Location: New York

Schedule: 9:30 AM to 6:00 PM

FLSA: Exempt

Position Type: Full-Time/Regular

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP is a leading international law firm with more than 900 lawyers in offices throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. We are currently seeking a Director of Practice Management - Financial Restructuring ("Director") in the Client Value & Practice Management department, reporting to the Chief Practice Officer (“CPO”).

The role will reside in the New York office with hybrid work capabilities and will be responsible for the execution of the business needs and internal operations of the global Financial Restructuring practice group across multiple offices, with a strong emphasis on its strategy, financial performance objectives and talent management. The Director is expected to have substantial knowledge of bankruptcy and the distressed debt environment and perform all responsibilities with a commitment to providing superior service to the firm’s attorneys, advisors and staff, and maintaining an atmosphere of teamwork and continuous improvement.

Key responsibilities of this position include:

Practice Leadership

• Develop a comprehensive knowledge of the practice group’s work as it relates to advising companies, official and informal creditors’ committees, ad hoc groups, institutional investors, lenders and boards of directors in complex formal in-court and out-of-court restructurings, financings and distressed and special situations transactions.

• Develop a deep understanding of the complex motivators that drive the financial restructuring practice group’s business and the key performance indicators to serve as a trusted advisor and sounding board to Practice Leaders and CPO.

• Work with Practice Group Leader, CPO, and other firm leaders to develop the group’s strategy and performance objectives. Lead execution of initiatives to help practice meet commitments and objectives.

• Proactively and independently identify, analyze, articulate, and prioritize issues facing the practice group. Gather and present information and feedback from various sources to inform sound decisions.

• Design and/or lead organizational change management around new goals, priorities, team changes or projects, including for cross-functional strategy projects to improve service delivery. Create best practices to support service delivery goals, standards, and measures of success.

• Establish strong rapport and working relationships with Business Services personnel across different groups, as well as strong relationships with key attorneys within the practice.

• Work with Practice Leaders, partners and Business Development team on client engagement projects, practice events and retreats, lateral partner integration, individual business plans, cross-selling and client expansion efforts, and other business development and marketing initiatives to support the practice group’s strategy.

• Foster and encourage a culture of superior client service, responsiveness, innovation, and collegiality.

Talent Management & Development

• Lead efforts regarding integration, morale and retention. Serve as a go-to resource and sounding board for the associate and counsel population and apply tact and judgment to escalate issues to partners, Legal Personnel and Human Resources as needed.

• Drive workload management through keen understanding of practice needs, regular utilization review and active communication with attorneys and Staffing Partner. Raise productivity issues and advise on necessary changes to ensure practice group resources align with business needs.

• Utilize KPIs and dashboards to assess timekeeper performance and development.

• In close collaboration with Director of Legal Personnel, oversee non-partner attorney evaluation and annual compensation adjustment processes, including review of written evaluations, guiding partner discussions of evaluation messages, counsel promotions and recommended compensation adjustments, ensuring consistency across the practice group. Leverage information raised in evaluation process to focus on performance issues and establish solutions.

• Work with partners, Attorney Development and Knowledge Management to plan formal training programs for practice group lawyers based on practice group needs and developmental areas of focus.

• Support Practice Leaders and candidates in the partner promotion process. Generate metrics on practices and clients, report on pipeline of partnership candidates and facilitate discussions between Practice Leaders and partners. Work closely with potential partnership promotion candidates and their sponsors to develop business plans and prepare for practice and committee review. Support Practice Leaders in internal review and presentation of candidates to firm management.

• Coordinate needs assessments for new hires, including laterals and entry-level associates, and work with Attorney Recruiting, Attorney Development and Human Resources as needed in lateral recruiting, onboarding and integration.

• Support Practice Leaders, sponsor partners and Lateral Partner Recruiting team in lateral partner recruiting efforts. Work with Business Development on lateral partner integration.

Operational Support

• Liaise with BD/Marketing, Client Value and other Business Services departments on practice updates, and oversee the planning of ad hoc, monthly and other periodic practice meetings to drive practice communications and accountability.

• Analyze KPIs through financial reports and dashboards to assess Practice Group financial performance, identify key performance trends, prepare monthly reports, spot issues affecting Practice Group performance and make recommendations to improve the same. Advise on the development of dashboards and reports to deepen understanding of practice through analytics.

• Support Practice Leaders in annual collections process and participate in the firm’s billing and collections committee to review inventory, advise practice leaders regarding anomalies, and support the collections process.

• Review monthly Inventory (Work in Process, Accounts Receivables), approve fee write-offs, and advise Practice Leaders regarding anomalies. Review monthly operational expenses, escalate issues and proposed solutions to Practice Leaders.

• Work with Finance Department, Client Value and Practice Leaders to develop revenue and expense budgets, review and manage inventory and expense reports, escalate issues and proposed solutions to Practice Leaders.

• Collaborate with Financial Planning & Analysis and Client Value to establish billing rates, implement alternative fee arrangements and discounts and provide information for strategic initiatives as needed.

• Work with the General Counsel’s office and New Business Intake on partner arrivals and transitions as well as issues related to opening new matters.

• Oversee other practice resource management, client secondments and other bespoke arrangements and the hiring, onboarding, managing and offboarding of contract attorneys and consultants.

Firm Management & Reporting

• Serve as CPO and Practice Leader liaison with firm management and other professional departments to identify, develop and drive firm initiatives. Integrate firm-wide goals into practice group initiatives.

• Work with CPO and Practice Leaders to prepare presentation materials, as needed, for Management Committee, Partnership Admissions Committee and other committees and partners as needed.

• Actively follow and report to CPO on practice management and legal industry trends. Coordinate the development and publicizing of thought leadership in cooperation with other team members, as needed.

  Qualifications (Experience, Knowledge, Skills & Abilities):

• Bachelor’s degree required, J.D or M.B.A preferred

• 8-10 + years of related practice support and experience in a law firm environment

• Understanding of the nuances in the representations of debtors, ad hoc and official creditors committees, secured and unsecured lenders and third parties in complex chapter 11 cases, out-of-court restructurings, and cross-border insolvency proceedings across of variety of industries

• Superior written and oral communication skills with all levels of attorneys and staff, on a prepared and ad hoc basis

• Excellent interpersonal skills, including ability to use critique of work to improve performance

• Sensitivity to the complexities of a partnership and multi-office global practice group and ability to manage partner relationships and meetings

• Advanced working knowledge of MS Office applications including Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint, and ability to work in various software applications as needed

• Strong service orientation, work ethic and attention to detail

• Excellent business acumen and strong analytical skills

• Deep knowledge and experience with accounting and budgeting

• Solutions-oriented, with ability to use initiative and judgment to accomplish results

• Ability to prioritize, manage heavy workload and adjust to changing priorities, work independently and as a member of a team, manage multiple projects with specific deadlines, and complete tasks under time pressure as necessary

• Commitment to maintaining confidentiality of all information, and adhering to the Firm’s Core Values

• Commitment to professional growth and development

  The base salary range for this position in New York is $225,000 to $275,000. Additional information about benefits and rewards can be found here (https://www.akingump.com/en/careers/business-services) .

  Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP participates in E-Verify for purposes of verifying employment eligibility

Required SkillsRequired Experience