Legal Project Analyst

Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders•Atlanta, GA

16h•Hybrid

About The Position

The Legal Project Analyst supports the delivery of the firm’s Legal Project Management (LPM) core services for identified large and complex client relationships. The role assists with budgeting and financial oversight, billing guideline and AFA compliance, budgeting, reporting, and process improvement throughout the client’s matter lifecycle. The Legal Project Analyst aims to increase transparency, reduce administrative burden on attorneys, and help improve financial outcomes and client satisfaction.

Requirements

Professionalism, integrity, sound judgment, and discretion regarding sensitive and confidential matters.
Ability to work independently and on a team with limited supervision and to collaborate effectively across administrative departments and practice groups in all offices.
Foundational understanding of the legal matter lifecycle and legal operations concepts.
Solid financial literacy, including knowledge of key concepts such as budgets, accruals, WIP/AR, realization, forecasting, and variance analysis.
Service mindset and the ability to take the initiative, think critically, identify and solve problems, and marshal appropriate resources.
Ability to build and maintain strong relationships and gain the trust of the attorneys and professional staff.
Strong organizational skills reflect the ability to perform and prioritize multiple tasks and execute with attention to detail, even under pressure.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills, specifically regarding time entry.
Awareness and understanding of business processes and ability to identify areas for process improvement to develop and implement best practices.
Motivated self-starter who has been successful working in a high-performance, fast-moving, dynamic environment.
Proficiency with Microsoft Office suite required, with strength in using Excel (e.g., lookups, pivot tables); demonstrated ability to learn and utilize additional technology solutions quickly.
Adaptability to evolving client requirements and internal priorities.
Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance, business administration, legal studies, or related field; paralegal certification or equivalent combination of education and experience may be considered.
Minimum of three (3) years of experience in a legal, legal operations, or professional services environment (e.g., paralegal, legal practice assistant, billing/eBilling, pricing/finance, or project coordination).
Experience with relevant financial systems, such as Aderant or similar financial system; CounselLink, Legal Tracker, or TyMetrix; InTapp Time; HighQ/SharePoint; Tableau/Power BI.
Familiarity with outside counsel guidelines, alternative fee arrangements, and eBilling workflows.

Responsibilities

Conduct analysis to help identify issues, working closely with the Legal Project Manager to provide guidance to client teams to streamline and improve the firm’s legal teams’ processes and gain efficiencies.
Assist with matter and portfolio budget setup; populate budget templates and trackers.
Maintain budget-to-actuals and variance tracking; draft reforecast updates.
Prepare monthly accruals inputs and schedule reminders; reconcile accruals to invoices/WIP.
Track WIP, AR, realization, write-offs, and collections status; prepare routine dashboards or summary reports; flag variances, aging, and risks; draft recommendations for review and action.
Maintain action logs for financial interventions and follow-through.
Maintain client OCG summaries, “quick reference” guides, and distribution lists.
Coordinate with Billing/Finance to ensure client-specific setups (e.g., rates, discounts, matter attributes) are accurate and enforced.
Monitor AR aging and collections milestones; prepare weekly/monthly collection status updates.
Support dispute resolution and write-off documentation; maintain audit trail of decisions and outcomes.
Assist with brief trainings, tip sheets, and quick reference materials; help measure adoption and gather feedback.
As part of client onboarding to LPM services, review initial time entries and bills to ensure compliance with outside counsel guidelines, providing feedback and initial training to support effective integration.
Identify and support the implementation of process improvements for the legal team for tasks related to time entry, reporting, billing, and client compliance.
Support the implementation, use, and development of LPM best practices, tools, and software.
Liaise with other business services teams (e.g., Pricing/Finance/IT/Marketing/Business Development) and vendors to support partners and their clients/matters.
Develop a strong understanding of identified legal terms, including matter timelines and processes, to assist in reviewing and highlighting issues that need Attorney attention.
Develop processes to highlight and address issues quickly; create processes and corresponding documentation that could be replicated across the various legal teams as required.
Provide requested financial data and analysis.
Seek out opportunities to improve the Legal Project Management function.