Job Title: Firmwide Paralegal Manager
Job Responsibilities:
The Firmwide Paralegal Manager is tasked with overseeing and managing the paralegal team, which includes paralegals, project assistants, and other legal support staff within the law firm. This role requires collaboration with practice leadership, attorneys, and practice managers to ensure that there is adequate paralegal staffing and support for the firm's clients and matters. The manager is expected to maintain professionalism and strict confidentiality in all client and firm matters.
Key responsibilities include:
- Collaborating with practice groups and attorneys to efficiently direct paralegal resources and provide exceptional client service.
- Managing work allocation, project planning, delegation, and coordination of workflow for paralegal and legal support staff.
- Ensuring compliance with the firm's policies, procedures, and best practices by paralegals and legal support staff.
- Developing and maintaining a database of paralegal and legal support staff experience and expertise.
- Monitoring utilization, hours, and availability, addressing gaps in expertise, and driving improvements in utilization through strategic and cross-practice staffing.
- Monitoring time entry, attendance, and overtime.
- Preparing reports on paralegal productivity and addressing productivity issues with firm management teams.
- Developing and advising on procedures and process improvements for routine paralegal and project assistant responsibilities.
- Collaborating with HR and practice management on performance management for paralegals and legal support staff, including overseeing the annual review process and addressing performance issues.
- Advising and participating in the annual compensation process for paralegals.
- Tracking relevant court and administrative rules, notary procedures, and other regulations or professional codes of conduct related to paralegals or legal support staff.
- Supporting paralegal and legal staff recruitment by vetting resumes and interviewing prospective candidates.
- Leading onboarding, integration, and training for new hires, and developing training materials.
- Managing transitions and exits of paralegal and legal support staff, identifying staffing needs, and coordinating coverage.
- Managing recruiting and engagement of contract paralegals and legal support staff at the request of practices or attorneys.
- Developing and administering a training curriculum for paralegal professional development and managing third-party professional development programming.
- Reviewing and approving vendor invoices for matter-related expenses incurred by paralegal team members.
Supervisory Responsibilities:
The manager directly supervises the work activities of paralegals, project assistants, and other legal personnel. Supervisory responsibilities include interviewing, training, planning, assigning, and directing work; monitoring time reports; scheduling and approving overtime; providing input into the performance appraisal process; addressing complaints; and assisting in resolving problems.
Education and Experience Information:
The position requires a bachelor’s degree and ten or more years of progressive work experience in a legal practice area, preferably within a law firm or legal department environment. An equivalent combination of education and experience may be considered. Experience in supervising a work team in a large legal or professional services firm is required. Knowledge of and experience with methods of legal research and the ability to use a law library are necessary.
Additional qualifications include:
- Knowledge of judicial and administrative processes, filing requirements, legal terminology, documentation processes, docketing procedures, and transactional closing procedures is advantageous.
- A paralegal certificate from an ABA-accredited paralegal program is a plus.
- Proficiency in technology such as Westlaw, other legal research tools, and legal technology databases, including litigation support software like Concordance, Summation, LiveNote, Excel, Outlook, and MS Word, is preferred.
- Excellent interpersonal, verbal, and written communication skills are required, along with the ability to communicate with courtesy and diplomacy.
- Supervisory skills to interact and communicate with peers/subordinates, provide instruction/direction/training, determine work priorities, and coordinate the activities of a work team are necessary.
- Organizational skills, including record keeping and data collection, and the ability to compile and analyze complex data are essential.
- Proactive troubleshooting, problem resolution, and follow-through skills are required, along with the ability to organize, prioritize, and oversee numerous tasks from inception to completion.
- A high degree of initiative and critical-thinking skills, with the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously in a fast-paced, deadline-driven, detail-oriented work environment, is essential.
- Physical ability to occasionally retrieve and distribute files or office supplies weighing up to 20 pounds is necessary.
- The role may require working more than hours per week (35 hours per week in the New York office) to perform essential duties and may involve occasional travel to other firm locations on short notice.
Salary Information:
In the Los Angeles and Washington . offices, the annualized salary range for this position is $155,000 to $205,000. Actual pay will be adjusted based on experience and other job-related factors permitted by law.
The law firm offers a comprehensive benefits package that includes medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401k plan with employer contribution, parental leave, a transportation fringe benefit program, a back-up care option, a generous paid time off policy, and long-term and short-term disability policies.
The law firm is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.
