Purpose:
This Senior Director, Legal Operations, will lead and optimize the business and operational functions of the Legal Department. This role will serve report to and serve as a strategic partner to the Chief Legal Officer and the legal leadership team regarding outside counsel management, strategic planning, legal technology, project management, process improvement, knowledge management, financial planning, and administrative operations. This role will partner closely with the entire legal team and other shared service partners such as Finance, IT and HR.

Responsibilities:

This individual will serve as a partner to members of the Legal Department and will collaborate effectively across UPMC to assist the Legal Department in meeting business objectives. This individual must also present with credibility and confidence in an action-oriented environment and have strong collaboration, communication and project management skills. Outside Counsel Management: Facilitate the management process for sourcing, negotiating, selecting and leading law firms. Participate in planning and implementation of strategic outside counsel initiatives and support active law firm management. Lead monthly law firm matter budget review process and lead annual revision and distribution of billing guidelines and terms of engagement. Offer analysis and recommendations with respect to alternative fee arrangements; review draft agreements. Lead reporting and analyses of legal services spend. Lead content, logistics and analysis for RFPs and competitive bidding process. Maintain a repository/database of relevant law firm engagement documentation. Financial Planning: Prepare accurate legal budget projections and monitor spend in collaboration with leadership. Provide leadership and other budget owners with budget analysis and management recommendations. Partner with attorneys and other professionals to gather full matter costs to aid active spend management and continue to supervise operational costs for budget forecasting accuracy. Lead monthly reconciliation and reclassification requests, and quarterly budget estimate updates. Assist in guiding legal billing, including rate approvals, invoice review and payment; resolve processing issues. Capture, track and report cost savings/cost avoidance and otherwise assist efforts to justify resource investments Strategic Planning and Operations: Develop and implement legal operations strategy aligned with both goals and initiatives established by department leadership and UPMC priorities. Support Legal Department Leadership team with annual goal planning, quarterly tracking and department-wide communications. Track trends in law industry and participate and collect relevant benchmarking to advise department initiatives. Identify and recommend process improvements to streamline workflows and increase efficiency. Lead projects, serve as the Legal Department Liaison between other departments and collaborate with staff leading central vendors to design processes that meet department needs. Technology and Innovation: Enhance existing technology and identify new tools to streamline team collaboration and workflow automation both within the legal team and among business partners. Lead legal technology system deployments, enhancements and related process guidelines. Improve data integrity and analytical reporting capacity. Partner with technology teams to troubleshoot equipment/systems issues. Champion the usage of technology to ensure and enhance Legal Department decision making and efficiency. Department Administration: Communicate effectively with legal staff, management and other stakeholders to ensure alignment and collaboration. Foster a culture of collaboration, accountability and continuous learning. Lead logistics for Legal Department meetings, including delegation of scheduling, technical support, communications and meeting materials. Supervise development and maintenance of a department homepage characterized by transparency and availability of legal practice and operations information. Respond to internal and external inquiries. Coordinate with facilities to reconfigure and repair office space as needed to meet staff needs. Work effectively across multi-functional teams. Develop and improve processes to accurately track staffing of law department, collaborate with HR regarding onboarding and offboarding processes. Own the maintenance of legal directories, including supervising hires and departures, open positions, email distribution lists, and system access. Lead annual client satisfaction survey