Senior Manager, Legal Operations and Governance
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 role sits at the intersection of legal operations, legal spend management, vendor governance, and transformation, helping build a data-driven, scalable, and operationally efficient legal organization. The position strengthens governance and consistency across outside counsel and Alternative Legal Service Provider (ALSP) relationships and improves legal spend visibility, forecasting, reporting, and financial management. It partners with Legal, Finance, Technology, Security, Procurement, and external providers to improve operational effectiveness, support strategic decisions, and enhance the legal operating model. The role also contributes to legal technology, AI, and digital transformation initiatives; establishes and matures governance frameworks; and supports data-driven outside counsel management. This includes oversight of AI usage and application of AI, security, and compliance best practices across outside counsel and ALSP relationships. Success involves balancing operational, financial, technology, and vendor management priorities, influencing stakeholders, leading cross-functional initiatives, and supporting 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 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 ALSPs for legal work.
- Build the data foundation for improved 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.
- Establish criteria for outside counsel performance reviews and 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 related commercial discipline with outside counsel and ALSPs.
- Identify and lead opportunities for hybrid solutions involving AI technology, ALSPs, and outside counsel to improve operating-model efficiency, cost, and scale.
- Provide data, reporting, and financial insights to support value-based provider decisions.
- Reduce manual invoice processing and reporting through stronger e-billing processes and solutions.
- Expand e-billing solutions across 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 related to outside counsel management, billing operations, analytics, and digital transformation.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
