Manager, Legal Operations

California Dental Association • Sacramento, CA

3d • $120,000 - $150,000 • Remote

About The Position

The Manager, Legal Operations is responsible for the contract function and the operating infrastructure of the legal department across CDA and its related entities, including CDA Foundation, CDA Holding Company, The Dentists Insurance Company, TDIC Insurance Solutions, and Rotunda Partners. This position is a hands-on role for someone who understands how legal teams operate, can move from problem identification to implementation quickly, and enjoys building processes and technology that enable the legal, compliance and governance functions to operate at the pace and scale our business demands.

The position manages the full contract lifecycle, from intake and first pass review through execution, retention, and renewal, and maintains the systems, files, records, and calendars the department depends on, as well as provides administrative oversight and support across a broad range of legal functions, including state and insurance regulatory filings, corporate and governance records, intake and tracking of claims and incidents, litigation and outside counsel administration, insurance certificate and vendor records, and administration of the organization’s ethics hotline. The Manager supervises the department’s executive assistant and may supervise additional legal support staff.

The Legal department operates across a wide range of subject matter, and this position is expected to move between contract work, filings, governance support, claims and litigation administration, and department projects as priorities shift. The Manager is expected to build the processes the department runs on, not simply to administer processes designed by others.

Requirements

• 5+ years of legal administration experience, including significant contract management experience.
• Experience with contract administration and litigation/regulatory matter tracking and management.
• Highly organized and detail oriented, with a methodical approach to tracking obligations and deadlines.
• Self-starter who identifies problems, proposes solutions, and completes work independently in a remote environment, along with a willingness to identify, learn and implement technology.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to work effectively with staff, executives, volunteers, and outside parties.
• Proficiency with Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and document management and collaboration platforms.
• The work requires sustained independent judgment, discretion in handling privileged and confidential material, and the organizational discipline to keep a small department’s obligations tracked and current without close supervision.

Nice To Haves

• Demonstrated experience managing the full contract lifecycle, including first pass review of routine agreements against established templates and playbooks.
• Demonstrated experience designing and implementing processes, workflows, or programs from the ground up, not solely administering processes built by others.
• Demonstrated experience building and maintaining new systems and processes as identified above and maintaining organizational records with a high degree of accuracy.
• Demonstrated experience documenting procedures, building templates and checklists, and training others on their use.
• Experience working directly with attorneys and handling privileged and confidential material with discretion and sound judgment.
• Proven ability to take ambiguous problems, define the approach, and carry the work through to completion with limited direction.
• Adaptable across subject matter areas and comfortable supporting varied and shifting legal needs across multiple entities.
• Sound judgment about when to act independently and when to escalate to counsel.
• Ability to manage competing priorities and meet deadlines across multiple entities and stakeholders.
• Prior paralegal or legal assistant experience.
• Supervisory experience.
• Experience with corporate, insurance, or state regulatory filings.
• Experience in a small or lean legal department where the role covered multiple functions.

Responsibilities

• Manage the contract lifecycle for all entities, including intake, triage, routing, approval tracking, supporting legal review by attorneys or other required parties, execution, distribution, retention, and closeout.
• Conduct first pass review of routine agreements against approved templates and department playbooks.
• Escalate to counsel any agreement that departs from an approved template or playbook position.
• Coordinate agreement execution and retention.
• Track and provide advance notice of renewals, expirations, termination windows, and annual price adjustments, including cost of living and other scheduled increases.
• Lead the design or selection process of a contract management software to support all enterprise contract review and tracking needs.
• Design, document, and implement department processes and workflows, and revise them as the organization’s needs change.
• Assess existing practices, identify gaps, and propose and implement solutions.
• Establish standards that produce consistent results.
• Build and maintain reporting that gives visibility into contract volume, cycle time, obligations, and deadlines.
• Lead or support department projects from planning through implementation.
• Serve as the department’s process resource for other departments that interact with legal.
• Build and own the department tickler and reminder system covering contract related dates, date-sensitive regulatory or litigation processes, state registrations and license renewals, certificates of insurance, and charter and bylaw review cycles.
• Organize annual industry legal and regulatory reference materials used by the business units, maintain current versions in the department files, and distribute as directed.
• Own the legal department records retention schedule and support its application.
• Support preparation and submission of corporate, state and insurance regulatory filings in collaboration with other departments and staff.
• Monitor changes in registration and filing requirements across states and advise the Chief Legal Officer of new or changed obligations.
• Draft and support the drafting of dental society charters, charter revocations, and related organizational documents.
• Support the maintenance of rosters, bylaws, charters, and entity corporate records in current and accurate form for filings, audits, and examinations.
• Serve as a remote backup resource to the governance team.
• Serve as an intake point for reports of potential claims, incidents, and liabilities across the organization and its entities.
• Maintain the master log of claims, incidents, and open matters, and track each through resolution and closure.
• Coordinate reporting of claims and incidents to carriers and brokers at the direction of counsel, and maintain the related correspondence and records.
• Maintain the litigation and claims matter docket, including intake, matter numbering, status tracking, and file organization.
• Serve as the administrative point of contact for outside counsel, coordinating document and information requests, tracking deadlines and deliverables, and confirming that requested materials are complete and timely.
• Issue and track litigation hold notices and custodian acknowledgments at the direction of counsel.
• Administer the organization’s ethics hotline and web intake system and route reports promptly to the applicable staff contact.
• Design and maintain a single unified file structure for the legal, governance, and Council on Professionalism and Mediation functions, and support its consistent use across the department.
• Implement and own the integrity of the department’s records, including naming conventions, version control, completeness of matter and entity files, and elimination of duplicate and shadow repositories (including implementation of the system and migration of records from existing locations).
• Serve as business owner of the department’s contract management system, including requirements, configuration decisions, testing, data quality, user administration, and training.
• Administer the department’s matter and workflow tracking tools and identify and implement process improvements that reduce turnaround time and eliminate manual tracking.
• Supervise additional support staff assigned, including assignment of work, coaching, development, and performance management.
• Document and maintain department procedures, including desk procedures and cross training.
• Provide support across the full range of department functions and adjust priorities as matters, deadlines, and organizational needs require.
• Take on new subject matter areas and responsibilities as the department’s work evolves, developing working knowledge of unfamiliar areas quickly and asking the right questions of counsel.
• Anticipate needs and act on them without direction, escalating matters that require legal judgment while resolving administrative and process issues independently.
• Serve as a resource to staff, executives, and volunteer leaders on department processes and status of pending matters.
• Handle privileged, confidential, and sensitive information with discretion and maintain privilege in the department’s files and systems.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Benefits

• Remote and hybrid flexibility and technology to support remote work
• Generous time off program starting at 22 days of PTO and13 paid holidays (includes a floating holiday and winter closure)
• Highly competitive medical, dental and vision plans, including FSA and HSA account options
• 401(k) plans, with a generous match and safe harbor contributions upon eligibility
• Paid parental leave
• Wellness programs, including incentives and an In-Shape Family Fitness discount
• Opportunities for professional development, training and leadership skill-building
• Critical illness, accident, life, pet, short term and long-term disability insurance options
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for support navigating day-to-day challenges

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed