Chief Operating Officer (COO)

Melone Hatley • Virginia Beach, VA

1d • Hybrid

About The Position

Melone Hatley, P.C. is seeking an experienced, results-driven Chief Operating Officer (COO) to translate high-level firm strategy into disciplined, profitable, and scalable daily execution across all offices and departments. Reporting directly to the Owner/CEO, you will hold enterprise-wide authority over multi-location legal operations, process standardization, cross-department handoffs, facilities, and capacity management.

Requirements

• Proven track record in a senior operations leadership role (COO, VP of Operations, Director of Operations) managing managers across multiple sites.
• Deep competency analyzing P&Ls, budgets, headcount modeling, and utilization metrics.
• Demonstrated ability to build, document, and scale repeatable operational frameworks and leverage legal tech/automation.
• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Operations, or related field required.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in legal operations, law firm management, or multi-location professional services.
• MBA or J.D. strongly preferred (active bar license not required unless supervising legal representation).

Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor office leaders and department managers, driving a culture of high performance, accountability, and independent problem-solving.
• Centralize, audit, and enforce standard operating procedures (SOPs), identifying root-cause friction points and leveraging automation to boost efficiency.
• Partner with Managing Attorneys to monitor workflows, track case progression, and maintain target capacity (aiming for 90%+ billable utilization).
• Partner with the CEO and CFO to manage annual budgets, monitor Revenue per FTE, optimize Average Case Value, and protect office-level net margins.
• Remove bottlenecks between Legal, Intake/Sales, Marketing, HR, IT, and Finance to ensure clean operational handoffs and minimize executive escalations.
• Oversee facility expansions, physical security, IT resources, and vendor contracts across all regional footprints.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Executive