Director of Process Excellence (New York)

Our client, a highly regarded, entrepreneurial, full-service law firm in Midtown Manhattan with 150 attorneys, is actively seeking a Director of Process Excellence. The Director of Process Excellence will lead the firm's Office of Process Excellence, a firmwide function dedicated to continuously improving how work gets done across the organization.

Reporting directly to the Managing Partner, the Director will work across legal practices and business functions to identify opportunities to simplify, standardize, redesign, and improve processes and workflows. The Director will bring a disciplined, data-informed approach to understanding how work is currently performed, identifying friction and inefficiency, designing better ways of working, and helping the firm implement and sustain those improvements.

The role is intended to bring an internal consulting and process-engineering capability to the firm. Rather than beginning with technology or a particular solution, the Director will begin with the work itself: understanding the objective, mapping the process, identifying pain points and unnecessary complexity, and determining how the process should ideally operate.

Where technology, automation or artificial intelligence can enable a better process, the Director will work closely with the Office of AI & Innovation, Information Technology and other relevant stakeholders to translate operational needs into practical solutions.

The Director will combine strategic thinking with hands-on execution and will play an important role in building a culture of continuous improvement throughout the firm.

Mission of the Office of Process Excellence

The mission of the Office of Process Excellence is simple: Continuously improve how work gets done across the firm.

The Office will help the firm create processes that are simpler, faster, more consistent and easier for people to navigate, while improving quality, accountability, client service and the overall experience of working at the firm.

Its work will span both legal-service delivery and the firm's business and administrative operations.

Key Responsibilities

Process Assessment & Improvement

• Conduct structured reviews of workflows and operating processes across legal practices and business functions.
• Map existing processes to understand how work actually moves through the organization, including handoffs, decision points, approvals, dependencies, duplicative steps and recurring sources of friction.
• Identify inefficiencies, bottlenecks, unnecessary complexity, manual work, inconsistent practices and opportunities for standardization or simplification.
• Distinguish between problems requiring better processes, better management, better information, better technology – or a combination of these.
• Redesign processes based on clear objectives, practical business requirements and measurable outcomes.
• Develop repeatable methodologies, templates and standards for process assessment and improvement.

Process Architecture & Standardization

• Help establish a coherent architecture for how recurring work is performed across the firm.
• Identify opportunities to replace fragmented or individualized approaches with scalable, repeatable processes where appropriate.
• Develop process maps, operating procedures, decision frameworks, responsibility matrices and other tools necessary to make improved processes understandable and sustainable.
• Balance standardization with the flexibility required by different legal practices, clients and business functions.
• Maintain visibility into major firmwide workflows and their interdependencies.

Technology Enablement

The Office of Process Excellence will be technology-aware but not technology-led. The Director will:

• Identify points within redesigned processes where technology, automation, AI or other tools could meaningfully improve performance.
• Translate operational requirements and workflow needs into clear business requirements for technology teams.
• Partner with the Office of AI & Innovation to evaluate opportunities for AI-enabled workflows and emerging capabilities.
• Partner with IT on system capabilities, integrations, security, implementation and technical architecture.
• Help evaluate whether existing firm technologies are being fully utilized before recommending additional tools.
• Participate in the evaluation of new technology where the underlying business case depends upon workflow or process improvement.
• Develop prototypes and straightforward low-code/no-code workflow solutions, where appropriate, to test redesigned processes and accelerate implementation.
• Help ensure that technology is deployed against a well-designed process rather than used to automate an inefficient one.

Implementation & Change Adoption

• Move projects beyond recommendations and process maps into actual implementation.
• Develop practical implementation plans, including responsibilities, sequencing, milestones and success measures.
• Work closely with attorneys, administrative professionals and firm leadership to ensure redesigned processes reflect operational realities.
• Identify adoption barriers early and develop strategies to address them.
• Help teams transition to new workflows through communication, training, documentation and hands-on support.
• Monitor implementation and adjust processes based on experience and feedback.
• Promote improvement through collaboration and demonstrated results rather than change for its own sake.

Measurement & Continuous Improvement

• Establish meaningful metrics for major process-improvement efforts.
• Develop baseline measurements where appropriate and evaluate results following implementation.
• Track improvements in areas such as cycle time, administrative burden, error rates, consistency, utilization, cost, responsiveness, employee experience and client service.
• Establish mechanisms for identifying new process-improvement opportunities across the firm.
• Periodically revisit redesigned processes to determine whether they continue to serve the firm's needs.
• Build a sustainable discipline of continuous improvement rather than treating process improvement as a series of one-time projects.

Strategic Advisory

• Serve as an internal advisor to the Managing Partner and firm leadership on operational effectiveness and organizational design.
• Identify systemic issues that cross departmental or practice boundaries and recommend firmwide solutions.
• Help leadership prioritize improvement opportunities based on expected impact, feasibility and strategic importance.
• Provide an objective, data-informed perspective on established ways of working.
• Support major firm initiatives where success depends on process design, coordination or operational execution.
• Identify emerging practices in professional-services operations and process excellence that may benefit the firm.

Organizational Relationships

The Director will report directly to the Managing Partner, reflecting the firmwide and cross-functional nature of the role.

The Director will work closely with:

• Operations;
• the Office of AI & Innovation;
• Information Technology;
• Finance;
• Human Resources and Talent;
• Marketing and Business Development;
• Knowledge Management;
• Practice Group leadership;
• attorneys and other legal professionals; and
• administrative and operational teams throughout the firm.

The Director will have the ability to work across traditional organizational boundaries and engage directly with the people who perform the work being evaluated.

Relationship with the Office of AI & Innovation

The Office of Process Excellence and Office of AI & Innovation will operate as complementary functions with distinct mandates.

The Office of Process Excellence focuses principally on how work should be performed: understanding workflows, redesigning processes, eliminating friction, establishing standards and measuring performance.

The Office of AI & Innovation focuses principally on how technology and emerging capabilities can enable better ways of working.

The two functions will collaborate closely where process improvement and technology intersect, while maintaining clear accountability for their respective areas.

Initial Areas of Focus

While priorities will evolve based on the firm's needs, initial areas of focus may include:

• client and matter intake;
• conflicts and engagement processes;
• matter opening and closing;
• time entry, billing and collections workflows;
• document and knowledge-management processes;
• administrative support models;
• delegation and allocation of work;
• lawyer and staff onboarding and offboarding;
• client reporting and communication workflows;
• contract and document-production processes;
• information flow among systems and departments;
• CRM and business-development workflows;
• use of Microso]]>