Legal Staff Paralegal in New York City, NY

Law Firm

New York City, NY

Legal Staff Paralegal in New York City, NY

Legal Staff

No

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Director of Paralegal Services Duties: Build and maintain a program that ensures the hiring, development, and retention of paralegals with the appropriate skill sets to meet these objectives. Oversee the firm's Paralegal Services program to enhance client service, drive efficiency, inspire excellence, and support matter teams in achieving optimal results. Responsible for maximizing utilization of paralegal resources and driving revenue/profitability of the program with a focus on strategically identifying opportunities to support firm and client needs. Collaborate with members of the Innovation and Value Department as well as lawyers and Practice Group Leaders to ensure the success of the program. Develop short and long-term paralegal program objectives and initiatives, implement enhancements, refine systems, and continuously evaluate program effectiveness to ensure the delivery of consistently exceptional paralegal support. Perform ongoing capability needs assessment through regular communication with lawyers, Practice Management, Legal Project Management, and Practice Innovation, making the business case for building new capabilities or hiring where appropriate. Recruit, screen, interview, and select high-quality candidates when business needs require. Onboard new hires to ensure proper orientation and understanding of the firm and department guidelines, standards, and practices and well as integration into the firm. Recommend structure to support employee progression and ensure retention of top talent. Collaborate with department directors on a campaign to educate lawyers about the Paralegal Services program and its benefits to firm and clients. Assess individual paralegal skills, identify strengths and areas for development, and set short and long-term goals for professional development. Create and maintain a culture of continuous improvement and efficiency, encouraging paralegals to maximize use of available technology and coordinating training when necessary. Work with the Director of Practice Innovation and members of the IT Department to identify technology for evaluation, training, and implementation if appropriate. Manage and support paralegals to achieve firm and department goals. Develop and implement processes for allocating paralegal assignments across firm. Collaborate with matter teams to assign to matters paralegals who meet the required skill set, billing rate/cost structure, and availability necessary to meet client/matter needs. Regularly collect performance feedback from lawyers and provide feedback and coaching to paralegals when necessary in real-time. Monitor billable hours and utilization regularly. Track overtime and write-downs and communicate with billing/supervising attorneys to understand rationale, implementing solutions to address concerns. Maintain an open door policy for paralegals, and proactively focus on performance management by coaching and counseling paralegals as needed. Manage the annual performance evaluation process, encouraging attorney written feedback, and make compensation and merit bonus recommendations. Serve as a liaison between the paralegal staff and other administrative departments, working closely with those departments to identify and resolve issues and implement best practices in providing legal services support. Manage time-off requests and sign off on paralegal timesheets. Communicate with Practice Group Leaders, Practice Management, and Chief Innovation and Value Officer regarding employee issues, escalating to Human Resources as necessary. Conduct Quarterly firmwide paralegal meetings, and coordinate department/ practice group specific trainings when necessary; and perform other duties as assigned.

Qualifications: Bachelor's degree required and advanced degree desired. Should have 8-10 years of management experience and a solid track record of success, preferably in a professional services environment. Must have strong oral and written communications skills. The position requires periodic travel to the Firm's offices. Outstanding managerial and organizational skills. Must have established knowledge of the legal and business environments, and an understanding of financial management. Experience working with pivot tables and data cubes. Excellent interpersonal skills with a customer service focus. Ability to meet assigned deadlines. Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications especially Excel. Ability to think strategically and analytically. Ability to juggle a variety of projects and be a highly motivated self-starter. Demonstrates sound judgment and discretion, and ability to maintain confidence. Must be able to work with the senior management in the Firm and work well as part of a team.