Focused on employment and labor law since 1958, Jackson Lewis P.C.’s 1,000+ attorneys located in major cities nationwide consistently identify and respond to new ways workplace law intersects business. We help employers develop proactive strategies, strong policies and business-oriented solutions to cultivate high-functioning workforces that are engaged and stable, and share our clients’ goals to emphasize belonging and respect for the contributions of every employee.
The Firm is ranked in the First Tier nationally in the category of Labor and Employment Litigation, as well as in both Employment Law and Labor Law on behalf of Management, in the U.S. News - Best Lawyers® “Best Law Firms”.
Job Summary (basic description)
The Litigation Paralegal Manager plays a key leadership role within the Legal Operations team, reporting to the Director of Legal Operations. This position is responsible for overseeing a team of paralegal leads and ensuring efficient and consistent operations across the national litigation paralegal team. Key responsibilities include supporting functions such as hiring, interviewing, training, and performance monitoring, with a strong focus on managing billable hours achievement, maintaining program standards, and driving process improvements. The Manager will also help implement initiatives to enhance team performance and operational effectiveness. This position carries a billable expectation of 1,000 hours, allowing for continued engagement in hands-on paralegal work.
Essential Functions
Manager Responsibilities:
- Manage a team of litigation paralegal leads, ensuring operational objectives are being met, including excellent client service, skill-matched assignments and career development.
- Track paralegal billable and non-billable hours monthly to ensure compliance with firm expectations.
- Collaborate with litigation paralegal leads to oversee paralegal hours, monitor work performance, address challenges and manage performance issues as necessary.
- Monitor overall utilization of paralegals to ensure timely, high-quality work product and paralegals’ billable hours achievement.
- Document, administer and manage standard operating procedures for teams to follow to ensure efficiency and quality of paralegal work, serve as an escalation point for unique circumstances and review errors to determine appropriate safe-guards or adjustments in future processes.
- Partner with Learning & Professional Development to develop and administer training and development curriculum, ensuring they are up to date with legal practices and firm protocols, leveraging leads in implementation.
- Update and maintain paralegal program documents, training materials and other resources, including the intranet page content.
- Analyze and summarize various management reports including but not limited to overtime reports, time entry compliance tracking, productivity reports, etc.
- Proficiency with time entry software – Intapp is a plus – and ensure direct reports are adhering to firm billing policies and best practices.
- Proficiency with case and document management systems – Litify and NetDocuments.
- Manage processes for paralegals involving performance evaluations, annual compensation, goal setting and performance management.
- Help drive a consistent annual evaluation process with actionable feedback, useful insights, and candid input from Leads.
- Ensure compliance with state and federal laws, maintaining the integrity of legal processes and documentation.
- Partner with Leads to assess caseloads, team needs and recommend appropriate adjustments to ensure proper staffing plans. Ensure appropriate backup and succession planning.
- Assist in implementation of firm and practice group best practices.
- Collaborate with practice group leaders and attorneys to align paralegal support with client needs.
- Develop and cultivate positive working relationships with practice group and firm leadership.
Paralegal Responsibilities:
- Wide range of experience in paralegal tasks reflecting required level of experience including, but not limited to:
- Demonstrate advanced knowledge and understanding of rules of civil procedures, and awareness of developments in appropriate forums.
- Demonstrate basic strategic thinking and initiative with case assignments.
- Draft documents in federal and state court and agency matters, and arbitration proceedings including motions, pleadings, notices, correspondence, etc. with attention to detail.
- Analyze, review and organize documents and data from materials produced during discovery; prepare/coordinate document production and responses to discovery requests including review of privileged documents.
- Prepare deposition and record subpoenas according to state and federal regulations; coordinate production of third-party records and summarize same; prepare deposition outlines and summaries.
- All aspects of trial and arbitration preparation, including familiarity with courtroom technology and trial software.
- Conduct legal research, including but not limited to, Lexis and Pacer research as well as basic cite-checking.
- Liaison with courts, opposing counsel, and litigation vendors, including process servers and couriers.
- Presentation of case summaries and courses of action to assigned case attorneys.
- Responsible for personal billable time entries and maintaining billable hours requirements.
- Responsible for personal time management and productivity.
- Maintain 1,000 personal billable hours requirement while balancing supervisory tasks.
- #LI-LM1
- #LI-Hybrid
Qualifications/Skills Required:
- Minimum of 7 years relevant working experience in a paralegal role in a big law environment with at least 1-2 years’ experience directly supervising the work of others.
- Bachelor’s degree in paralegal studies or a related field, or equivalent working experience is required.
- Strong knowledge of legal principles and terminology, and excellent organizational and leadership skills are essential.
- Demonstrate positive leadership and the ability to work effectively within practice group, across departments and across offices.
- Excellent written and oral communication skills.
- Highly focused and detail-oriented with exceptional analytical skills.
- High reliability, team-oriented, professional demeanor.
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills to liaise with personnel at all levels of the firm in order to handle sensitive, urgent and confidential information appropriately and professionally.
- Ability to maintain confidentiality with sensitive subject matter as it relates to performance matters.
- Ability to exercise sound judgment and respect in all situations.
- Strong customer service skills, able to anticipate needs and exercise independent judgment.
- Ability to troubleshoot billing or training issues as needed by using effective approaches for choosing a course of action or developing a solution.
- Ability to organize ideas in a clear and logical flow that is easily understood by the audience.
- Must be proactive and have excellent time management/organizational skills.
- Results oriented with creative problem-solving skills.
- Understand industry and practice group priorities and goals; actively apply knowledge and perspective to a project.
- Experience working on a wide variety of cases including federal and state, class-actions, and wage and hour productions as a paralegal.
- Proficiency in MS Office software, including Word, Outlook and Excel.
For those applying for a position in the city of Los Angeles, the firm will consider for employment qualified applicants with a criminal history in a manner consistent with applicable federal, state and local law.
For New York Metro area, the expected salary range for this position is between $125,000 and $137,500. The actual compensation will be determined based on experience and other factors permitted by law.
For California, the expected salary range for this position is between $125,000 and $137,500. The actual compensation will be determined based on experience and other factors permitted by law.
We are an equal employment opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, national origin, gender, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, marital status or any other characteristics protected by law. For those applying for a position in the city of Los Angeles, the firm will consider for employment qualified applicants with a criminal history in a manner consistent with applicable federal, state and local law.