Legal Staff Manager

Legal Staff Manager

Zinda Law Group is a rapidly growing personal injury law firm headquartered in Austin, Texas, serving clients across multiple states. We are committed to excellent client service, continuous learning, strong accountability, and using technology and well-defined processes to help our teams perform at a high level. Our legal staff plays a critical role in moving cases forward, supporting attorneys, and helping clients navigate the legal process after serious injuries.

Position Summary

The Legal Staff Manager is responsible for the performance, development, quality, and operational consistency of Zinda Law Group's Pre-Litigation and Litigation support teams. This is a manager role that works with the Pre-Litigation Team Lead and Litigation Paralegal Team Lead while maintaining visibility into the work and performance of Pre-Litigation Legal Assistants and Paralegals, and Litigation Paralegals. The Legal Staff Manager partners closely with the Director of Legal Operations and other firm leaders to ensure teams are well trained, properly staffed and capable of filling in for teams should the need arise, consistently following firm processes, meeting performance expectations, and escalating issues before they affect clients or case progress.

Team Oversight

• Pre-Litigation Legal Assistants / Paralegals
• Litigation Paralegals

Key Responsibilities

• Team Leadership & Performance Management: Lead, coach, and develop the Pre-Litigation and Litigation Teams; provide management support for legal staff; address people, leadership, workload, and performance issues; maintain appropriate coaching and issue documentation; and conduct one-on-ones, performance reviews and succession planning.
• KPI & Operational Performance: Monitor department and individual KPIs, defined work, quality measures, and workload trends. Partner with the Director of Legal Operations and Team Leads to establish monthly goals, identify early signs that performance is off track, research root causes through the dockets, and implement corrective action before issues escalate.
• Training & Certification: Ensure legal staff are trained and certified on role-specific responsibilities, firm systems, SOPs, and case-management processes. Provide final certification oversight for new hires, ensure new hires have appropriate mentorship and support, and maintain current training materials and video resources.
• Quality Assurance & Auditing: Provide second-layer quality oversight by reviewing audit results, conducting periodic spot checks, identifying trends, and ensuring work is accurate, timely, and completed at a high level. Maintain consistent audit standards between Pre-Litigation and Litigation.
• SOPs, Forms & Process Consistency: Own cross-team consistency of SOPs, templates, forms, checklists, and audit standards. Review processes regularly, ensure teams follow current procedures, identify gaps or unwanted divergence, and coordinate updates with Legal Operations and Operational Compliance.
• Hiring, Staffing & Coverage: Participate in and lead later-stage interviews for legal staff candidates, provide detailed hiring recommendations, and coordinate final approvals with the Director of Legal Operations. Ensure appropriate day-to-day coverage and serve as the escalation backstop when staffing or workload issues arise by being able to fill in when needed.
• Reporting & Leadership Communication: Perform reporting and consolidate Team Lead reporting into clear leadership-facing updates covering KPIs, audits, training/certification status, individual and team performance, staffing, workload, and blockers. Keep the Director of Legal Operations informed of significant risks, trends, and unresolved issues.
• Cross-Team Coordination: Promote strong handoffs and consistent communication between Pre-Litigation and Litigation, including case transitions, calendaring, discovery, client communication, event preparation, and other areas where the teams' work overlaps.
• Continuous Improvement & Special Projects: Identify opportunities to improve efficiency, quality, accountability, and client service. Assist with complex operational projects, new technology rollouts, training initiatives, and other Legal Operations priorities as assigned.

What Success Looks Like

• Pre-Litigation and Litigation teams consistently meet established performance, quality, and productivity expectations.
• Legal staff are trained, certified, and supported with current SOPs, templates, tools, and clear expectations.
• Audit results and work-product quality remain strong and consistent across teams.
• KPI trends, workload concerns, staffing gaps, and people issues are identified early and addressed before they create downstream case or client-service problems.
• Leadership receives timely, accurate reporting and clear recommendations on team performance, risks, and operational needs.

Qualifications

• Two years of prior personal injury experience as a legal assistant or paralegal is required.
• One year of prior people-management and/or operations experience required; experience managing legal support staff is strongly preferred.
• Bachelor's degree preferred; in the alternative, Associate's degree required or Paralegal Certificate from an ABA approved program required.
• Demonstrated ability to coach employees, manage performance, give clear feedback, and handle sensitive personnel issues with professionalism and discretion.
• Strong analytical skills and comfort using KPIs, audits, reports, and case-level data to identify trends and solve problems.
• Highly organized, detail-oriented, and able to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced, remote environment.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate clearly with attorneys, leaders, Team Leads, and support staff.
• Technology-forward and comfortable learning and managing work through case-management, project-management, reporting, and collaboration systems.
• Reliable high-speed internet connection and ability to work effectively in a fully remote environment.

Compensation & Benefits

• Salaried compensation commensurate with experience.
• Paid time off and paid holidays.
• Retirement plan with company contribution match.
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance.
• Paid parental leave.
• Fully remote work arrangement.
• Ongoing training, mentorship, and professional development opportunities.
• Opportunities to advance and grow within the firm.

Zinda Law Group is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to protected status as required by applicable law.