Bressler Risk Blog

I was delighted to get an email from Lance Richards, Senior Manager, Conflicts & Business Intake at Baker Botts. We’ve collaborated a bit over the years on a few stories highlighting his firm’s strong investments in risk technology, policy, and process.

Now Lance is looking to add a conflicts analyst to his team, with a new position you can read more about here: “Conflicts Analyst” —

• “This is a full-time, non-exempt Firmwide position with excellent benefits, resident in any of the Firm’s U.S. offices and reporting to the Senior Manager of Business Intake & Conflicts.”
• “The work hour requirements for this position will be aligned with our California office business hours regardless of resident US office location.”
• The firm’s US office locations are:
  • Austin, TX
  • Houston, TX
  • Dallas, TX
  • Palo Alto, CA
  • San Francisco, CA
  • New York, NY
  • Washington, D.C.

Job Duties and Responsibilities Include:

• “Performing company research on all new & existing clients, all non-client parties associated with new matters, all lateral attorney and staff employment candidates, and potential vendors servicing the Firm.”
• “Executing searches in the Firm’s conflicts database, analyzing results in order to identify potential issues that may affect compliance with Firm policies and the relevant Model Rules of Professional Conduct of the American Bar Association.”
• “Generating accurate and succinct conflicts reports and supporting documentation in order to effectively communicate potential compliance issues to the Conflicts Review Lawyer and/or the requesting Firm lawyer.”
• “Educating and providing guidance to internal customers regarding the policies and procedures of the Business Intake and Conflicts Department.”

Read more about this position and apply via their website job listing.

And if you’re interested in seeing your firm’s job listing as a sponsored post here and in the email digest, please feel free to reach out…

I’m pleased and curious to run another experiment, this time it’s a sponsored job post.

Patricia Gallardo, Associate General Counsel at Quarles & Brady astutely judged that the smartest, most driven law firm risk professionals read the Bressler Risk Blog. She’s looking to hire two positions:

Conflicts Analyst

• “We are seeking an individual who has a minimum of two years of experience in a conflicts department of a law firm to review, analyze and resolve conflicts of interest issues with respect to clients, matters and incoming attorneys. Qualified remote candidates will also be considered.”
• Read More: https://applyonline.quarles.com/viRecruitSelfApply/ReDefault.aspx?Tag=33ca5d01-7ada-4cbd-a60a-33cb21c1e768
• and Apply Here: https://applyonline.quarles.com/viRecruitSelfApply/ReDefault.aspx?FilterREID=5&FilterJobCategoryID=1&FilterJobID=569

Conflicts Counsel

• “We are seeking an individual who has practiced law for a minimum of three years to review and analyze conflicts of interest issues with respect to clients, matters and incoming attorneys and facilitate resolution of potential conflicts.”
• Read More: https://applyonline.quarles.com/viRecruitSelfApply/ReDefault.aspx?Tag=33ca5d01-7ada-4cbd-a60a-33cb21c1e768
• and Apply Here: https://applyonline.quarles.com/viRecruitSelfApply/ReDefault.aspx?FilterREID=5&FilterJobCategoryID=1&FilterJobID=568

These are remote-friendly positions, subject to mutual fit, open to residents in:

• Arizona, California, Colorado, Washington D.C., Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Idaho, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Wisconsin

Patty and I first crossed paths last year and have had a few engaging risk discussions. If I were conflicts-qualified and looking for work, I’d definitely explore joining her team.

And if you’re interested in seeing your firm’s listings here, please feel free to reach out…

Every industry has had to adapt the way it recruits talent. At the Bressler Risk Blog, we thought we’d do our part by experimenting with our very first risk job posting.

Last week, I was catching up with an old friend, Rodney Miller, Director of Business Information Governance at Alston & Bird. He mentioned that he’s on the hunt to grow his NBI/Conflicts team (which has continued to be very busy).

Rodney is open to bringing on the ideal candidate onto the team remotely, regardless of where they’re based.

• You can see the specific job posting here
• And read more about professional life at Alston & Bird on their excellent careers page, where I learned that Alston has been ranked by Fortune as one of America’s ‘100 Best Companies to Work For’ for 21 consecutive years…

I’ve known Rodney for many years and can confidently endorse him as a manager and leader. He’s just a solid and nice guy, who does what I think all good managers should do — work to both drive and empower his team to succeed, and share the spotlight when they perform. To illustrate that, I asked him a few questions and thought I’d share the highlights.

Rodney says that professional development is a core part of working on the risk team at Alston & Bird:

“With our firm’s commitment to being a great place to work, we also want to make sure that our staff members are motivated and set up for success. Each risk team member has their own professional development plan. They have aspirations and things for reach for, and a strong appreciation of the importance of what they do, what they bring to the table, and how to grow, present and create opportunities for themselves.”

Last year, Rodney introduced a training program covering conflicts searches, analysis and reporting, as well as presentation and communication skills:

“Each analyst has the opportunity to develop his or her presentation skills in front of an audience — a real confidence booster which translates into more confident conversations with our lawyers… Our conflicts analysts have a stronger appreciation for what our lawyers are looking for, and are highly motivated and focused on delivering exactly what they need.”

And it’s just nice to see how this firm recognizes the importance of the conflicts department, as well as their commitment to excellence:

“I’m proud of the way we’ve professionalized and raised the profile of the conflicts department within the firm. It’s not just a group of folks providing your report of conflicts, it’s so much more involved than that. Each member of the team understands that they are very important spokes in the wheel, tied to new business intake, outside counsel guidelines, and all the restrictions that come into play. All of this is exciting to them, and to me.”“In the end, it comes down to trust. Our conflicts review committee can trust that every conflicts analyst on the team has a foundational understanding of conflicts searching and how it impacts the firm’s business.”

Does this sound like a good fit for you or someone you know?

If so, get in touch with Alston & Bird directly, or pass this on! (And tell them BRB sent you.)