Senior Manager, Legal Operations and Governance

ADP•Roseland, NJ

7d•Hybrid

About The Position

ADP is hiring a Senior Manager, Legal Operations and Governance to advance and modernize its management of outside counsel, legal service providers, legal technology, and legal spend. The position operates across legal operations, spend management, vendor governance, and transformation, helping build a data-driven, scalable, and operationally efficient legal organization. The Senior Manager will strengthen governance and consistency across outside counsel and Alternative Legal Service Provider (ALSP) relationships, improve legal spend visibility and financial management, and partner with Legal, Finance, Technology, Security, Procurement, and external providers. The role also contributes to legal technology, AI, and digital transformation initiatives, including oversight of AI use and application of security and compliance best practices across outside counsel and ALSP relationships. Success requires balancing operational, financial, technology, and vendor priorities, building stakeholder trust, and leading cross-functional change, including global legal budget planning and management.

Requirements

8–10 years of relevant experience in Legal Operations, outside counsel management, legal vendor management, law firm operations, ALSP management, or a corporate legal department.
Demonstrated understanding of law firm operations, outside counsel engagement models, billing practices, fee arrangements, and legal vendor management.
Experience supporting complex global legal budgets, including outside counsel spend management, budgeting, forecasting, reporting, spend controls, and vendor performance management.
Experience evaluating and managing relationships with outside counsel, ALSPs, or other legal service vendors.
Strong understanding of legal department operations and the ability to identify opportunities to improve efficiency, governance, and cost management.
Experience building partnerships, influencing without direct authority, and navigating challenging stakeholder conversations to drive alignment and outcomes.
Strong project management experience and ability to lead complex initiatives in a matrixed environment.
Experience partnering with Legal, Finance, Technology, Security, Procurement, and external service providers.
Experience translating operational, financial, data, risk, and compliance considerations into practical recommendations and business decisions.
Experience using data, reporting, and analytics in a legal or professional services environment to support decisions, improve processes, and identify operational and financial improvements.
Experience supporting legal technology, e-billing, matter management, AI, digital transformation, or related operational initiatives.
Proven ability to build trust-based relationships and drive meaningful change across diverse groups and competing priorities.
Bachelor’s degree or equivalent.

Nice To Haves

Experience working within a law firm environment.
Experience supporting law firm performance management, alternative fee arrangements, or legal vendor procurement initiatives.
Experience with legal analytics, AI governance, or digital transformation initiatives within a corporate legal environment.
Experience supporting a global legal department or complex multinational organization.

Responsibilities

Support modernization of outside counsel and ALSP management across Legal.
Strengthen governance and consistency across outside counsel and ALSP engagements.
Build the data foundation for better “Build vs Buy” decisions involving law firms, ALSPs, internal teams, and technology.
Coordinate initiatives across Legal, Finance, Technology, Security, Procurement, and external providers.
Support reporting, security, compliance, and data governance across outside counsel data flows and risk tiers.
Improve matter-level legal spend visibility, reporting, forecasting, accruals, and budget discipline.
Support management of complex global legal budgets, including outside counsel spend, forecasting, reporting, and spend controls.
Support data-driven provider-selection decisions and establish criteria for outside counsel performance reviews.
Lead performance review panels with legal stakeholders and outside counsel and ALSPs.
Serve as the leading administrator and focal point for the existing e-billing framework.
Support alternative fee arrangements and commercial discipline with outside counsel and ALSPs in partnership with legal stakeholders.
Identify and lead opportunities for hybrid solutions involving AI technology, ALSPs, and outside counsel to improve efficiency, cost, and scale.
Provide data, reporting, and financial insights to support value-based provider decisions.
Reduce manual invoice processing and reporting through improved e-billing processes and solutions.
Expand e-billing solutions to legal teams and geographic locations to align with legal support coverage.
Strengthen billing governance, matter-level controls, and process discipline across outside counsel engagements.
Support oversight of AI usage, compliance, and maturity governance on the law firm and ALSP side.
Support legal technology and e-billing initiatives that improve data quality, operational efficiency, and spend governance.
Partner on cross-functional implementations involving outside counsel management, billing operations, analytics, and digital transformation.