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Director, Legal Operations

Adtalem Global Education
Posted May 27
Full Time
On Site
Chicago, Illinois

Job Description

Company Description

About Adtalem Global Education

Adtalem Global Education is a national leader in post-secondary education and leading provider of professional talent to the healthcare industry. Adtalem educates and empowers students with the knowledge and skills to become leaders in their communities and make a lasting impact on public health, well-being and beyond. Through equitable access to education, environments that nurture student success, and a focus on expanding and diversifying the talent pipeline in healthcare, Adtalem is building a brighter future for communities and the world.

Adtalem was named one of America’s Most Responsible Companies in 2021 and 2023 by Newsweek and Statista, and one of America’s Best Employers for Diversity in 2021 and 2022 by Forbes and Statista. Adtalem’s family of institutions has more than 300,000 alumni and 10,000 employees. Adtalem is the parent organization of American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine, Chamberlain University, Ross University School of Medicine, Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine and Walden University.

Visit Adtalem.com for more information, and follow on Twitter and LinkedIn.
 

Job Description

Opportunity at a Glance

The Legal Operations Director is responsible for all operational and financial management for Adtalem Global Education’s Legal Department. The Legal Operations Director is dedicated to designing and maintaining optimal legal processes, deploying tactics to keep the legal team on budget, and providing outstanding customer support to incoming legal requests from the business.  The role will support the Legal Team in providing outstanding and timely services to the business and the institutions.  The role is financially responsible for the fees and expenses associated with all legal matters for the enterprise. The Legal Operations Director is also responsible for vendor management, reporting and technology for the Department, and is responsible for establishing policies and procedures that leverage Company policy, external benchmarks, best practices, and industry best practices. The Legal Operations Director will report directly to the General Counsel. 

Responsibilities

Strategic Planning and Execution

  • Responsible for developing, refining and promoting the legal department’s mission, and developing and executing on the department’s short and long term operations plan
  • Provide creative thinking to help identify and develop cutting-edge strategies for increasing value and reducing outside legal spend while maintaining excellent legal representation and optimizing engagement practices with our law firms and other legal vendors
  • Create metrics and monitor progress to measure success against strategic plans

 

Department Administration

  • Serves as point of contact for Legal Operations needs
  • Manage new hire onboarding processes for the legal department;
  • Recruit, select, train, appraise performance, and administer salaries of reporting employees
  • Coordinates floor space issues, equipment, new hire orientation
  • Identify training opportunities, facilitate education on best practices, and create department-specific guidelines and policies
  • Coordinate quarterly department meetings and GC Staff Meetings by developing agenda with GC and leadership team, records notes and action items in each meeting, documents and follows up on action items between meetings
  • Perform special projects and responsibilities assigned by the General Counsel

 

Financial Management/Planning

  • Direct P&L responsibility for all Law and Regulatory Department business and operating expenses
  • Responsible for accounting practices and policies, as well as accurate financial reporting
  • Acts as single point of contact with business finance partners on budgeting, forecasting of spend and all other necessary communications between Finance and Law/Regulatory Departments
  • Responsible for Department budgets, accruals and reserves and develops methodology for annual and quarterly forecasting
  • Measures performance against budgets, and provides recommendations to assure adherence to budget
  • Manages external vendor and outside counsel spend
  • Develops appropriate information management tools to assist Leadership Team and business partners with the historic information necessary to prevent/manage/mitigate future business, legal and business risks
  • Develops methodology for annual and quarterly forecasting
  • Measures performance against budgets, and provide recommendations to assure adherence to budget
  • Identifies drivers of legal expenses as well as trends and provide recommendations regarding productivity and process improvement to Leadership team
  • Measure performance against metrics of initiatives and compensation programs and provide recommendations to assure delivery of required budget goals or metrics

 

Vendor Management

  • Develops processes to select, manage, and evaluate outside counsel, including requests for proposals
  • Manages and oversees outside vendor rates, billing, and compliance
  • Develops matter-level budgeting processes
  • Establishes appropriate financial terms and pricing mechanisms
  • Coordinates retention letters and billing

 

Technology and Knowledge Management

  • Designs technology strategy that furthers the strategic goals of the Law Department
  • Prioritizes technology investment based on legal service delivery goals
  • Responsible for developing and overseeing technology usage, creation, storage, and sharing of information (e.g., legal research, transactional documents, historical information)
  • Oversees technology system selection, design, and implementation
  • Creates protocols to manage data quality

 

Reporting

  • Responsible for implementation of and reporting processes
  • Establishes and implements reporting processes
  • Provides metric data analytics as a means to identify productivity and assess impact & progress on key initiatives, cultural imperatives, and process improvement
  • Establishes process and timing for lifecycle reporting
  • Responsible for supporting operational and ad-hoc information requests
  • Ensures creation, maintenance and enhancement of reporting vehicles.

Completes other duties as assigned.


Qualifications
  • BA/BS in accounting, finance, or economics, MBA or JD preferred
  • Broad range of direct, hands-on management experience
  • Experience working in law department or law firm
  • 8-10 years of work and management experience (with significant experience in Law Department Operations)
  • Strong written and communication skills
  • Strong leadership and planning skills
  • Strong project management skills
  • Strong analytical and problem solving skills with superior attention to detail
  • Strong background in management information systems and business processes
  • Strategic vision (short- and long-term)
  • Team player who is results-oriented and self-motivated
  • Strong customer service attitude; views Law Department staff as their customers to be supported as such
  • Strong relationship management skills
  • Strong interpersonal skills and work ethic
  • Skilled at influencing others through growth and change
  • Experience coaching and developing employees

Additional Information

In support of the pay transparency laws enacted across the country, the expected salary range for this position is between $97,253.99 and $175,761.85. Actual pay will be adjusted based on job-related factors permitted by law, such as experience and training; geographic location; licensure and certifications; market factors; departmental budgets; and responsibility. Our Talent Acquisition Team will be happy to answer any questions you may have, and we look forward to learning more about your salary requirements. The position qualifies for the below benefits.

Adtalem offers a robust suite of benefits including:
  • Health, dental, vision, life and disability insurance
  • 401k Retirement Program + 6% employer match
  • Participation in Adtalem’s Flexible Time Off (FTO) Policy
  • 12 Paid Holidays

For more information related to our benefits please visit: https://careers.adtalem.com/benefits.

You are also eligible to participate in an annual incentive program, subject to the rules governing the program, whereby an award, if any, depends on various factors, including, without limitation, individual and organizational performance.

We are proud to be an EEO employer M/F/D/V. At Adtalem, we welcome everyone and have a strong commitment towards diversity and inclusion. We encourage our Colleagues to be their true authentic selves and support laws that prohibit discrimination everywhere we do business. We also maintain a drug-free workplace.

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