Client Guidelines Attorney

About the role

Arnold & Porter is an international law firm with offices throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. The firm advises clients on complex regulatory, litigation, and transactional matters across a broad range of industries, including many of the world’s leading companies and organizations. We are seeking a Client Guidelines Attorney to support the effective implementation of policies and procedures that document and manage the firm’s relationships with clients across its domestic and global offices. This role may be located in the Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Silicon Valley, or Washington, DC office working a hybrid schedule. Reporting to the Director of Professional Responsibility, this role works closely with the Office of General Counsel, Relationship Partners, the Director of Client Service & Compliance, and other stakeholders to evaluate, negotiate, interpret, and implement client retention documentation. This includes outside counsel guidelines (OCGs), requests for proposals, engagement documentation, and other client-generated or firm-generated terms. The Client Guidelines Attorney will reconcile client requirements with the firm’s ethical obligations, business objectives, and risk tolerance; identify and help resolve outstanding issues; and ensure that agreed-upon client requirements are clearly documented and operationalized. The successful candidate will quickly develop subject-matter expertise in professional-responsibility rules governing the attorney-client relationship and contribute to the ongoing improvement of related firm policies and procedures.

Responsibilities

• Work collaboratively and proactively under the supervision of the Director of Professional Responsibility to implement policies and procedures governing the firm’s client-retention relationships.
• Advise and support Relationship Partners and client team members in drafting, negotiating, interpreting, and implementing time-sensitive OCGs, other client-generated retention documents, RFPs, firm-generated engagement documents, and related materials.
• Communicate effectively with internal stakeholders and clients to ensure that retention expectations are understood, aligned, documented, and implemented.
• Conduct contextual analysis and critical assessment of client OCGs, nonstandard retention documentation, and RFPs; follow up with Relationship Partners and other stakeholders to resolve outstanding matters.
• Monitor global compliance with negotiated OCG terms, including requirements involving conflicts checks for affiliated entities, waivers, client notices, ethics screens, and updates to the firm’s conflicts and client-intake databases and repositories.
• Solicit, coordinate, and incorporate input and approvals from firm subject-matter experts regarding client guidelines and other retention documentation.
• Partner with practice groups to address practice-specific compliance requirements and considerations.