Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Key definition

Manager definition

What does Manager mean? In legal practice, a manager is an individual who sits on the governing body of a law firm or other authorised legal services business and shares ultimate responsibility for its management, strategy and regulatory compliance. In practical terms, this usually means a partner in a partnership, a member of an LLP, or a director of an incorporated practice. In England and Wales, manager is a defined term in the SRA Standards and Regulations (SRA Glossary 2019), aligned with the Legal Services Act 2007. Managers of authorised bodies (including ABSs) generally require SRA approval and carry personal regulatory duties, such as ensuring...

Understanding Leadership in Legal Teams: management versus leadership, Adair’s action‑centred and Hersey–Blanchard situational models, and personal versus positional power

Published by a LexisNexis Practice Management expert

Practice notes

Capturing a neat, universally agreed meaning of leadership is near impossible. We’ve all witnessed strong and weak leadership, yet when we try to nail what truly distinguishes an effective leader, we tend to produce a catalogue of behaviours rather than a tidy definition. In this Practice Note, we dig beneath the surface of leadership, examine how it contrasts with management, and highlight the core behaviours shown by outstanding leaders.

The difference between management and leadership

More effort has likely gone into drawing the line between a leader and a manager than almost any other management subject. Too often, such descriptions elevate the leader while diminishing the manager, which is unhelpful, as organisations need capable people in both disciplines to stay successful.

A helpful analogy is this: the manager is at the wheel, aiming to travel from A to B; the leader sits beside them with the map, providing direction. The leader spots the end point and the optimum route, while the manager does the driving and delivers. Typically, a list of...

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Beth Pipe , FCIPD

OnLive Learning

Beth is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (FCIPD) and has spent over 25 years specialising in Learning and Development. During that time she has worked across a broad variety of different industries and has, for the past 15 years, worked closely with a number of well known law firms; this has involved putting in to place systems and structures to encourage, enable and track the effectiveness of learning activities. Adept at face to face course delivery, and always enjoying excellent feedback, Beth is also accomplished at online delivery and created OnLive Learning in response to the challenges presented by the 2020 Covid-19 restrictions.Beth has written extensively for LexisNexis on subjects such as Performance Management, Managing Change and Stress Management. Away from her training delivery she is a published author writing about local history, hiking, wildlife and the outdoors and is...

Web page updated on 22/05/2026

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