Legal AI & Technology Product Manager

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP•Washington, DC

1d•$115,000 - $175,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP 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 and offers hybrid work capabilities. The position owns legal AI and technology products from production launch through retirement, ensuring their configuration, adoption, governance, roadmap, support, and measurable value. Working closely with Practice Innovation Strategists, the Business Services Strategist, Technology teams, vendors, and firm stakeholders, the Product Manager manages product roadmaps, backlogs, releases, integrations, operational models, documentation, adoption analytics, and reporting. The role supports the firm's AI platforms and related solutions by tracking vendor roadmaps, prioritizing features, directing configuration and testing, and coordinating releases with training and communications. It establishes stage gates for pilots moving into production and mainstream IT support, builds support and handover processes, and coordinates security and information governance reviews. The Product Manager also measures adoption and return on investment, reports results to firm leadership, and helps ensure products and configurations reflect the needs of practices and business services functions. Akin describes its Innovation & AI team as a relatively new, small, collaborative group with independence, access to firm leaders, and a mandate to shape how the firm uses AI. The firm emphasizes practical innovation, sustained adoption, training, and solving meaningful problems rather than adopting technology for its own sake.

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 new features.
Strong product management judgment and ability to prioritize effectively and evaluate and refine initiatives based on outcomes rather than activity.
Track record of 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 clearly articulate and defend value models to stakeholders.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including ability to produce clear, practical documentation and reporting and communicate effectively 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 product development and operation, consulting them on roadmap, configuration, release, and adoption decisions.
Define stage gates and success criteria for moving products from pilot to production and into mainstream IT support.
Maintain roadmaps for legal AI and technology platforms, prioritizing features, integrations, and use cases that support adoption and value.
Track vendor releases, assess their effects 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 whether existing tools remain suitable and scan the market for technology addressing new or unmet needs.
Develop a structured vendor review and intake process to make diligence, security review, and onboarding faster and more consistent.
Create operating models defining product user management, support, training, and approval processes.
Own product documentation, including configuration records, runbooks, user guides, knowledge base articles, known issues, and escalation paths.
Manage product problems and vendor escalations in accordance with Service Delivery standards.
Promote self-service training and enablement through content delivered in the firm's learning management system.
Manage handover of products to mainstream IT support, including knowledge transfer and acceptance criteria.
Own product backlogs and requirements, working with strategists, Business Systems Analysis, and vendors to deliver agents, workflows, workspace configurations, and prompt and playbook libraries.
Set testing and acceptance standards and approve vendor features in the firm's environment before release to users.
Prioritize and coordinate system integrations, including API and MCP connections, with Technology teams to maximize value and minimize risk.
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 low or stalled engagement.
Use usage data to communicate return on investment and inform product roadmaps and firm engagement activities.
Coordinate Information Security and Information Governance reviews for AI platforms, ensuring alignment with firm security, data-retention, and Office of the General Counsel requirements.
Support the firm's agent governance model, including publication controls, access visibility, and intake for shared agents.
Work with Strategists to ensure configurations and templates reflect the needs of individual 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.