Legal AI & Technology Product Manager

Akin•Washington, WA

15h•Hybrid

About The Position

Akin is hiring a Legal AI & Technology Product Manager for its Innovation & AI team. The role may be based in the Dallas, New York, or Washington, DC office, with hybrid work capabilities. This newly created, hands-on product ownership role is responsible for legal AI and technology products from production through retirement, including configuration, adoption, governance, roadmaps, and measurable results. The Product Manager will work closely with Practice Innovation Strategists, the Business Services Strategist, technology teams, vendors, and firm stakeholders to ensure products meet user needs and deliver value. The role oversees product roadmaps, vendor releases, requirements, testing, integrations, operating models, support, documentation, training, and handoffs to mainstream IT support. It also leads adoption analytics and quarterly reporting, coordinates security and governance reviews, and supports the firm's agent governance model. The successful candidate will help establish processes and priorities in a fast-moving environment and ensure tools are reliable, secure, adopted, and useful to lawyers and business teams. The position is full-time and regular, with a stated schedule of 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM. The anticipated base salary range for New York and Washington, DC is $115,000 to $175,000. Compensation may also include health and other insurance benefits, financial and other benefits including 401(k) eligibility, a discretionary bonus, and paid time off benefits.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience.
Five or more years of experience in legal technology, product management, innovation operations, or practice technology; ideally in a law firm, legal department, or legal technology vendor.
Track record of owning technology products or platforms end to end in a professional services or enterprise setting, including roadmap, adoption, and vendor management.
Hands-on familiarity with legal or enterprise AI, such as generative AI platforms, document automation, contract review, or deal management tools, sufficient to define requirements, assess vendor capabilities, and test features.
Strong product management judgment and ability to prioritize and measure and refine initiatives based on outcomes.
Experience translating user needs into clear requirements, prioritizing a backlog, and delivering through technical teams and vendors.
Advanced data literacy, including ability to build dashboards, interpret performance metrics, and explain and defend value models to stakeholders.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills and ability to produce clear documentation and reporting and communicate with attorneys, business services teams, vendors, IT professionals, and firm leadership.
Ability to work effectively in a fast-moving, evolving environment and establish structure, processes, and priorities when requirements are not fully defined.

Nice To Haves

Experience owning or managing products such as Harvey, NetDocuments, Legora, Copilot, or comparable platforms in a law firm or legal technology setting.
Familiarity with SharePoint, Power BI, Power Automate, ServiceNow, and other service management and administration platforms.
Familiarity with Information Security and Information Governance requirements for AI and cloud platforms.
Background in knowledge management, template governance, or legal project management.
ITIL, PMP, or Legal Project Management (LPM) certification.

Responsibilities

Partner with Practice Innovation Strategists and the Business Services Strategist throughout each product's lifecycle so products meet end-user needs and deliver value to clients and the firm.
Define stage gates and success criteria for moving products from pilot to production and mainstream IT support.
Maintain product roadmaps and prioritize features, integrations, and use cases that drive adoption and value.
Track vendor releases, assess their effect on firm workflows, and coordinate rollouts with training and communications.
Serve as the firm's primary product counterpart to vendor account and product teams, holding vendors to roadmap commitments and service standards.
Assess the suitability of existing tools and scan the market for technology that could address firm needs.
Develop a structured vendor review and intake process to improve diligence, security review, and onboarding.
Create operating models covering user management, support, training, and approvals for each product.
Own product documentation, including configuration records, runbooks, user guides, knowledge base articles, known issues, and escalation paths.
Own product problem management and vendor escalations in line with Service Delivery standards.
Promote self-service training and enablement through learning management system content.
Manage product handovers to mainstream IT support, including knowledge transfer and acceptance criteria.
Own product backlogs and requirements with strategists, business systems analysts, and vendors for agents, workflows, workspace configurations, and prompt and playbook libraries.
Set testing and acceptance standards and approve vendor features before release to users.
Prioritize and coordinate system integrations, including API and MCP connections, with Technology teams.
Own per-tool adoption dashboards and the firm's time-and-value methodology, and produce quarterly reporting for firm leadership.
Set adoption targets by tool, practice, role, office, and seniority, and work with Strategists on plans to address declining or stalled engagement.
Use usage data to explain return on investment and inform product roadmaps and firm engagement activities.
Coordinate Information Security and Information Governance reviews for AI platforms, ensuring alignment with security, data retention, and Office of the General Counsel requirements.
Support agent governance, including publication controls, access visibility, and intake for shared agents.
Partner with Strategists to ensure configurations and templates reflect the needs of practices and departments.
Run operating reviews and focus groups with Strategists, Champions, and IT counterparts, and maintain shared knowledge assets with the Business Systems Analysis team.