Chief Innovation Officer (CInO)

Our client, a leading litigation-focused law firm, is seeking a Chief Innovation Officer to lead its firmwide innovation and AI strategy, with responsibility for shaping the long-term roadmap and driving execution, adoption, governance, and measurable business impact. This executive will work closely with firm leadership and partners to identify high-value AI opportunities, evaluate build-versus-buy strategies, develop AI-enabled legal workflows, strengthen the firm's data strategy, and establish responsible AI governance while building and overseeing a multidisciplinary innovation team. The ideal candidate will bring executive-level legal innovation experience, must have a background as a litigator, along with the strategic vision and political savvy to influence senior partners, drive adoption, navigate emerging AI risks, and translate innovation into improved client value and firm performance. This is a hybrid position based in New York.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Strategy & Leadership

• Define the firm’s multi-year innovation and AI roadmap, spanning practice-group deployment, client-facing capabilities, firm business operations, and talent development.
• Advise firm leadership on the implications of AI and other emerging technologies for firm competitiveness, pricing, talent strategy, and client expectations.
• Build and oversee a multidisciplinary Innovation Team, including practice innovation attorneys, data scientists, applied AI engineers, governance and risk experts, and project management support.

AI Solutions

• Lead the firm’s AI and emerging technologies portfolio, from evaluation through deployment.
• Determine where the firm should buy, build, partner, or defer based on business needs, risk, technical feasibility, scalability, and cost.
• Build executive relationships with leaders at AI and legal tech companies to give the firm early access to new capabilities and a voice in product development.
• Establish and enforce standards for all firm AI development, including output validation protocols, hallucination testing, model version control, security review, and human-in-the-loop requirements.

Data Strategy & Workflow Development

• Work with firm leadership to develop and drive the firm’s enterprise data strategy by organizing and structuring firm knowledge, work product, experience, and client and matter data so that approved AI tools can retrieve and use information effectively and securely.
• Differentiate the firm’s AI capabilities by connecting AI tools to the firm’s accumulated knowledge, experience, and client context.
• Direct the development of practice-specific, AI-enabled workflows that combine legal expertise and firm knowledge to improve the quality and efficiency of legal work.
• Use AI and legal technology to translate firm data and market research into actionable intelligence that informs leadership decisions about practice profitability, client needs, and growth opportunities.

AI Fluency, Adoption & Enablement

• Develop and lead firmwide AI fluency and literacy curriculum, including onboarding modules, practice- and role-specific workshops, and ongoing guidance and support.
• Work with firm and practice-group leadership to identify high-value use cases, address barriers to adoption, and embed AI into day-to-day legal work and business operations.

Governance & Risk

• Establish and oversee the firm’s AI governance framework in coordination with IT, Information Security, the Office of General Counsel, and other relevant functions.
• Create clear standards and decision processes for evaluating, approving, monitoring, and retiring AI tools and solutions.

External Positioning, Client Value & Business Implications

• Partner with Finance, Pricing, and firm leadership to assess how AI affects staffing, leverage, matter economics, pricing, profitability, and service delivery.
• Work with Business Development, client relationship partners, firm leadership, and clients to understand evolving client expectations, discuss the firm’s use of AI, and identify opportunities to develop new solutions and delivery models.
• Partner with Business Development and client relationship partners to support pitches, RFPs, panel reviews, and other strategic client conversations involving AI, innovation, efficiency, and value.

Firmwide Execution

• Coordinate across practices, offices, and business services functions to ensure that innovation efforts are aligned and effectively executed.
• Represent the firm externally as appropriate with clients, vendors, peer organizations, and industry groups.
• Report to firm leadership on priorities, investment, adoption, risks, and measurable impact

Expected salary for this exempt role is $500,000 - $1,000,000, commensurate with experience, training, skills, qualifications, and other market factors.

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Job ID: 7627