders, sponsors, suppliers and attendees whilst representing the Events Division at senior leadership meetings and reporting cycles

What We're Looking For

• Significant senior leadership experience delivering large scale international events
• Demonstrable commercial ownership - revenue delivery, forecasting, cost control and margin improvement
• Strong strategic thinking and operational planning capability
• Proven ability to motivate, coach and develop multi disciplinary teams
• Confident decision maker able to operate under pressure and manage competing priorities
• Outstanding communication and relationship building skills

Role details

• This role is hybrid, 3 days in our office ( Fleet Street, London EC4A 2AG), 2 days remote
• There will be some travel to events as part of this role (particularly initially) but we expect this to be occasional
• We are open to candidate expectations on salary, there will also be a bonus based on revenue and profitability performance
• We expect this maternity cover to be for a minimum of 9 months, potentially up to 12 months
• The latest we would like someone to start is mid February 2026; we can accommodate a start date from early January 2026