Associate Director of Legal Engineering

Cooley is seeking an Associate Director of Legal Engineering to join the Practice Engineering team.

Position summary: As the leading technology law firm in the world, Cooley is determined to become a leader in the digital practice of law. Reporting to the Director of Practice Engineering, the Associate Director of Legal Engineering will focus on transforming Cooley's industry leading knowledge into digitally enabled assets that are AI-ready and user friendly for attorneys. This role will be responsible for transforming knowledge management in the law firm context for the modern era to create a competitive advantage for Cooley's world-leading legal practices.

Position responsibilities:

Knowledge leadership and strategy:

• Collaborate with the Director of Practice Engineering to define and execute the firm's vision for digitally enabled legal services by systemically creating, curating, and engineering knowledge into digital assets
• Identify and evaluate opportunities to deploy legal technology tools and automation solutions to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and deliver exceptional client service
• Oversee and manage initiatives that create these digital assets to ensure that they align with the needs of the practices, stakeholder requirements from the data and engineering teams, as well as the technology strategy of the firm

Legal Engineering and automation:

• Lead the design, development, and implementation of legal engineering projects to automate and optimize legal processes, including document generation, workflow orchestration, and knowledge management
• Collaborate with practice groups to identify and curate legal knowledge assets, ensuring they are structured, stored, and maintained in ways conducive to automated delivery and future reusability
• Work closely with product development team product managers, and data teams to scope, prototype, and launch automation solutions that enhance the speed and quality of legal services
• Develop and maintain standards, guidelines, and templates for legal engineering activities, ensuring compliance with security, confidentiality, and data privacy regulations and industry leading quality standards
• Continuously research and evaluate emerging legal tech trends, best practices, and AI/ML applications to enhance legal engineering capabilities

Collaboration and stakeholder engagement:

• Collaborate with other functions including Data, Practice Innovation, and operational teams to drive engagement and ensure that the firm's knowledge assets are consistently presented and collected
• Oversee the effective collaboration between lawyers at the firm and the team to maximize participation in the development, review and integration of automated legal assets seamlessly into the practice
• Advocate for and enable standardization of practices across the firm in the areas that make sense, and simultaneously enabling and advancing the ability of lawyers to customize solutions to the needs of clients when appropriate

Team building and mentorship:

• Lead a team of knowledge management business professionals, attorneys and engineering experts with a focus on fostering a high-performance, collaborative, innovative, and results-driven team culture
• Establish and maintain a well-structured team with clear roles, responsibilities, and workflows to optimize productivity. Provide clear direction, mentorship, and career development opportunities for all team members
• Provide day-to-day supervision of direct reports, ensure compliance with assigned work hours and monitor for compliance with all firm and department policies. Manage staffing coverage, review and process time logs/time off requests
• Support business professional development and continued educational opportunities
• In collaboration with immediate supervisor and HR, participate in hiring, performance appraisals, counseling, termination and other employee lifecycle events
• All other duties as assigned or required

Skills and experience:

Required:

• After orientation at Cooley LLP, exhibit proficiency in the Microsoft Office suite, iManage and other firm applications
• Ability to work extended and/or weekend hours, as required
• Ability to travel, as required
• Bachelor's degree
• 8+ years of experience in knowledge management and automation roles (with a minimum of 4 years management experience some atsenior level preferred with experience leading others)
• Experience in leading significant teams in knowledge management or legal automation

Preferred:

• Juris Doctorate degree
• Engineering or technical background
• Domain Knowledge
• Strong understanding of the legal industry, particularly around legal intelligence system, automation systems and AI
• Experience in managing cross-functional projects involving engineering, automation, and change management
• Knowledge and experience with distributed systems and organizations
• Supervisory experience

Competencies:

• Strong leadership experience
• Ability to build, manage, and mentor knowledge management teams
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to translate complex technical concepts to legal professionals and senior executives
• Ability to influence and collaborate with multiple stakeholders across various departments (legal, IS, etc.)

Cooley offers a competitive compensation and excellent benefits package and is committed to fair and equitable employment practices.

EOE.

The expected annual pay range for this position with a full-time schedule is $205,000 - $255,000. Please note that final offer amount will be dependent on geographic location, applicable experience and skillset of the candidate.

We offer a full range of elective benefits including medical, health savings account (with applicable medical plan), dental, vision, health and/or dependent care flexible spending accounts, pre-tax commuter benefits, life insurance, AD&D, long-term care coverage, backup care for children and/or adults and other parental support benefits. In addition to elective benefit options, benefited employees receive firm-paid life insurance, AD&D, LTD, short term medical benefits as well as 25 days of Paid Time Off ("PTO") and 10 paid holidays each year. We provide generous parental leave and fertility benefits. New employees will attend a detailed benefit orientation to learn more about our many benefits and resources.