Director of Legal Operations (26-27)

IDEA Public Schools•El Paso, TX

15d•$98,200 - $115,900•Remote

About The Position

The Director of Operations, Legal Projects serves as the operational lead for the Legal Department, driving data-informed processes, analysis, and feedback systems. This role translates legal strategy into actionable systems, ensures disciplined execution of legal work, and strengthens organizational capacity to manage legal risk at both campus and regional levels. The Director oversees legal operations, supervises legal staff, manages engagement with external counsel, and develops clear, scalable processes that empower school leaders to operate confidently within legal requirements. Additionally, the Director ensures IDEA’s compliance with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Public Information Act.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree or Juris Doctor preferred.
6–10+ years of progressively responsible experience in legal operations, compliance, project management, or a similarly complex operational environment.
Demonstrated people management experience.
Proven ability to design systems, manage risk, and drive execution across multiple stakeholders.
Strong written language skills, including the ability to edit drafts for clarity, grammar, and conciseness.

Nice To Haves

Strong understanding of public information requests, subpoenas, records management, and education or public-sector legal frameworks.
Experience in K-12 school district strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

Serve as primary architect of legal department workflows, SOPs, and field facing guidance: create, manage, and cascade standard operating procedures for legal department to build efficiency and clarity for operational execution
Serve as Data-Guru and Analyst: Influence, design, and analyze data related to legal operations to inform processes, trainings, and recommendations for management
Transform Technical to Practical: translate complex matters, processes, and guidance into manageable tasks and projects for end-users through stakeholder engagement, cross-functional meetings, and careful design
Ensure IDEA meets all requirements for public information/freedom of information act, subpoena, discovery, and other related matters through direct management of paralegals
Design and enforce standard operating procedures for engaging outside counsel, including intake, approval, scope definition, and billing review.
Oversee legal billing and invoice review to ensure fiscal discipline and alignment with approved scopes of work.
Monitor trends in legal and settlement spend and recommend strategies to improve cost efficiency.
Serve as the operational counterpart to the General Counsel, managing execution so legal leadership can focus on strategy and high-risk matters
Manage team to create systems to receive, respond, and archive information requests, subpoenas, custody order reviews, no trespass orders, and other routine school support requests
Set clear performance expectations, manage workload distribution, and drive continuous improvement in service delivery.
Build internal capacity to reduce dependency on outside counsel for routine matters.
Create system for legal intake and triage, ensuring legal is spending time on most critical matters and meeting all internal and external deadlines
Identify systemic risk patterns through data analysis of legal requests, public information matters, subpoenas, and campus inquiries
Design legal trainings and corresponding documents and partner with IDEA’s training team on design and review of trainings on behalf of legal team, as necessary
Prepare concise updates and recommendations for the General Counsel and senior leadership.