Mass Torts Settlement Operations Manager

Barnes & Thornburg LLP•Washington, DC

4d•$125,000 - $165,000

About The Position

Barnes & Thornburg is seeking a Settlement Operations Manager to support its product liability and mass torts resolution practice. The manager oversees systems, protocols, data integrity, and reporting standards across resolution programs, coordinating the day-to-day execution of settlement work under the direction of the attorneys managing the matters. The role is designed for someone with mass torts or settlement paralegal experience who has moved beyond individual case support into coordinating systems, building procedures, and standardizing practices across teams. The manager serves as the practice’s subject matter expert on its case management and settlement tracking systems, maintains knowledge of how matters are configured, and translates practice needs into requirements for firm technology personnel and outside platform vendors. The position reports to the partners and attorneys overseeing mass tort settlement matters and coordinates with lead paralegals on settlement teams. It is an attorney support role; settlement decisions, oversight, and ownership remain with the attorneys managing the matters. The position is based in a normal law office environment, with periodic travel to firm offices potentially required to work directly with settlement teams. It involves regular interaction with attorneys, legal staff, firm technology personnel, and outside parties, and requires the ability to manage pressure and multiple concurrent workstreams. The manager must be able to perform the essential duties with minimal supervision, with or without reasonable accommodation.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree and at least 5 years of relevant experience in mass torts, complex litigation, settlement administration, insurance claims, or a comparable high-volume claims environment.
Demonstrated experience building, documenting, or standardizing processes across multiple teams or matters, rather than supporting only a single case or matter.
Significant experience with legal case management, claims, or CRM systems, such as Case Manager Pro, Litify, or Filevine, or other SQL- or database-backed claims and litigation platforms, including a working understanding of relational case and claim data structures.
Working knowledge of settlement administration mechanics, including claimant inventories, releases, lien resolution, QSF administration, and payment tracking.
Advanced Excel skills, including pivot tables, lookups, and data validation, and the ability to build, interpret, and maintain recurring reports.
Proven ability to manage high-volume data and identify inconsistencies across large medical and claims datasets and legal documentation.
Proficiency in, or strong aptitude for, emerging legal AI tools for document review, data extraction, and reporting.
Excellent organization, attention to detail, problem-solving, and time-management skills, with the ability to work independently and as part of a fast-paced, high-performing team.
Ability to handle confidential and sensitive information with discretion and professionalism.
Ability to work under pressure and manage multiple concurrent workstreams.
Ability to perform essential duties with minimal supervision, with or without reasonable accommodation.

Nice To Haves

Paralegal certification.
Experience at a settlement administrator, lien-resolution provider, qualified settlement fund administrator, or third-party claims administrator.
Experience designing quality assurance or audit procedures for claims or case data.
Experience training or coordinating staff across multiple teams without direct reporting authority.

Responsibilities

Provide high-level technical and administrative support to attorneys managing mass tort settlements, including claim and case data management, tracking, reporting, and quality control across the settlement lifecycle.
Serve as the practice’s subject matter expert on case management and settlement tracking systems, documenting how each tort is configured and how configurations and system capabilities differ by workstream.
Design, document, and maintain settlement intake, data-entry, tracking, and reporting protocols under attorney direction; standardize practices where appropriate and document deliberate variations.
Administer settlement-data quality assurance, including defining tests, building and running recurring QA and exception reports, communicating findings, and tracking remediation through closure.
Lead intake of case and claim information, coordinate claimant data submissions with plaintiff firms, and reconcile submitted inventories against firm records.
Administer data import, export, batch-update, and reporting workflows; identify needed capabilities and define requirements.
Translate practice needs into business requirements for firm technology personnel and outside platform vendors; participate in design discussions, perform acceptance testing, and verify that functionality is usable in practice.
Maintain alignment of claim and settlement data across firm systems and third-party administrator portals through recurring cross-platform validation and discrepancy resolution.
Maintain settlement payment tracking as a system of record, including payment status and history, tax documentation, and administrative expenses, and ensure records are complete and audit-ready.
Coordinate and report healthcare, lien-resolution, and QSF data with settlement administrators, lien-resolution vendors, and clients; track conditions precedent to settlement-fund distribution.
Serve under attorney supervision as an administrative and data point of contact for settlement administrators, lien-resolution vendors, and plaintiff’s counsel regarding claim status, submissions, and discrepancies.
Train lead paralegals, settlement team members, and new staff on protocols and systems; maintain reference documentation and job aids.
Perform other duties related to settlement operations as assigned.