Executive Director, Client Intake & Conflict Management (Americas)

Ankura Consulting Group•Chicago, IL

About The Position

Ankura is seeking an Executive Director to lead its Client Intake & Conflict Management function for the Americas. The role provides strategic and operational oversight of the end-to-end conflicts and intake process, ensuring checks are timely, accurate, well documented, and aligned with firm policies and business priorities. The Executive Director leads and develops the team, sets service and quality standards, and serves as the senior escalation point for potential conflicts requiring judgment, stakeholder alignment, or executive-level resolution. The position operates in a high-volume, fast-paced environment and requires balancing risk management with commercial realities. The leader will build trusted relationships with senior stakeholders, communicate difficult decisions with confidence and diplomacy, and foster stability, accountability, engagement, and consistent team performance. The role also includes hands-on participation in conflicts clearance when operational demands require it, as well as support for business needs across U.S. time zones and urgent matters.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent relevant experience.
Significant progressive leadership experience in conflicts, client/matter intake, business acceptance, or a closely related function within consulting, professional services, or a similarly complex organization.
Demonstrated experience leading a conflicts or intake operation at scale, including team management, executive escalations, stakeholder alignment, service delivery, quality control, and process improvement.
Deep understanding of conflicts-of-interest and new client/matter intake principles, particularly in consulting or professional services, including conflicts involving bankruptcy, restructuring, and interim management matters.
Excellent critical-thinking, research, analytical, and issue-spotting capabilities, including the ability to synthesize complex information and formulate clear recommendations.
Outstanding written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate with senior executives and facilitate high-stakes discussions.
Proven ability to lead through change, improve operating processes, and use metrics and technology to enhance quality, transparency, efficiency, and service.
Strong proficiency with Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, and Adobe Acrobat.
Collaborative, team-oriented approach and commitment to partnerships across business, legal, risk, operations, and technology stakeholders.
Strong organization and attention to detail, with an enterprise-level perspective and ability to prioritize.
Flexibility to adapt as the firm’s services, systems, risk profile, and business needs evolve.
Willingness to maintain a hands-on role in day-to-day conflicts clearance activity.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree or relevant professional credential.
Experience at a peer consulting or professional services firm.
Experience with Intapp Open or a comparable conflict and intake platform.
Familiarity with Boolean search logic and external research sources, including PACER.

Responsibilities

Provide strategic leadership and executive oversight for the Conflict Management and client/matter intake function, including its operating model, priorities, service standards, controls, and continuous improvement agenda.
Lead the day-to-day conflict check operation, including queue and work-in-progress oversight, prioritization, escalation management, timely processing, procedural adherence, and data integrity.
Serve as the senior escalation and decision-support leader for potential legal, commercial, client, reputational, or relationship conflicts.
Partner with senior business and firm leaders to frame complex issues, facilitate discussion, evaluate competing considerations, and drive practical resolutions consistent with firm policy and strategy.
Communicate conflict determinations, risks, constraints, and required actions, including when opportunities may need to be delayed, modified, or declined.
Manage high-volume, time-sensitive requests and establish prioritization and escalation protocols that balance responsiveness, risk, and business needs.
Review, comment on, and advise on engagement letters and intake documentation from a conflicts and intake perspective.
Build, lead, coach, and retain a high-performing team; establish roles, expectations, decision rights, performance standards, development plans, succession coverage, and a culture of accountability, collaboration, and service.
Assess team capacity, workflow, capabilities, training needs, and engagement, and implement sustainable staffing and development approaches.
Ensure high standards of internal client service, including a target 24–48-hour turnaround for initial conflict checks and appropriate coverage for urgent and after-hours matters.
Maintain quality controls, including accurate and complete data, sufficient intake documentation, appropriate audit trails, routine review of checks in process, and timely closure of outdated leads.
Oversee complex conflict-of-interest and business-relationship analyses using firm policies, procedures, and conflict analytics tools; ensure sufficient information gathering and appropriate internal and external research.
Own governance and effective use of conflict and new-client-intake technology, including Intapp Conflicts or a comparable platform; partner on system administration, dashboards, data quality, training, adoption, and enhancements.
Develop and monitor operational metrics and reporting, identify trends and risks, and provide senior leadership with insights on service levels, volume, quality, escalations, capacity, and improvement priorities.
Represent the function in external or cross-functional communications as appropriate and lead other Conflict Management initiatives as business needs evolve.
Support business needs across U.S. time zones and provide leadership coverage for urgent matters when required.
Personally review, analyze, and resolve conflicts matters as needed to support operational demands and service levels.