Legal Staff Information Technology in New York City, NY

Law Firm

New York City, NY

Legal Staff Information Technology in New York City, NY

Legal Staff

Min 2 yrs required

No

Job Title

Legal Project Management Specialist

Job Responsibilities

The Legal Project Management Specialist, or LPM Specialist, plays a pivotal role within the Innovation and Value Department of a law firm. The primary responsibilities involve creating, tracking, and reporting on alternative fee arrangements and monitoring matter budget progress. The LPM Specialist collaborates with various teams, including the Client Value and Client Solutions teams, and works closely with client relationship attorneys to ensure that matter budgets align with the firm’s expectations. They provide timely status updates, tracking analyses, and recommendations if arrangements exceed the agreed-upon scope.

Key responsibilities include:

- Collaborating with the Client Value and Client Solutions team and attorneys to scope, analyze comparable data, and develop compelling client budget proposals.
- Leading the implementation of approved budgets into the firm’s budget management application, serving as the subject matter expert on the dashboard, and managing the implementation of new features and updates.
- Utilizing the firm’s financial alerting system to establish budget alerts for matters and consulting with the Legal Project Manager as needed to escalate budget issues.
- Tracking legal budgets with attorneys, including actions, staffing, timelines, deliverables, assumptions, and escalating activities when there are material changes in scope or status.
- Learning and applying knowledge of legal project management tools and systems like Clocktimizer, Iridium, and BigHand.
- Working with the Legal Project Manager, attorneys, and clients to define requirements and develop custom budget reporting for external client portals.
- Preparing and managing financial and client status reports as required.
- Collaborating to automate the firm’s legal project management workflow and task/phase code groupings, including creating dashboards to create and update matter budgets, view matter status reports, and search historical data for future matter planning.
- Assisting in the development and proliferation of best practices, tools, budget templates, and reference materials across the firm’s client portfolio.
- Supporting effective communication strategies on projects/matters that foster a collaborative approach between project workstreams, including between lawyers and clients.
- Supporting post-project review and post-mortem assessments and recommending process improvements as appropriate.
- Building relationships and fostering a collaborative approach when working with clients and across all departments.
- Performing other responsibilities as assigned and working additional hours as needed to fulfill job requirements.

Education and Experience Information

Candidates for the Legal Project Management Specialist position should have:

- A minimum of 2+ years of experience in positions requiring strong project and budget management skills.
- Experience in a law firm or professional service organization is required.
- Client-facing experience is a plus.
- A Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance, management, or other related business functions.
- Strong technical skills, including advanced Excel skills (with proficiency in vertical and horizontal lookups, macros, pivot tables, and modeling), and a high level of proficiency in Word and PowerPoint.
- Ability to work with mathematical concepts such as probability and statistical inference.
- Experience using data visualization tools like Tableau or Power BI is strongly desired.
- Proficiency with pivot tables and data cubes, and an understanding of relational databases.
- Ability to solve practical problems and deal with a variety of concrete variables in situations where only limited standardization exists.
- Strong communication skills (verbal and written) with the ability to develop positive working relationships (in-person and virtually).
- Meticulous attention to detail and accuracy is extremely critical.
- Excellent interpersonal skills with a customer service focus.
- Ability to protect and maintain confidential and sensitive information.
- Ability to manage multiple tasks with effective organizational skills.
- Demonstrated energetic and enthusiastic team player.

Salary Information

The salary range for the Legal Project Management Specialist role is $80,000 - $90,000. Actual salaries depend on a candidate's geographic location, relevant experience, and skillset. The salary range listed is just one component of the law firm’s total compensation package for employees. Other monetary rewards include annual discretionary bonuses based on performance and profit-sharing contributions based on eligibility and firm profitability.

Additionally, the law firm provides a comprehensive suite of benefits to promote health and financial security, including medical, dental, and vision insurance, as well as life, accident, and disability insurance plans. The firm also offers the opportunity to participate in 401(k) retirement benefits, commuter benefits, and well-being programs.