Communications Specialist (Awards & Rankings)

Communications Specialist (Awards & Rankings)

Cooley is seeking a Communications Specialist (Awards & Rankings) to join the Communications team.

Position summary: The Communications Specialist (Awards & Rankings) plays a key role in advancing the firm's global communications and marketing strategy by supporting the effective management of firm rankings, awards, and survey submissions. The Specialist contributes to the full lifecycle of these efforts -assessing opportunities, coordinating deadlines and materials, gathering and synthesizing information from attorneys and practice groups, and preparing impactful submission and promotional content. Working closely with stakeholders across the firm and reporting to the Associate Director of Media Relations, the Specialist will be a key member of the communications team and help ensure that submissions are strategic, timely, and accurate, strengthening the firm's visibility and reputation among clients, industry influencers, and other important audiences.

Specific duties and responsibilities include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Regularly update the master rankings and awards calendar, ensuring all opportunities, deadlines, milestones, and requirements are clearly documented and communicated to relevant team members
• Support project management of rankings and award submissions, helping coordinate the full lifecycle from opportunity identification through final delivery, while ensuring deadlines and workflow steps are consistently met
• Contribute to drafting and developing submission content, including narrative descriptions, matter summaries, partner profiles, and practice highlights, ensuring clarity, accuracy, and alignment with firm messaging and standards
• Conduct research on award and ranking opportunities, maintaining detailed internal trackers and schedules to support planning, reporting, and strategic decision‑making
• Gather and synthesize information from attorneys and practice groups, distilling key achievements into concise, persuasive content for use in submissions and related materials
• Prepare supporting documents and background summaries that guide internal conversations and help set expectations around ranking outcomes and strategic positioning
• Draft promotional web copy and internal communications to highlight important ranking results, recognition milestones, and accolade wins
• Monitor deadlines and manage workflow tools, ensuring that all stakeholders have timely access to requirements, templates, timelines, and project updates
• Serve as a resource to attorneys and internal teams, providing guidance on ranking processes, submission standards, timelines, templates, and best practices
• Support ongoing process improvements, contributing to enhancements in tracking systems, templates, and documentation to streamline future submissions
• Perform additional duties and special projects as needed to support the firm's rankings, awards, and recognition initiatives
• All other duties as assigned or required

Skills and experience:

Required:

• After orientation at Cooley, exhibit proficiency in the Microsoft Office suite, iManage and other firm applications, including firm marketing systems software
• Ability to work extended and/or weekend hours, as required
• Ability to travel, as required
• 3+ years' direct applicable experience (e.g., prior experience in a marketing or communications-related field)

Preferred:

• Bachelor's degree in English, Journalism, Communications, Marketing, Business or related field
• Experience with legal rankings and awards

Competencies:

• Excellent communication skills both written and verbal
• Ability to work well with others
• Attention to detail and excellent organizational skills
• Strong organizational skills with ability to juggle several tasks at once
• Self-motivated
• Adept at new and rapidly transforming technologies
• Reliable and punctual
• Demonstrate initiative, diplomacy, and tact
• Ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines

The expected hourly pay range for this position with a work schedule of 40 hours per week is $36.00 - $53.00 ($74,880.00 - $110,240.00 annually). Please note that final offer amount will be dependent on geographic location, applicable experience and skillset of the candidate.

We offer a full range of elective benefits including medical, health savings account (with applicable medical plan), dental, vision, health and/or dependent care flexible spending accounts, pre-tax commuter benefits, life insurance, AD&D, long-term care coverage, backup care for children and/or adults and other parental support benefits. In addition to elective benefit options, benefited employees receive firm-paid life insurance, AD&D, LTD, short term medical benefits as well as 20 days of Paid Time Off ("PTO") and 10 paid holidays each year. We provide generous parental leave and fertility benefits. New employees will attend a detailed benefit orientation to learn more about our many benefits and resources.