Legal Operations Specialist

Gibson Dunn•Washington, DC

10d•$100,000 - $115,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Gibson Dunn is hiring a U.S.-based Legal Operations Specialist to project-manage attorney transitions across the Firm, including lateral arrivals, secondments, and departures. The Specialist serves as the central point of coordination for each assigned transition, bringing the relevant parties together, adapting the Firm’s process roadmaps to each matter, and driving the work to completion on schedule. The role helps support high-quality client work by enabling effective processes as attorneys move into, through, and out of the Firm. Each Specialist carries a primary transition type and cross-trains across the others to maintain coverage and continuity. The position exercises independent judgment, escalates sensitive or high-risk matters when appropriate, maintains transition records, coordinates data transfers, and recommends process improvements. For incoming laterals, the Specialist manages operational setup through matter opening and billing and serves as the lateral’s primary contact for NBI matters during the first four to six months. The role also supports secondments, partner departures and retirements, and the development and execution of a global associate departure process. The position reports to the Manager, Onboarding and Offboarding. The required experience is 3 to 5 years in legal operations, law firm administration, project management, or a comparable professional services environment. The annual compensation range is $100,000–$115,000, depending on qualifications and operational considerations.

Requirements

3 to 5 years of experience in legal operations, law firm administration, project management, or a comparable professional services environment where accuracy and deadlines are critical.
Demonstrated record of coordinating multi-party projects from initiation through completion.
Strong project management and organizational skills, including the ability to manage several concurrent transitions without losing detail.
Sound independent judgment, including the ability to recognize when a matter should be escalated.
Clear and professional oral and written communication skills, including communication with partners and senior stakeholders.
Discretion and care in handling confidential and sensitive information.
Willingness to cross-train across transition types rather than remain in a single area.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with conflicts and new business intake systems such as Intapp and document management platforms such as iManage.
Direct experience with lateral integration, secondments, or attorney departures.
Experience working across business services functions within a law firm.

Responsibilities

Coordinate each assigned attorney transition—a lateral arrival, secondment, or departure—from initiation through completion.
Plan and direct transitions, adapt process roadmaps to the circumstances, and set and manage timelines with involved parties.
Liaise with relevant stakeholders, including Recruiting, HR, Conflicts and New Business Intake (NBI), the Office of General Counsel, Finance, Information Services, Practice Management, and Office Operations, to resolve dependencies and obstacles.
Maintain a primary transition type while remaining proficient across other transition types and providing team coverage and continuity.
Exercise independent judgment and escalate sensitive or high-risk matters as needed.
Evaluate how processes work in practice and develop and recommend improvements to supporting playbooks and roadmaps.
Maintain accurate and current records in team trackers, dashboards, and matter and NBI systems.
Initiate and coordinate transition-related data transfers, such as portable work product and precedent banks for arrivals and personal data, client files, and precedent banks for departures, in coordination with Information Governance and Information Services.
Manage operational setup of an incoming lateral’s book of business through opening and billing, including NBI, conflicts clearance, matter opening, client-file import mapping, and engagement letter and fee coordination.
Serve as the lateral’s primary contact for NBI matters during the first four to six months after arrival, providing attentive, concierge-level support.
Analyze NBI process data for lateral populations and provide insights and recommendations to leadership.
Facilitate the full secondment lifecycle, including placement, agreement execution, extensions, active-management logistics, and return.
Track secondments globally and partner with Practice Group Managers, Business Development, and Career Services to provide useful insights and data-backed conclusions.
Ensure information security and governance procedures are executed for each secondment.
Serve as a subject matter expert for secondees and advise them on questions and concerns.
Manage partner departures, including coordination, internal communications and outreach, transition documentation, and alignment of parties through the exit.
Facilitate partner retirements in coordination with relevant teams to transfer matters and client relationships.
Help develop and execute a global associate departure process, including matter-transition plans, notifying attorneys-in-charge of affected matters, coordinating preservation of work product and data with departing associates, and keeping parties informed.
Perform other duties as assigned.