Chicago - Outside Counsel Guidelines Attorney

Winston Taylor•Chicago, IL

1d•$145,000 - $185,000

About The Position

The Outside Counsel Guidelines Attorney serves as a senior legal and risk-management resource within the Office of General Counsel/Conflicts Department. The role supports the review, negotiation, governance, and implementation of outside counsel guidelines, non-standard engagement terms, client retention agreements, onboarding requirements, RFP terms, panel terms, and related client-tendered agreements. The attorney helps assess how client terms may affect conflicts, professional responsibility, pricing, billing, information security, privacy, records, AI and legal technology, audit rights, work product, and firmwide client strategy. Working with relationship partners and teams across Conflicts, New Business Intake, Pricing, Billing, Collections, Records, Information Security, Legal Technology/Privacy, Business Development, and the U.K./international risk function, the attorney identifies legal, ethical, operational, and commercial issues; develops recommendations; prepares client-facing responses; preserves approved firm protections; and documents approved terms and exceptions. The role also supports coordination and harmonization of U.S. and international review processes, maintains guidance and records, and recommends improvements to workflows and policies. It may be hybrid or fully remote, but the employee must live within commuting distance of a firm office. Time-sensitive response support outside regular business hours may be required when necessary.

Requirements

J.D. from an accredited law school.
Active bar membership in good standing in at least one U.S. jurisdiction.
At least three years of experience reviewing, drafting, negotiating, or advising on client engagement terms, outside counsel guidelines, professional responsibility issues, conflicts, risk management, commercial contracts, or comparable legal operations matters in a law firm, corporate legal department, or professional services environment.
Must reside within a commutable distance of a firm office.
Strong contract drafting, redlining, negotiation, written communication, and issue-spotting skills.
Ability to work with partners, attorneys, business professionals, and client-facing teams at all levels while maintaining discretion, professionalism, and sound judgment.
High attention to detail, strong organizational skills, and ability to manage multiple time-sensitive reviews simultaneously.
Practical legal judgment and risk calibration.
Clear, concise, partner-ready communication.
Process ownership and follow-through.
Collaborative influence across functions and jurisdictions.
Client-service orientation, confidentiality, discretion, and professionalism.

Nice To Haves

Demonstrated ability to identify legal, ethical, operational, and commercial risk in complex client-drafted terms and translate issues into clear recommendations.
Proficiency with Microsoft Excel.
Working knowledge of AI-enabled tools and demonstrated ability to learn, adopt, and help operationalize new applications, platforms, and workflow technologies.
Experience in an Am Law 100 global law firm or similarly complex professional services environment.
Familiarity with conflicts rules, professional responsibility principles, engagement letters, identity-of-client provisions, advance waivers, and common OCG negotiation issues.
Experience with Intapp Open/New Business Intake, Intapp Terms, iManage, or other client-terms repositories or conflicts and intake systems.
Experience coordinating cross-functional legal or risk reviews across U.S., U.K., European, or other international stakeholders.

Responsibilities

Review and negotiate outside counsel guidelines, client-drafted engagement letters, panel terms, and RFP terms.
Lead responses to client diligence, compliance questionnaires, and other requests requiring coordination across multiple stakeholders.
Coordinate the OCG review workflow by triaging submissions, identifying stakeholders, circulating materials, consolidating comments, resolving conflicting feedback, and preparing partner-ready summaries and recommendations.
Draft and revise client-facing responses, addenda, exception letters, markups, and explanatory comments consistent with approved firm positions.
Advise relationship partners, client teams, RFP teams, and business professionals on proposed client terms, approved positions, and emerging risks.
Support client negotiation strategy by explaining standard positions and proposing acceptable fallback language.
Partner with Conflicts in new business intake to align engagement letters, terms, conflict waivers, client notes, and matter-opening conditions with OCGs.
Support harmonization of the U.S. and U.K./international OCG review process.
Maintain records of negotiated positions, approved exceptions, client terms, communications, and implementation notes in designated repositories.
Develop and update OCG playbooks, standard positions, fallback language, issue-spotting checklists, escalation protocols, and training materials.
Monitor recurring OCG issues and market trends and recommend process or policy improvements.
Report periodically on OCG volume, turnaround issues, recurring negotiation points, and process risks, and recommend improvements to reduce delay, duplication, and inconsistent outcomes.
Perform other duties supporting the Office of General Counsel and client new business intake risk-management functions.
Provide response support for time-sensitive matters outside regular business hours when necessary.
Demonstrate responsive, high-quality client service.