Senior Manager - Legal Operations

United Airlines•Chicago, IL

72d•$124,735 - $162,388

About The Position

From airports to boardrooms, our Legal team provides advice and counsel on all aspects of the business, assessing legal risks and compliance, while our Ethics and Compliance team ensures that we run an ethically sound operation. Together, these teams help us make the best possible decisions for our airline, to run our business with integrity, ensuring our airline operates lawfully and ethically, creating a company we are all proud to work for. United's Legal Department is a recipient of Corporate Counsel's Best Legal Department Award! This role combines significant legal operations experience and expertise with a strategic focus on legal tech and GenAI tools, process improvement, change management, financial management, and optimization. The ideal candidate will be proactive in identifying opportunities to optimize ongoing processes, drive implementation of automation, and enhance the overall effectiveness and efficiencies of the department in collaboration with other department leaders. This role will be responsible for leading the Legal Department's continuous improvement initiatives while also managing external legal relationships and day to day internal operations.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree
6+ years of experience managing legal operations in a corporate legal department
Meticulous attention to detail
Exceptional organizational, communication, interpersonal, and problem solving skills
Resourceful self-starter with ability to multi-task effectively
Excellent data analytics skills and business judgment
Proficiency with Tableau, Power BI, or similar analytical tools
Systems administrator experience with a legal e-billing platform and document management system
Good financial acumen
Strong project management, change management, and process improvement abilities
Ability to work both independently and collaboratively in a cross-functional environment
Must be legally authorized to work in the United States for any employer without sponsorship
Successful completion of interview required to meet job qualification
Reliable, punctual attendance is an essential function of the position

Nice To Haves

Master's degree or related experience
MBA or JD
8+ years of experience managing legal operations for a large corporate legal department
Experience managing direct reports
Experience managing a migration to a new legal e-billing platform
iManage expertise
Proficiency with Microsoft Excel (Lookup functions)

Responsibilities

Lead the development and optimization of the department's legal tech stack, which currently includes an e-billing and matter management system, document management system, and GenAI tools
Lead the exploration, evaluation, and implementation of new legal tech; drive widespread user adoption and ensure effective resource utilization; provide training/support and systems administration; collaborate with cross-functional stakeholders
Leverage advanced data analytics to strategically assess the effectiveness of the department's processes/systems/workflows and vendor performance; lead cross-functional collaborations to design and implement strategic solutions and new business processes to drive outside counsel efficiencies; report on KPIs, benchmarks, and other metrics to senior leadership
Provide strategic thought leadership to senior legal leaders on optimizing financial and budget management; establish strong financial discipline across all legal matters, including budget planning, accrual management, spend analytics, and forecasting; embed controls and monitoring to ensure compliance with billing agreements and guidelines
Partner with legal practice group leaders to develop and execute department initiatives and goals aligned with organizational objectives as well as driving practical solutions to complex business problems by leveraging data
Build strategic partnerships with other legal operations leaders to stay current with best practices, emerging trends, and the latest industry knowledge