Chief Information Officer

Eversheds Sutherland•Atlanta, GA

19h•Hybrid

About The Position

We have an exciting opportunity for a Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Eversheds Sutherland (US) LLP. We are searching for someone who wants to be a valued contributor and member of a talented and dynamic team of lawyers, paralegals and business professionals. The Chief Information Officer (CIO) is the firm's most senior technology executive, responsible for the full spectrum of information technology and innovation strategy, operations, and governance. Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer, the CIO leads two integrated functions: a broad operational IT organization spanning infrastructure, cybersecurity, cloud, core applications, and end-user computing; and an Innovation department driving AI adoption, legal technology strategy, research, data analytics, and practice group alignment. The CIO will be central to realizing the firm's ambition to realize the benefits of tech-enabled legal service delivery—leveraging AI and emerging technologies to make the delivery of legal services to our extensive global client base better, faster, and more cost-effective. This position is the single accountable executive for how technology is deployed, consumed, and continuously evolved across the firm. The CIO translates firm strategy into technology investment, manages a complex multi-hundred tool vendor ecosystem, and ensures that both operational resilience and competitive innovation remain core institutional capabilities. The role requires a proactive leader who is equally fluent in infrastructure reliability and AI-driven transformation, who can build trust with partners and associate-level attorneys alike, and who understands the distinctive competitive, regulatory, and ethical environment of a large global law firm.

Requirements

15+ years of progressive technology leadership, with a minimum of 5 years in a senior IT leadership role (CIO, Deputy CIO, CTO, or equivalent).
Demonstrated experience leading both IT operations and technology innovation functions in a legal practice or professional services environment; AmLaw 100 law firm experience strongly preferred.
Deep operational expertise across infrastructure, cloud (Azure preferred), endpoint management, and enterprise application support.
Proven experience deploying, governing, and scaling AI tools at pace in a legal or professional services setting, with a track record of balancing rapid adoption against rigorous security and privacy requirements.
Track record of managing complex vendor portfolios and multi-million-dollar technology budgets.
Proven ability to communicate with and influence C-suite executives, equity partners, and board-level audiences.
Experience leading cybersecurity governance in a regulated or high-confidentiality environment.
Strong project and program management credentials, including oversight of a formal PMO function.
Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or a related field; MBA or advanced degree a plus.
Relevant certifications (CISSP, CISM, ITIL, PMP, or equivalent) a plus.

Nice To Haves

Experience with iManage, Aderant/Elite or similar legal platforms, and Microsoft 365 at enterprise scale.
Hands-on experience with legal AI platforms (Harvey, Copilot, Claude, Legora) and legal research tools (Westlaw, Lexis+, vLex).
Experience designing data lake architectures and managing data integration programs across enterprise systems.
Familiarity with legal analytics, practice intelligence platforms, and business development technology.
Experience managing office expansions.
Experience with the IT challenges and opportunities of international organizations, including the global regulatory environment and different technology standards.
Experience with Azure cloud operations, services, and cost optimization.

