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 Los Angeles, New York or Washington, D.C., the Director of Data
Services will be responsible for managing the way Gibson Dunn captures, governs,
integrates, and activates its data across every financial system, matter, client
relationship, and AI model that the firm deploys. This role will establish the
data foundation upon which the firm's AI program, business intelligence
capability, and operational decision-making rest. This executive-level role will
build the firm's first enterprise-grade data architecture, create a lasting data
governance culture, and deliver analytics products that give firm leadership and
practice group heads a level of strategic intelligence the firm has never had
before.
This role reports to the Chief Legal Operations Officer.
Responsibilities include:
Enterprise Data Strategy
* Owning and continuously evolving the firm's enterprise data strategy and
multi-year roadmap approved by firm leadership, integrating with the AI
strategy, and aligning to the firm's financial, operational, and competitive
priorities.
* Advising the CLOO on data's strategic implications including: the value of
data assets the firm already holds, the investments required to realize that
value, and the risks of continued data fragmentation.
* Establishing Gibson Dunn's data vision by articulating what the firm's data
estate will look like at full maturity, what decisions it will enable, and
how it will position the firm competitively.
- Building and chairing the firm's Data Governance Council.
- Leading annual data strategy reviews with firm leadership presenting
progress, ROI, and updated priorities against the multi-year roadmap.
Data Architecture & Engineering
* Designing and overseeing the build of the firm's enterprise data
architecture, creating a unified, governed data layer integrating Aderant
(financial/billing), iManage (document management), Intapp (conflicts, NBI,
risk), CRM, HR systems, and operational platforms.
* Leading the selection and implementation of modern data infrastructure tools
and platforms including cloud data warehouse (Snowflake, Databricks, Azure
Synapse, or equivalent), ETL/ELT orchestration, data catalog, and lineage
tooling.
* Establishing and enforcing enterprise data standards, taxonomies, and
metadata policies, resolving the multi-definition problem affecting key firm
metrics such as realization rate, utilization, and client revenue.
* Owning the firm's master data management (MDM) program, establishing
authoritative systems of record for clients, matters, attorneys, rates, and
timekeeper hierarchy.
* Overseeing the data engineering team and setting technical standards for
pipeline development, data quality testing, schema design, and system
integration architecture.
Analytics & Business Intelligence
* Owning a Practice Intelligence platform providing firm leadership, practice
group co-chairs, and administrative leaders with self-serve access to matter
pipelines, utilization, realization, client revenue, lateral productivity,
and workforce analytics.
* Partnering with Finance to deliver analytics beyond standard reports,
providing partner-level, matter-level, and client-level economic insight that
informs compensation, pricing, and staffing decisions.
* Partnering with Business Development to build client intelligence products
including relationship analytics, cross-sell opportunity modeling, client
revenue trend analysis, and competitive positioning data.
* Partnering with Human Resources to provide workforce analytics including
staffing models, associate advancement tracking, DEI reporting, and lateral
hiring ROI analysis.
* Establishing a BI Center of Excellence, selecting, governing, and supporting
firm BI and visualization tooling (Power BI, Tableau, or equivalent);
building a community of data users; and expanding self-serve analytics
capability across the firm.
Data Governance & Compliance
* Developing and owning the firm's comprehensive Data Governance Policy,
covering data ownership, access controls, classification, retention, lineage,
quality standards, and AI training eligibility, reviewed and approved by firm
leadership, IT Security, and General Counsel.
- Managing the firm-wide Data Stewardship Program.
- Working with OGC, ensure all data practices comply with GDPR, CCPA,
applicable bar confidentiality rules, client contractual data obligations,
and the firm's information security policies; serving as the firm's data
compliance authority.
* Representing the firm's data interests in enterprise technology decisions,
ensuring architecture, security, and governance requirements are built into
every major system procurement.
AI Data Enablement
* Serving as an essential executive business partner on AI infrastructure:
owning the data layer that powers all firm AI programs, including
retrieval-augmented generation pipelines, vector databases, embedding
workflows, and the knowledge retrieval infrastructure attorneys use to
surface precedents and work product.
* Defining and enforcing data quality, classification, and access-control
standards governing which firm data is eligible for AI retrieval, training,
or fine-tuning, ensuring all AI use of firm data meets confidentiality,
privilege, and security requirements.
* Building and maintaining AI-ready data infrastructure at the pace the AI Team
program requires, coordinating with IT to remove data blockers for every AI
deployment.
* Owning the firm's data audit logging infrastructure (Harmonic) for AI tools,
ensuring complete, auditable records of what data AI tools accessed, when,
and by whom.
Executive Leadership
* Building, leading, and developing a high-performing organization of
professionals across data governance, analytics, records, and governance,
with deep commitment to talent development and succession planning.
* Serving as an executive sponsor for data literacy and data culture
initiatives across the firm, demonstrating personally that data-driven
decision making is how Gibson Dunn's leadership operates.
* Maintaining a strong external network with data leaders in professional
services, technology, and financial services to continuously benchmark the
firm's data maturity and import relevant innovations.
Qualifications:
* 15+ years of progressive experience in data engineering, data architecture,
analytics, or enterprise data strategy; at least 5 years in a Director, VP,
or executive director-level role.
* Proven track record building enterprise data infrastructure from the ground
up in a complex, multi-system environment, including data warehouse
architecture, ETL/ELT pipeline development, and enterprise data governance.
* Deep expertise in modern data stack technologies: cloud data warehouses
(Snowflake, Azure or equivalent), orchestration tools, data catalog and
lineage platforms, and BI visualization tooling.
* Proven experience developing and implementing data governance frameworks that
achieve lasting organizational adoption, including data ownership models,
classification schemas, and stewardship programs.
* Exceptional executive presence: ability to translate data complexity into
strategic insight for partners, managing partners, and peers.
* Strong track record building and leading multidisciplinary data organizations
spanning engineering, analytics, and governance.
* Professional services, legal, financial services, or other highly regulated,
data-sensitive industry experience.
Experience:
* Prior experience at a law firm, in-house legal department, or legal
technology company.
* Familiarity with legal systems: Aderant (financial/billing), iManage (DMS),
Intapp (conflicts/risk/NBI), or comparable platforms.
* Experience building AI data infrastructure: RAG pipelines, vector databases,
embedding workflows, and LLM evaluation data architectures.
* Understanding of attorney-client privilege, confidentiality rules, and
professional responsibility as applied to data management and AI.
* Experience with master data management (MDM) in a multi-entity,
multi-jurisdictional environment.
* Advanced degree in Data Science, Computer Science, Information Management,
Statistics, or related field; or JD/MBA with strong quantitative background.
* Professional certifications in data governance, architecture, or cloud
platforms (CDMP, TOGAF, Snowflake SnowPro, AWS/Azure data certifications).
Gibson Dunn will consider for employment qualified Applicants with Criminal
Histories in a manner consistent with the requirements of local law.
Compensation & Benefits:
The annual compensation range for this position is $300k – 380k. The salary
offered within this range will depend upon qualifications and other operational
considerations.
Benefits offered for this position include health care; retirement benefits;
paid days off, including sick time, and vacation time; parental leave; basic
life insurance; Flexible Spending Accounts; as well as discretionary,
performance-based bonuses.
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Gibson Dunn is committed to ensuring equal employment opportunities for all
qualified applicants, including individuals with disabilities. We strive to
ensure an inclusive and accessible hiring experience. The Firm will provide
reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities to enable
participation in the application and recruitment process, unless doing so would
impose an undue hardship, in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.
If you require a reasonable accommodation to complete an application,
participate in an interview, or otherwise take part in the recruitment process,
please contact us at
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