Hiring legal operations professionals is a significant undertaking for many legal teams. It signifies your intention to optimize outdated processes, streamline operations, and increase efficiency within your department and across your organization.
One key aspect that sets a legal operations professional apart is their business management experience. Unlike other roles within the legal department, a law degree is not a requirement for success. Instead, legal operations jobs demand individuals who are:
Business-minded
This role has a significant impact on operations, efficiency, and how the legal department interacts with vendors and other departments within your organization. It is crucial to find someone with the business acumen to not just shield the company from risk, but also ensure that the legal department’s goals contribute to overall company growth.
Strategic
Legal operations professionals need to be strategic partners to the general counsel. They should help design a roadmap that addresses process changes, technology adoption, and internal/external collaboration. Strategic thinkers see the bigger picture and plan how the legal department will evolve continuously.
Data-driven
The best strategy is driven by data. Therefore, any potential legal operations candidate must be comfortable diving into the numbers. Legal operations functions also work closely with finance to prepare budgets, provide accrual data, and ensure compliance with financial requirements and SOX. Hence, data analysis is a crucial skill.
If you are unsure how to hire for legal operations jobs, fret not. Below, we have provided sample job descriptions to guide you in understanding the type of candidates to recruit and what qualities to look for in their work.
Legal Operations Manager
A legal operations manager, also known as a “legal operations director,” oversees and supports various projects for the legal team. These projects include managing outside counsel and vendors, overseeing the legal department’s budget, and addressing staffing needs.
Background
We are seeking a highly motivated and detail-oriented individual to join our expanding legal team. As a legal operations manager, you will collaborate closely with the general counsel and business stakeholders at all levels of the company. Your key responsibilities will be to establish processes and practices that enhance the day-to-day efficiency and effectiveness of the legal team, drive change, and control costs.
This is a generalist role that encompasses managing and supporting projects across the full range of subjects handled by the legal team. Flexibility in adapting to changing priorities and business needs is crucial, as well as proactively identifying areas that require attention and generating action plans.
Responsibilities
- Drive strategic and operational initiatives, delivering results on time and within budget.
- Produce meaningful reports on operational and substantive metrics that inform decision-making, including matter and work product analyses.
- Identify and implement legal department tools to streamline practices, including managing system design, rollout, and training.
- Develop and enforce processes and policies for managing outside counsel usage and expenditure.
- Assist with budget matters and optimize workflows within the legal department.
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams such as sales, support, service, business development, regulatory, IT, and finance, as well as various business units.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent.
- At least 3 years of experience in legal project operations and management, preferably in-house or at a law firm.
- Prior experience in developing playbooks and policies.
- Demonstrated ability to independently move projects forward while working in a cross-functional role, gaining support from others.
- Proven track record of collaborating with groups to set objectives and produce meaningful results.
- Strong experience in developing, implementing, and using legal department technology solutions.
- Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and communication skills.
- Ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment and manage multiple deadlines successfully.
Legal Operations Specialist
A legal operations specialist usually works under the legal operations manager and performs similar functions related to outside counsel, vendors, and other staff needs.
Background
We are seeking a legal operations specialist to join our growing legal team. As a legal operations specialist, you will work closely with our legal operations manager to create processes and practices that improve the day-to-day efficiency and effectiveness of the legal team, drive change, and control costs.
This is a generalist role that involves managing and supporting projects across the full range of subjects handled by the legal team. You must possess adaptability and a proactive approach to identifying areas that require attention and generating action plans.
Responsibilities
- Assist the legal operations manager in driving strategic and operational initiatives, ensuring timely and cost-effective results.
- Help identify and implement legal department tools to streamline practices, including managing system design, rollout, and training.
- Support the enforcement of processes and policies for managing outside counsel usage and expenditure.
- Assist the legal operations manager in budget matters and optimizing workflows within the legal department.
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams such as sales, support, service, business development, regulatory, IT, and finance, as well as various business units.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent.