Responsibilities

Defines and executes a unified technology and innovation strategy aligned to the firm's business plan, client service commitments, and competitive positioning— with a clear mandate to advance the firm’s delivery of tech-enabled legal services.
Serves as a trusted advisor to the firm leadership on technology operations, investments, risks, and capabilities—translating complex technical topics for attorneys and business professionals.
Represents IT and Innovation on firm governance bodies including the AI Governance Committee and Risk Committee, and with the Executive Committee and Global Board, as well as other relevant partner-level forums.
Monitors competitive intelligence on how peer firms and alternative legal service providers are deploying technology, and positions Eversheds Sutherland to lead rather than follow in the adoption of transformative capabilities.
Anticipates and monitors structural disruptions, including the impact of generative AI on the lawyer leverage model and traditional economics—and ensures the firm's technology posture supports strategic adaptation and responsiveness to rapidly evolving client expectations around AI-augmented service delivery.
Leads the firm's Innovation function, overseeing AI strategy, legal-specific tool deployment, and the full lifecycle of technology evaluation, piloting, and adoption across practice groups—with an emphasis on accelerating time-to-deployment to meet the pace of client demand.
Participates in and supports the AI Governance Committee, ensuring responsible deployment, client confidentiality compliance, and ethical use of AI across all approved platforms.
Drives attorney-facing AI adoption, working directly with practice group leaders to identify how AI can improve matter quality, reduce cycle times, lower cost-to-serve, and differentiate client deliverables—enabling the firm to deliver legal services that are demonstrably better, faster, and more cost-effective.
Oversees the evaluation, procurement, and performance management of legal AI tools (e.g., Harvey, Copilot, Claude, Legora) and legal research platforms.
Develops and maintains an AI usage governance framework, including tracking of AI utilization by client and matter to support billing transparency, client reporting, and risk management.
Cultivates a culture of continuous innovation and urgency across both the lawyers and business professionals, positioning technology fluency as a firm-wide competitive asset and a visible differentiator in client relationships.
Aligns technology capabilities to Practice Group needs, ensuring attorneys have tools that meaningfully improve practice and client outcomes.
Oversees legal research platform strategy, including vendor selection, training, and integration with knowledge management and matter workflow.
Leads the firm's data analysis and legal analytics capabilities, enabling data-driven insights for practice management, pricing strategy, and business development.
Governs the firm's data integration architecture, including data lake strategy, API integrations between legal systems, and the pipeline that connects practice group data to business intelligence tooling.
Owns the firm's Intranet platform, ensuring it serves as an effective knowledge hub, communication channel, and self-service resource for attorneys and staff.
Oversees the firm's technology training function, ensuring effective onboarding, adoption, and ongoing proficiency across all technology platforms.
Designs training programs that reflect the time constraints and learning preferences of an attorney population, including just-in-time resources, practice-specific curricula, and on-demand formats.
Leads change management strategy for major technology deployments, ensuring attorney and staff readiness before go-live and sustained adoption post-launch.
Measures and reports on technology adoption metrics as a core indicator of IT and Innovation program effectiveness.
Oversees the design, delivery, and reliability of LAN, WAN, cloud, and AI infrastructure across all firm offices.
Owns the firm's Azure cloud environment, including governance, FinOps discipline, and cost optimization strategy.
Ensures high availability and performance of core legal applications including iManage, Interaction, Aderant, and core Microsoft Applications.
Directs enterprise audio-visual and conferencing infrastructure to support hybrid work and client-facing environments.
Leads Windows desktop engineering, application deployment, and lifecycle management across the firm's device fleet.
Oversees Mobile Device Management (BYOD) programs, including policy enforcement and endpoint security integration.
Drives a disciplined system patching and vulnerability remediation program in coordination with the CISO.
Provides oversight of the information security function through the CISO, ensuring the firm's security posture meets the highest standards demanded by clients, cyber insurance obligations, and regulatory expectations—and that the pace of innovation never compromises the confidentiality and integrity of client data.
Fosters a risk-aware culture across IT and Innovation, with particular sensitivity to the confidentiality demands of legal client data and the emerging risks introduced by AI tools, ensuring that rapid adoption is always paired with rigorous privacy safeguards and governance controls.
Ensures the firm maintains best practice positions on data retention, e-discovery readiness, and breach response preparedness.
Provides cybersecurity reporting and risk narratives to firm leadership.
Oversees all user support, helpdesk, and onboarding functions, ensuring high-quality, consistent service to attorneys and business professionals across all offices.
Defines service level expectations, escalation paths, and continuous improvement programs for end-user support.
Ensures the IT and technology onboarding experience for lateral partner hires and new associates reflects firm standards and accelerates productivity.
Maintains an environment that supports attorney productivity in mobile, remote, courtroom, and client-site scenarios.
Manages the firm's technology vendor portfolio across IT and Innovation, with discipline around contract governance, renewal management, and spend rationalization across a multi-hundred tool stack.
Leads technology budget development, spend planning, and variance accountability in coordination with Finance and the COO.
Drives portfolio rationalization to reduce redundancy, optimize licensing costs, and improves visibility into total cost of ownership.
Evaluates and manages strategic vendor relationships including cloud providers, managed service partners, and mission-critical SaaS vendors.
Oversees the IT PMO, ensuring consistent methodology, resource planning, and stakeholder communication on technology and innovation initiatives.
Prioritizes and sequences infrastructure, application, security, and innovation projects in alignment with firm strategy and resource capacity.
Leads complex program delivery including platform migrations, office builds and relocations, and M&A integration activities.
Ensures Innovation initiatives are managed with the same rigor applied to operational IT—with clear charters, milestones, and value realization metrics.
Leads, develops, and retains a high-performing team spanning IT operations and Innovation, across multiple functional areas and geographies.
Fosters a culture of accountability, curiosity, and services excellence within a combined department, navigating significant change.
Defines org structure, role clarity, and career development frameworks appropriate to an AmLaw-caliber technology and innovation function.
Designs and executes structured development programs for direct reports, with a focus on building next-generation technology leadership within the firm.