Manager, Legal Operations
Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation See More Job Openings by This Employer
- Full Time
- Highland, CA
This role is responsible for operational management of legal technology systems, legal service provider/vendor management, e-billing, matter budget and accrual, matter lifecycle management, legal data base management, and data analytics and KPI reporting.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
1. Oversees Legal operations matter lifecycle management from intake to resolution. Acts as primary contact for all matter management issues, manages and supports a central legal service intake process/system, and proactively addresses changes in incoming requests as needed. Collaborates with attorneys and others to triage and classify matter scope, estimates time/duration, assigns resources, prioritizes tasks, identifies process issues, and finds solutions to ensure the smooth operation of the Legal department. Develops metrics and dashboards and runs periodic reports to measure performance against departmental goals. Leads inter-department and intra-department initiatives and activities, including oversight of transactional practices and project management.
2. Utilizes leadership skills and knowledge of legal operations, including Lean for Law and Legal Project Management (LPM) techniques, to assist in the design, development, and implementation of a new legal management system to streamline departmental policies, protocols, processes, and practices. Maintains the legal database to ensure data integrity and searchability in the day-to-day operations.
3. Acts as e-billing subject matter expert (SME), oversees Legal department’s e-billing system and conducts initial review of all posted invoices, analyzes rejections and/or deductions, resolves audit issues, and monitors/reconciles invoices between e-billing and accounts payable systems to ensure timely payment for services rendered and provides reporting to various stakeholders.
4. Collaborates with Procurement to vet and onboard legal service providers. Collaborates with senior leadership and legal service providers to drive efficient vendor management by reducing legal spend while enforcing compliance with enterprise billing requirements, internal protocol, and legal’s billing guidelines. Oversees timekeeper management, including new timekeeper matter assignment request process and bill rate approval reviews. Provides strategic support to leadership on annual business reviews with top law firms to ensure targeted, data-driven pricing negotiations based on spend metrics and benchmarking.
5. Oversees the budget and accrual process and liaises with lead attorneys and legal service providers to ensure accurate accruals are submitted with documentation. Conducts periodic reviews of spending reports by firm/matter/lead company person and annual outside counsel rate sheet reviews to control cost. Uses innovation and strategic thinking to design e-billing process improvements for increased efficiencies to ensure effective operation of the e-billing function. Develops and delivers training to system users on new e-billing processes and maintains system documentation where necessary.
6. Leads regularly scheduled reporting requirements on open matter, budget, top law firms, top 10-15 matters, annual spending, etc. Develops and runs medium-complexity reports for business intelligence to assist leadership in decision making. Analyzes key billing and/or matter data sets to perform comparative analytics across functional activities and recommends process improvements. Identifies patterns and trends influencing the department’s overall legal spending or matter workload. Provides routine and ad hoc analysis and reporting as required.
7. Collaborates with attorneys and administrative support to build and maintain legal databases, in accordance with the enterprise record retention policy. Develops or updates the template to efficiently track and report e-discovery cost avoidance/savings for e-discovery vendors.
8. Performs other duties as assigned to support the efficient operation of the department.
SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES
Carries out supervisory responsibilities in accordance with the organization’s policies and applicable laws. Responsibilities include interviewing, hiring and training employees; planning, assigning reviewing and directing work; evaluating and appraising performance; rewarding and disciplining employees; addressing complaints and resolving problems. Makes hiring decisions and designs individual development plans with succession planning in mind for all key roles.
EDUCATION, EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS
Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Law Office Administration, Management, or a related field is required.
Minimum three (3) years of experience with an existing legal operations function, building or running legal operations capabilities from conception to completion with documented success including experience with technology trends required.
Minimum three (3) years of supervisory experience is required.
Related, relevant, and/or direct experience may be considered in lieu of minimum educational requirements indicated above.
Extensive in-house legal experience with strong functional knowledge in legal operations, business operations or administration is required.
Experience with Legal Tracker or similar enterprise legal e-billing software is required.
Previous budget management experience is highly preferred.
KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES (KSA)
Must have exceptional financial acumen, including the ability to forecast and monitor the accrual of legal spend.
Must have experience developing and implementing legal management processes and system or legal-related technology systems or tools is required.
Ability to blend technology with effective Legal Project Management (LPM).
Advanced proficiency in all Microsoft Office Suite applications, including Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint, and Visio (including an ability to manage multiple calendars).
Experience creating and working with Gantt and LACI charts.
Must have impeccable attention to detail, strong project management skills, experience in change management and have a passion for excellence and innovation.
Must have excellent organizational and communication skills (in writing and in-person) and the ability to work in an environment that requires constant multi-tasking and a high level of responsiveness.
Ability to proactively identify and analyze issues and problems, recommend, and implement solutions, along with good independent judgment.
Demonstrated leadership and project management in cross-functional projects
Ability to work proactively and prioritize, take direction, and operate autonomously as well as part of a team, demonstrating strong business partnering skills.
Demonstrates a strong sense of ownership and responsibility for executing at a high level; possesses a high level of humility, honesty, integrity, and discretion.
REQUIRED LICENSES, CERTIFICATIONS AND REGISTRATIONS
At the discretion of the San Manuel Tribal Gaming Commission, you may be required to obtain and maintain a gaming license.
Professional certification in Legal Project Management or Project Management is preferred.
Select One of the Following for Driving Responsibilities: Authorized Driver: Role requires operation or driving of Tribe-owned vehicles or driving patron vehicles. A valid driver’s license with an acceptable driving record as determined by the insurance carrier is required.
PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS/ WORKING CONDITIONS – ENVIRONMENT
The physical demands and working environment described here are representative of those that an employee encounters and must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.
Primary work environment is in a climate-controlled office setting.
Work requires travel to attend meetings, trade shows, and conferences.
Incumbents may be required to work evening, weekend, and holiday shifts.
Must be able to work in a fast-paced, high-demand environment.
Strength sufficient to exert up to 10 pounds of force occasionally and/or a negligible amount of force frequently or constantly to lift, carry, push, pull, or otherwise move objects and/or move up to 40 pounds occasionally.
Sedentary work: involves sitting most of the time. Constantly operates a computer and other office productivity machinery, such as a calculator, copy machine, and computer printer.
Physical activities that apply to the essential functions of the position are balancing, stooping, kneeling, crouching, reaching, pushing, pulling, lifting, grasping, talking, hearing, and making repetitive motions.
Hearing sufficient to hear conversational levels in person, via videoconference, and over the telephone.
Speech sufficient to make oneself heard and understood in person, in front of groups, in meetings, via videoconference and over the telephone.
Visual acuity that meets the requirements of the position: The worker is required to have close visual acuity to perform an activity such as preparing and analyzing data and figures; transcribing; viewing a computer terminal; expansive reading; and visual inspection of employees, visitors, or facility.
Mobility sufficient to safely move in an office environment, walk, stoop, bend and kneel, and enter, exit, and operate a motor vehicle in the course of travel to promotional events, meetings, conferences, trade shows, and San Manuel properties.
Endurance sufficient to sit, walk, and stand for extended periods and maintain efficiency throughout the entire work shift and during extended work hours.
The employee may be exposed to fumes or airborne particles, including secondhand smoke.
Reasonable accommodation will be made in compliance with all applicable law.
As one of the largest private employers in the Inland Empire, San Manuel deeply cares about the future, growth and well-being of its employees. Join our team today!
