Mass Torts Settlement Operations Manager

Barnes & Thornburg LLP•Philadelphia, PA

About The Position

Barnes & Thornburg is seeking a Settlement Operations Manager to join its product liability and mass torts resolution practice. The role works across the practice’s resolution programs and is responsible for systems, protocols, data integrity, and reporting standards. The manager oversees the day-to-day execution of settlement operations by designing and standardizing intake, tracking, quality assurance, and reporting procedures under the direction of attorneys managing the matters. The position serves as a subject matter expert on the team’s case management platform and translates practice needs into requirements for firm technology personnel and outside platform vendors. The role is intended for someone with mass torts or settlement paralegal experience who has moved beyond individual case and docket support into coordinating systems, building procedures, and standardizing practices across teams. The manager is expected to understand where information resides on each matter and how each tort’s structure and system configuration differ. The position reports to the partners and attorneys overseeing mass tort settlement matters and coordinates with lead paralegals on each settlement team. It is an attorney support role; settlement decisions, oversight, and ownership remain with the attorneys managing the matters. The position requires working in a normal law office environment and may require periodic travel to firm offices to work directly with settlement teams. The manager must be able to work under pressure, manage multiple concurrent workstreams, interact regularly with attorneys, legal staff, firm technology personnel, and outside parties, and perform essential duties with minimal supervision, with or without reasonable accommodation. Duties may change based on firm needs.

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, beyond supporting 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; 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 ability to build, interpret, and maintain recurring reports.
Proven track record managing high-volume data and identifying 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 perform essential duties satisfactorily with minimal supervision, with or without reasonable accommodation.
Ability to work under pressure and manage multiple concurrent workstreams.
Regular interaction with attorneys, legal staff, firm technology personnel, and outside parties; periodic travel to firm offices may be required.

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 throughout the settlement lifecycle.
Serve as the practice’s primary subject matter expert on case management and settlement tracking systems used for mass tort resolution; document configurations, differences, and system capabilities and limitations.
Design, document, and maintain settlement-team intake, data-entry, tracking, and reporting protocols under attorney direction; standardize practices where appropriate and document necessary variations.
Administer settlement data quality assurance, including defining tests, building and running recurring QA and exception reports, issuing findings, and tracking remediation through closure.
Lead intake of case and claim information, coordinate with plaintiff firms on claimant data submissions, 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 confirm that delivered functionality works for teams in practice.
Maintain alignment of claim and settlement data across firm systems and third-party administrator portals through recurring cross-platform validation, and resolve discrepancies in claimant status, documentation, and payment milestones.
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, and track conditions precedent to settlement fund distributions.
Serve as an administrative and data point of contact for settlement administrators, lien-resolution vendors, and plaintiff’s counsel regarding claim status, data submissions, and discrepancies, under attorney supervision.
Train lead paralegals, settlement team members, and new staff on protocols and system use; maintain reference documentation and job aids.
Perform other duties related to settlement operations as assigned.