Need help hiring top legal talent? Contact our team.

This job is expired. See open roles here

Legal Operations Strategic Engagement Manager - Legal Vendors/Law Firms

Apple

Posted Sep 15

Full Time

On SiteCupertino, California

Imagine what you could do here. At Apple, new ideas have a way of becoming great products, services, and customer experiences very quickly. Bring passion and dedication to your job and there's no telling what you could accomplish.

Apple’s Legal Operations team is seeking a Senior Partnership Manager to develop and maintain Apple’s strategic relationships with law firms. Collaborating with the leaders in the legal operations organization, procurement, and practice areas, the ideal candidate will have extensive knowledge of law firm roles, rates, and systems. You will be asked to develop key relationships across Apple and within the Legal organization to effectively manage engagements.

Key Qualifications

8+ years experience in a legal, operational, or financial field preferably in an environment where those areas of expertise overlap.
Demonstrated experience in law firm/vendor management, legal procurement, value, cost savings, and alternative fee arrangements.
Direct customer relationship management and demonstrated ability to maintain and improve an excellent level of customer satisfaction, quality and efficiency standards.
Demonstrated experience in legal rate evaluation, auctions, alternative fee arrangements, procurement of legal services and strategic fiscal planning.
A seasoned leader that is proactive in the identification of issues that could impact the vendor experience and successfully engages partners on plans for improvement.
Self-starter with strong analytical and financial competence.
Experience implementing process redesign and improvement initiatives and a proven track record of delivering value to the business (cost savings, ROI, efficiency, automation, compliance etc).
Ability to exercise considerable judgment and discretion in dealing with confidential and sensitive issues.
Strong interpersonal and communication skills, both oral and written.
Ability to handle multiple projects simultaneously and prioritize and reprioritize.
Exceptional negotiating skills, along with a strong presence and ability to influence others, including senior leadership.
Excellent program management capabilities, including regular communication of project status, key actions, risks and opportunities.
Self-directed, able to work independently, as well as work in a team-orientated and dynamic environment.
Nimble with ability to take decisive action to address business needs that meet corporate business objectives.
Superior interpersonal and presentation skills with proven track record of success in prior roles.
Knowledge of the latest industry trends and evolving market forces governing legal and expert firm rates.

Description

Responsible for development, implementation and enhancement of department processes, systems, and tools. - Provide strategic support for Apple’s inclusion and diversity supplier programs.
Translate team goals and priorities into a strategic plan and subsequently drive, track, and report progress of such plan.
Drive the development of monthly and quarterly business metrics and provide operational analysis through reports and dashboards.
Oversee budget and annual planning, expense management efforts, conducting expense reviews, forecasting, budget-to-actual variance analysis, and reporting on costs, savings, and spotting trends.
Build strong relationships with key stakeholders including finance and internal business partners to identify, understand and fulfill their requirements.
Proactively collaborating with business partners and stakeholders to support contract negotiation with law firms/vendors; develop negotiation approaches, fallback positions and acceptable terms and conditions through contract completion.
Partner with the legal operations technology and IS&T teams to clearly articulate business requirements for technology enablement across eBilling, matter management, vendor management and associated processes and analytics.
Review existing contracts and understand business requirements; formulate guidelines and design standard vendor contract protocols.
Manage strategic legal operations vendors, consulting agencies, and contractors as needed.