Legal Operations Manager

Saxe Doernberger & Vita, P.C. (SDV) is a nationally recognized law firm dedicated exclusively to representing policyholders in insurance coverage disputes. With headquarters in Connecticut and offices in California and Florida, we handle complex, high-stakes matters across the country.

We are proud to be Mansfield Certified, reflecting our commitment to equitable talent practices, inclusive leadership development, and a diverse, collaborative workplace. At SDV, your ideas are heard, your growth is supported, and your impact is visible.

Role Overview

The Legal Operations Manager is the firm’s operational owner of matter flow and the direct manager responsible for leading, developing, and supporting the legal support staff, including paralegals, legal assistants, and clerks. The LOM ensures that support staff receive clear expectations, consistent coaching, workflow guidance, and growth opportunities aligned with firm needs.

In addition to managing and developing the legal support team, the LOM monitors attorney workloads, identifies gaps in capacity, and proactively ensures new attorneys receive appropriate matter assignments to build their workload and integration into the practice. The LOM maintains visibility into who is staffed on what matters across the firm and works closely with Professional Development and Managing Partners to place new attorneys on suitable matters based on skills, development needs, and availability.

The LOM also reallocates work for legal support and attorneys, ensures coverage for leaves and redistribution upon departures, drives adoption of the matter‑management system, and delivers reporting leaders need to balance demand, skills, and capacity across the practice. The LOM partners with PD and HR when performance or development needs arise.

Core Responsibilities

• Maintain visibility into matter staffing across the firm and ensure new attorneys are placed on appropriate matters based on skills, availability, development needs, and capacity.
• Maintain a live capacity map and skills matrix for all attorneys and legal support; monitor utilization and rebalance to avoid bottlenecks and burnout.
• Own coverage planning for attorney and legal support staff leaves (e.g., parental leave, medical leave) and redistribute matters when attorneys and legal support staff depart; coordinate transitions to protect deadlines and client relationships.
• Run staffing huddles with Managing Partners to confirm priorities and resolve conflicts.
• Oversee how the firm uses the matter‑management system (Caret Legal): define and maintain standardized workflows and required fields, ensure consistent usage across attorneys and legal support, maintain clear documentation and guidance materials, and partner with IT to keep the system accurate, functioning properly, and integrated with other firm tools.
• Publish usage metrics and corrective actions for under‑utilization or process breakdowns; ensure core fields and workflows reach high adoption across attorneys and support.
• Identify bottlenecks and design solutions in partnership with PD (templates, checklists, automation) to improve throughput and turnaround time.
• Collect operational feedback from matter leads on timeliness, work quality, and collaboration; surface themes to PD/HR.
• Provide workflow/process coaching for legal support; for persistent issues, document and elevate to HR and PD for formal action or development planning.
• Monitor billable hours and productivity trends for both paralegals and attorneys; identify early signs of underperformance, overload, or imbalance.
• Initiate coaching conversations with attorneys and legal support staff when performance concerns arise, focusing on expectations and corrective steps.
• Partner with PD and HR to develop, implement, and track Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs) when more structured intervention is required.
• Manage and deliver disciplinary actions, including written warnings and terminations, in partnership with HR and in alignment with firm policies.
• Lead and coordinate performance evaluations for legal support staff and attorneys, including determining appropriate evaluators, collecting and synthesizing feedback, drafting evaluations, and delivering performance review conversations in partnership with HR.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration & Reporting

Qualifications

• 7+ years in legal operations/legal support management/professional services operations.
• Paralegal Certificate or 7+ years of paralegal experience, Bachelor’s degree or other advanced degree preferred.
• Demonstrated success managing work allocation at scale and implementing workflow or matter‑management systems.
• Strong communication, stakeholder management, conflict resolution, and change‑management skills.
• Multi‑office law firm experience; exposure to insurance coverage/litigation workflows.
• Experience leading operational technology rollouts and process standardization.
• JD or advanced degree (not required).
• Competitive compensation with year‑end performance‑based bonus.
• Generous PTO and hybrid work arrangements.
• Comprehensive health, dental, vision, and additional insurance options.
• 401(k) with firm match.
• Robust professional development, training, and advancement opportunities within a growing national practice.

Compensation

$115,000 – $140,000, commensurate with experience.