Legal Operations Manager

Job Description

The Legal Operations Manager is both a disciplined manager of litigation operations to empower and leverage the firm’s litigation team and a change agent identifying, adopting, and implementing best-of-class technology and AI solutions to keep the firm at the cutting edge of litigation practices.

The Firm’s litigation team operates at the highest levels, routinely leading the most complex and consequential, high-stakes litigations nationwide. The Legal Ops Manager is part of the business team, with a particular focus on managing talent, technology, and systems to enable the litigation team, while collaborating with the management team on firm objectives.

This role includes managing litigation support professionals, including litigation paralegals and legal analysts, managing eDiscovery tools, document management systems, docketing systems, and implementing new technologies, including AI. This role is responsible for establishing and providing guidance on best practices, ensuring lawyers are supported, and aligning litigation operations with firm-wide strategy.

The ideal candidate brings experience in litigation support, project management, knowledge management, leadership capabilities, and a proactive and practical approach to improving legal outcomes through smart technology and AI management and adoption.

Responsibilities:

• Plans, manages, organizes, coordinates, and controls operations and workflow for Paralegals and Legal Analysts, including training and development.
• Assists in establishing firm-wide best practices for Paralegals and Legal Analysts.
• Applies and advocates for legal project management best practices, including scoping, budgeting, progress reporting, team and client communication, and efficiency, including the application of technology, AI, and alternative staffing.
• Coordinate with co-counsel, vendors, and other key stakeholders regarding the firm’s ongoing eDiscovery, including serving as the system administrator for EMS and other key platforms and coordinating with IT and vendors as needed.
• Process optimization, including identifying and removing bottlenecks and pain points.
• Knowledge Management, including maintaining legal templates, documents, AI prompts, and the firm’s intellectual capital.
• Controls and manages the Firm’s case filing and docket management systems.
• Supports the development of strategies and plans for implementing best practices and best-in-class tools for the litigation team.
• Provides project management for cases, including working with co-counsel and coordinating multi-firm initiatives.
• Qualify and coordinate the use of litigation support software, systems, and technologies.

Requirements:

• At least 7 years of experience working in a law firm, with at least 3 of those years in a litigation ops, knowledge management, or practice management role.
• Litigation support or related experience within a law firm environment.
• Experience managing legal professionals.
• Strong analytic and communications skills to influence change, enhance adoption of best practices, and collaborate across teams and firms.
• Knowledge of technologies specific to the legal vertical, including Lexis/Nexis, eDiscovery systems. Knowledge of Everlaw or Relativity would be a plus.
• A four-year college degree in a field related to law, business, technology, or economics. A JD or MBA a plus.

If you are interested in this role, please forward your resume to Jill Tomarken – jtomarken@friedmanwilliams.com.  Thank you.