Bressler Risk Blog

I was pleased to receive a note from Ann Ostrander, Senior Director, Risk Management at Kirkland & Ellis, expressing enthusiastic interest in a sponsored post promoting several new risk opportunities at that firm.

“Director of Business Intake & Conflicts” —

• The Director–Business Intake Operations (“Director”) oversees the daily operations of the Firm’s Business Intake Conflicts Department (“BIC”).
• This includes ensuring that the activities of BIC support the Firm’s values and goals, and help Firm lawyers comply with their duties of professional responsibility and other ethics or regulatory requirements.
• The Director helps to develop both strategic and tactical plans for BIC and ensures the prompt, effective and efficient delivery of services to Firm lawyers and legal support staff.
• The Director interfaces with partner-led new business committees, individual partners and with the Office of General Counsel as needed.
• LOCATION: All US Offices

“Director of Risk Management (Planning & Special Projects)” —

• The Director of Risk Management–Planning and Special Projects (“Director”) provides support to leaders within the business units of the Firm’s Risk Management Department.
• This support consists of guidance regarding both strategic and tactical planning, direct project management, and assisting individual leaders with their professional and skills development.
• The Director is an internal consultant within the Risk Management Department, and uses developed consulting skills to help Risk Management leaders to become effective planners, implementers, and strategic/tactical thinkers.
• LOCATION: All US Offices

“Conflicts Manager” —

• The Conflicts Manager is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Firm’s Conflicts Department, and oversees processes related to the conflicts search and analysis of potential new clients and new matters, the conflicts evaluation of lateral attorneys and other new hires, and potential conflicts in restructuring/debtor representations.
• This role is also responsible for determining staffing levels and global service coverage as well as workflow coordination to ensure all requests are being handled as expeditiously and accurately as possible.
• The Conflicts Manager works with the Business Intake & Conflicts Staff Training & Development team to prepare new Conflicts personnel to work effectively, and to evaluate, enhance, and develop conflicts search and analysis processes that support compliance with the rules of professional conduct, regulatory requirements, and Firm policies.
• LOCATION: Chicago Office

About Kirkland & Ellis:

• “Kirkland & Ellis LLP is a preeminent, full-service law firm with offices around the world and a staff as diverse as the practice areas we support. Our clients range from Fortune 100 companies to medium and small corporations, financial institutions, and private equity firms. Known for our commitment to excellence, Kirkland strives to provide superior service to our clients as well as our fellow employees. From Information Technology to Human Resources, Paralegal Services to Business Development, Kirkland offers non-attorney professionals challenging careers in a variety of functional areas. Whether starting or growing your career, Kirkland can offer a performance-driven culture filled with bright and innovative teams of co-workers.”

Read more about these position and apply via individual entries linked above.

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

I quite pleased to see the positive response to the sponsored job post experiment (including a few fun remarks from the reader peanut gallery, you know who you are). Turns out, if you’re reading this blog, folks are definitely interested in connecting with you about your conflicts career.

Gordon & Rees is a great example. They’ve reached out to get the word out about an open position on their team: “Risk Management Clerk (Legal Conflicts)” —

• Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani, a national law firm in all 50 States, has an immediate opening for a Risk Management Clerk (Legal Conflicts).
• This is a full time position, which could be a “Remote opportunity” for qualified candidate residing in the Pacific Standard Time Zone.
• Ideal candidates will be responsible for Client Matter maintenance and observe confidentiality in all Client/Firm matters. Medium to large law firm experience is preferred.”

Key responsibilities include:

• Conduct conflict of interest searches, interpretation of conflicts data and determine methods to resolve conflicts
• Analyze conflicts reports and make recommendations on potential conflicts for attorney review
• Communicate conflict of interest information to lawyers to ensure any conflicts are resolved
• Conduct research using 3rd party business resources for all new clients, and others as needed

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

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

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.)