Senior Manager, Client Rate Strategy

Barnes & Thornburg LLP•Indianapolis, IN

21h

About The Position

Summary: The Senior Manager, Client Rate Strategy position is a high-profile, senior leadership role within the Firm with significant responsibility over all aspects of client rate arrangements, revenue management strategy, and financial analysis related to the Firm's rate-setting practices. This individual will serve as the primary strategic lead for rate and financial matters involving the Firm's largest and most complex clients, including collecting and analyzing data pertaining to the setting of rates, leading rate negotiations, and advising Firm leadership on rate strategy and revenue optimization. The Senior Manager, Client Rate Strategy is responsible for the system setup and maintenance pertaining to timekeeper, matter, and client rate arrangements, reporting on and auditing rates within the billing system, and providing rate information and financial analysis to various teams within the Firm. This position will work closely with the Rates Team, Pricing Team, Legal Operations Team, and Billing Team to manage and maintain the Firm's rates, identify pricing and revenue opportunities, and ensure rate arrangements align with the Firm's financial objectives. The Senior Manager, Client Rate Strategy will have daily interactions with Firm partners, Legal Operations members, other internal departments, and clients. Consequently, a high level of personal confidence, professionalism, and executive presence is required.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, or a related field required; advanced degree or professional certification (e.g., MBA, CFA, CPA) preferred.
A minimum of 8 years of progressive experience with handling rates, revenue management, and financial analysis in a similar law firm environment, with demonstrated experience managing rate arrangements for large, complex client portfolios.
Proven track record of working directly with complex financials, pricing/rate strategy, and revenue optimization initiatives.
Advanced Excel skills required, including expert-level proficiency in PivotTables, VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, INDEX/MATCH, complex nested formulas, data modeling, and the creation of professional-grade financial reports.
Strong financial analysis and revenue management skills, with the ability to synthesize large datasets into actionable strategic insights.
Knowledge of Thomson Reuters 3E software preferred.
Strong attention to detail and organizational skills.
Ability to efficiently execute, review, and organize a high volume of client rate activity.
Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to present findings and recommendations to senior Firm leadership and clients.
Strong interpersonal skills and executive presence to work effectively with the Legal Operations team, Firm partners, and the Firm's most significant clients.
Ability to adapt to cyclical periods, peak workloads, new assignments, and deadlines in order to work effectively within a fast-paced environment.

Responsibilities

Serve as the Firm's senior-level point of contact for rate negotiations with the Firm's largest clients, developing and executing rate strategies that maximize revenue and maintain strong client relationships.
Conduct advanced financial analysis of rate arrangements, revenue trends, and realization data to advise Firm leadership on pricing decisions and revenue management opportunities.
Coordinate with Firm partners and various departments to assess, set, and implement all aspects of rate arrangements, with a particular focus on the Firm's largest and most strategically important client relationships.
Liaise with and guide the Legal Operations teams and Accounting teams regarding all rate arrangements, providing mentorship and oversight to junior team members.
Create and analyze timekeeper and rate reports to facilitate new rate negotiations with clients, leveraging advanced Excel modeling and data analysis techniques.
Ensure that team members follow established workflow processes for rate approval and implementation.
Monitor and coordinate yearly rate increases for existing client arrangements, performing revenue impact analysis and presenting recommendations to senior leadership.
Analyze rate arrangements to determine the proper term period of a given client's rates and keep partners informed of upcoming rate expirations.
Proactively seek and identify enhancements to existing rate-setting practices and revenue management processes.
Own the data collection, analysis, and communication portions of the Firm's annual exception rate review and e-billed client rate review processes.
Enter new or update existing client/matter billing rates; review and modify new matter intake where needed.
Review client engagement letters and outside counsel guidelines; update matters for compliance with listed requirements, including documenting special rate increase requirements.
Provide assistance to internal clients regarding rate and pricing questions, including providing historical context for rate arrangements and producing various statistical reports, Excel spreadsheets/pivot tables.
Produce Excel or CSV spreadsheets for the purpose of individual or batch rate loads into electronic billing systems.