Legal Operations Specialist

Summary: Gibson Dunn is a leading global law firm, advising clients on significant transactions and disputes. Our exceptional teams craft and deploy creative legal strategies that are meticulously tailored to every matter, however complex or high-stakes. The Firm's work is distinguished by a unique combination of precision and vision. Based in the U.S., the Legal Operations Specialist will serve as a project manager facilitating attorney transitions across the Firm. Every lateral arrival, secondment, and departure is a discrete project, and the Specialist will act as its central clearing house — aligning the parties, determining how the work should proceed using the Firm’s process roadmaps as a framework, and driving each transition to completion on schedule. The role helps ensure that the Firm delivers the highest quality work product to its clients by enabling successful processes for attorneys as they move into, through, and out of the Firm. Each Specialist will carry a primary transition type and cross-train across the others on the team, allowing the function to maintain coverage and continuity through absences and periods of higher volume. This role reports to the Manager, Onboarding and Offboarding. Responsibilities include: • Serving as the central point of coordination for each assigned attorney transition (a lateral arrival, secondment, or departure), from initiation through completion. • Planning and directing each transition, adapting the process roadmap to the circumstances of the matter, and setting and managing timelines with the parties involved. • Liaising with the stakeholders each transition touches, including Recruiting, HR, Conflicts and New Business Intake (NBI), the Office of General Counsel, Finance, Information Services, Practice Management, and Office Operations, to resolve dependencies and clear obstacles. • Carrying a primary transition type while maintaining proficiency across the others, and providing coverage and continuity during team absences or periods of higher volume. • Exercising independent judgment in the handling of each transition, and escalating sensitive or high-risk matters as needed. • Evaluating the effectiveness of processes in practice and developing and recommending improvements to the playbooks and roadmaps that support the function. • Maintaining accurate and current records across the team’s trackers, dashboards, and matter and NBI systems. • Initiating and coordinating any data transfer arising from a transition (e.g., portable work product and precedent banks on arrival; personal data, client files, and precedent banks on departure), in coordination with Information Governance and Information Services, who action the transfer. • Managing the operational setup of an incoming lateral’s book of business through to opened and billable, including NBI, conflicts clearance, matter opening, client-file import mapping, and engagement letter and fee coordination. • Serving as the lateral’s primary contact for all NBI matters during the first four to six months following arrival, providing attentive, concierge-level support. • Analyzing NBI process data for the Firm’s lateral populations and providing insights and recommendations to leadership. • Facilitating the full secondment lifecycle, including placement, agreement execution, extensions, active-management logistics, and return. • Tracking secondments globally and partnering with Practice Group Managers, Business Development, and Career Services to offer useful insights and data-backed conclusions. • Ensuring information security and governance procedures are executed with each secondment. • Acting as the subject matter expert for secondees, advising on questions and concerns as they arise. • Managing each partner