- 1-2 years of experience in legal project operations and management, preferably in-house or at a law firm. Clerical experience is also preferred.
- Experience in developing forms, processes, and policies.
- Ability to move projects forward by gaining stakeholder support.
- Proven track record of collaborating with cross-functional groups to set objectives and produce results.
- Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and communication skills.
- Ability to support and handle various ad hoc projects in the team as they arise.
- Ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment and manage multiple deadlines successfully.
Legal Operations Analyst
A legal operations analyst examines the regular operations of the legal team to identify areas for improvement and assists in implementing those changes.
In this role, you will identify and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics to oversee department performance. You will be expected to create custom reports that help the entire team supervise resource allocation and forecast future needs.
Background
We are seeking a skilled legal operations analyst to take charge of reporting and data management for our legal team. Working closely with our legal team, you will identify opportunities for improvement and assist in implementing those changes.
As a legal operations analyst, you will develop playbooks, generate reports, and implement data-driven strategies to control costs, forecast resource and budget needs, and monitor internal and external resource performance.
Responsibilities
- Develop reports and processes to monitor people, processes, and spend throughout the legal department.
- Present data to finance and accounting departments, providing explanations, categorizations, and justifications for legal department spend.
- Identify opportunities to streamline processes and use the legal department budget more efficiently.
- Develop and monitor the legal team’s contract lifecycle management process.
- Create legal billing guidelines and manage billing matters.
- Provide technical and training support for new legal department hires.
- Collaborate with teams, including sales, customer support, IT, finance, and accounting.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience.
- At least 2 years of experience in the contract field, contracts administration, or legal operations.
- Experience with legal analytics and legal terminology.
- Proficiency in business applications such as Microsoft Word and Excel, document management systems, and legal enterprise software.
- Ability to work with multiple data sets to make informed recommendations, preferably with experience in business intelligence tools.
- Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and communication skills.
Director of Legal Operations
The director of legal operations reports directly to the general counsel and holds the highest-ranking position within the legal operations team. As the director, your role is to oversee the entire legal ops team, handling tasks such as staff and resource allocation and leadership initiatives.
Background
We are seeking a director of legal operations who will manage the business strategy and operational processes for the legal department. As the director, you will be responsible for duties related to change management, technology and process decisions, and budget allocation.
While reporting to the general counsel, we are looking for someone who will serve as a strategic advisor and feel comfortable sharing ideas. You should feel confident in your problem-solving and project management abilities and be able to communicate effectively with the entire legal ops team.
Responsibilities
- Design and oversee the legal department’s strategy for operational efficiency.
- Set specific quarterly and annual goals and initiatives for the legal department.
- Take charge of change management planning and communication.
- Assess and make purchasing decisions for legal technology software and tools.
- Supervise spend management and handle budget and resource allocation accordingly.
- Develop and implement internal process guidelines, templates, and workflows.
- Work closely with the general counsel to select outside law firms and negotiate alternative fee arrangements, billing guidelines, and overall partnerships with vendors and legal ops.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent. MBA or JD preferred.
- At least 8 years of experience in a legal department, law firm, or relevant operational management role.
- Financial background with an eye for analytics, and the ability to collaborate closely with the finance and accounting departments.
- Strong leadership, communication, and management skills.
- Tech-savvy with a good understanding of legal enterprise software, tools, and applications. Proficiency in legal spend and matter management tools such as SimpleLegal is a plus.
- Demonstrated ability to use change management practices to facilitate transitions related to technology, processes, and people.
Hiring for legal operations jobs is a significant endeavor for your company, whether you are expanding your team or building a new one. We want to help you streamline the hiring process and mitigate the risks of making a poor choice. Feel free to modify any of the job descriptions above to fit your needs and team structure.
Also, don’t forget to get your copy of Legal Operations 101: A Blueprint for Modern Legal Departments for additional information on building or expanding your legal ops team.