Litigation Support Manager

Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP•Los Angeles, CA

4d•Hybrid

About The Position

Orrick is seeking an experienced people leader with California litigation experience or knowledge to manage one or more teams within Team Support, its centralized legal support organization. The role may be based in the Los Angeles, Orange County, or Santa Monica offices and involves leading teams across multiple offices, including teams supporting complex California state and federal litigation matters. The manager serves as a coach and escalation point while helping modernize the legal support model and maintaining service quality and strong talent outcomes. This is a hands-on, execution-oriented leadership role focused on managing experienced and early-career professionals, handling complex performance and engagement issues, and leading teams through organizational and operational change. The manager owns day-to-day execution, staffing and prioritization, capacity and workload monitoring, service delivery, workflow systems, special projects, process improvements, and performance metrics. The role also collaborates with HR and cross-functional partners and provides actionable updates to senior leadership.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree, master’s degree preferred, or equivalent professional experience.
At least 3 years of direct experience managing teams in a complex, high-expectation environment.
California litigation experience or knowledge.
Demonstrated success handling difficult people issues, performance management, and organizational change.
Strong operational background and ability to manage day-to-day execution.
Proven ability to lead through ambiguity, earn credibility with senior stakeholders, and make independent decisions.
Excellent judgment, emotional intelligence, and communication skills; ability to be direct, fair, and steady under pressure.
Comfort using data, metrics, and systems to manage performance and capacity.
Ability to have difficult conversations and make thoughtful, sometimes unpopular decisions.
Ability to balance empathy with accountability.
Strong follow-through and ownership.

Nice To Haves

Experience in legal or financial services, professional services, or similarly demanding client-facing environments.
Familiarity with process improvement, automation, or AI-enabled tools.

Responsibilities

Directly manage and develop professional support staff, emphasizing performance management, engagement, and accountability.
Address complex people issues, including role recalibration, resistance to change, and inconsistent engagement.
Build a culture of accountability, professionalism, trust, and psychological safety while setting and enforcing clear expectations.
Lead teams through organizational change, role evolution, and talent transformation.
Conduct regular one-on-ones, team meetings, and coaching conversations; provide direct, timely, and candid feedback.
Partner with HR on recruiting, onboarding, performance counseling, and employee relations matters.
Develop and retain talent through coaching, skills development, and succession planning.
Provide visible, hands-on leadership, stepping in alongside the team when needed to model standards and unblock work.
Own day-to-day operational execution for assigned teams and ensure work is appropriately staffed, prioritized, and delivered with high quality.
Monitor workload distribution, capacity, utilization, and overtime, making adjustments to support sustainable and consistent service.
Oversee workflow tools and systems, including ServiceNow or equivalent, to support effective delegation, escalation, and technology use.
Address attorney service issues as an escalation point, responding quickly and professionally.
Staff and oversee special projects, ensuring clear scope, deadlines, and accountability.
Lead teams through changes to roles, workflows, tools, and expectations; translate broader initiatives into actionable team expectations.
Identify operational friction, inefficiencies, or risks and implement pragmatic improvements that account for people impact.
Train and support staff on new processes, systems, and ways of working.
Collaborate with IT, Finance, HR, Practice Management, and Innovation to coordinate handoffs and execution.
Establish and monitor service delivery, workload, skill development, and team health metrics.
Use data to assess workload intensity, performance trends, and capability gaps, and take appropriate action.
Prepare clear, actionable updates for senior leadership that translate data into decisions.
Apply sound financial and operational judgment, including expense and overtime management.