Mass Torts Settlement Operations Manager

Barnes & Thornburg LLP•Chicago, IL

4d•$125,000 - $165,000

About The Position

Barnes & Thornburg is seeking a Settlement Operations Manager to join its product liability and mass torts resolution practice. The role oversees systems, protocols, data integrity, and reporting standards across the practice’s resolution programs. Under the direction of the attorneys managing the matters, the Manager designs and standardizes settlement intake, tracking, quality assurance, and reporting procedures; 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 position 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 maintains knowledge of where information is held for each matter and how each tort’s structure and system configuration differ. The role reports to the partners and attorneys overseeing the firm’s mass tort settlement matters and coordinates with lead paralegals on each settlement team. It is an attorney-support position; settlement decisions, oversight, and ownership remain with the attorneys managing the matters. The Manager provides operational support throughout the settlement lifecycle, including claims intake, data management, recurring quality assurance and exception reporting, financial and payment tracking, coordination of lien-resolution and qualified settlement fund data, cross-platform synchronization, staff training, and documentation. The position works with settlement administrators, lien-resolution vendors, plaintiff’s counsel, firm technology personnel, and outside platform vendors under attorney supervision.

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 perform essential duties with minimal supervision, satisfactorily, with or without reasonable accommodation.
Ability to work under pressure and manage multiple concurrent workstreams.
Ability to interact regularly 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 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, where configurations differ, and system capabilities and limitations for each workstream.
Design, document, and maintain settlement intake, data-entry, tracking, and reporting protocols under attorney direction; coordinate with lead paralegals to standardize practices or document justified variations.
Administer settlement data quality assurance, define testing, build and run recurring QA and exception reports, communicate findings to responsible teams, and track remediation to closure.
Lead case and claim information intake, coordinate claimant data submissions with plaintiff’s 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 confirm delivered functionality works for the teams.
Maintain alignment of claim and settlement data across firm systems and third-party administrator portals; conduct recurring validation and resolve discrepancies in claimant status, documentation, and payment milestones.
Maintain a system of record for settlement payment status and history, tax documentation, and administrative expenses, ensuring 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 distribution of settlement funds.
Serve under attorney supervision as an administrative and data contact for settlement administrators, lien-resolution vendors, and plaintiff’s counsel on claim status, data submissions, and discrepancies.
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.