The Legal Operations Manager is a strategic, resourceful professional responsible for optimizing and managing the business operations of the legal department. This role focuses on improving efficiency, managing legal technology and budgets, and partnering across the organization to support the department’s goals. It’s ideal for a detail-oriented, tech-savvy individual who can manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.
Key Responsibilities
- Process Improvement : Evaluate and refine legal processes and workflows to boost efficiency and reduce costs. Build and maintain playbooks, policies, and templates to support consistent, scalable operations.
- Technology Management : Implement, administer, and optimize the legal tech stack and e-billing systems. Assess and roll out new tools to drive productivity (e.g., entity management, board management, e-billing, document repositories).
- Financial Management : Oversee the legal budget, track expenses, manage legal fee and matter accruals, and deliver regular financial reporting and forecasts.
- Vendor & Outside Counsel Management : Maintain relationships with external legal providers, negotiate rates, and ensure billing compliance.
- Data & Reporting : Develop and monitor KPIs and other operational metrics to provide leadership with clear, data-driven insights.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration : Work closely with Finance, IT, Procurement, and PE stakeholders to align legal operations with broader business goals.
- Knowledge Management : Build and maintain systems for organizing and sharing legal knowledge, documents, and templates. Support management of internal and external legal / compliance content.
- Project Management : Lead or support department projects requiring strong planning and execution skills.
Qualifications
Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field (required); experience in a corporate legal department or law firm strongly preferred.3+ years of experience in legal operations, project management, or process improvement.Proven experience implementing and managing legal technology tools.Strong analytical, organizational, and problem-solving skills with excellent attention to detail.Effective communication and relationship-building skills.Proficiency in Microsoft Office (especially Excel and PowerPoint) and familiarity with legal tech platforms.Experience with change management is a plus.