Director, Counsel Management

About the role

This position oversees all aspects of outside counsel management to optimize claim outcomes and ensure the delivery of superior legal services in the representation of policyholders, with a primary focus on workers' compensation claims. The role manages the end-to-end process for counsel selection, engagement, onboarding, and performance evaluation, as well as negotiating and managing all hourly and alternative fee arrangements with outside law firms. The ideal candidate will work in a hybrid model, reporting into an AmTrust office.

Responsibilities

• Ensure agreements are in place with outside firms regarding adherence to AmTrust litigation, billing, and related guidelines.
• Communicate changes to approved panel law firms to claim lines of business.
• Support internal business partners through training and communication on best practices for working with outside counsel.
• Serve as the primary AmTrust point of contact to coordinate and resolve all issues with outside counsel.
• Work with internal business partners to implement third-party risk management strategies consistent with AmTrust enterprise strategy.
• Negotiate and manage all outside counsel rate agreements.
• Evaluate opportunities to implement alternative fee agreements.
• Develop analytics to identify trends, cost drivers, and improvement opportunities across all categories of legal spend.
• Define and measure performance expectations for outside counsel across all relevant aspects of performance (understanding of AmTrust objectives, technical expertise, responsiveness/communication, efficiency, predictability of cost/budgeting, results/execution).
• Implement procedures to capture claim feedback about counsel performance at file closing.
• Create a scorecard of outside counsel performance for use by the claim department.
• Establish a systematic file review process and conduct regular reviews for top panel firms.

Requirements

• Juris Doctor from an accredited law school.
• State Bar licensed attorney.
• 7+ years in the practice of law; 5 years’ experience in leadership roles supervising attorneys and other legal staff.
• Prior experience handling insurance defense litigation for insurance carriers, with expertise in workers' compensation claims and litigation preferred.
• Skilled communicator across multiple levels of leadership, with customers and internal business partners.
• Significant experience working across multiple applications/technologies.
• Experience analyzing data and providing business insights to non-technical audiences.
• Proven ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• In-depth understanding of claim and claim legal operations.
• Advanced understanding of litigation strategy and execution for workers' compensation and other lines of insurance, with the ability to adapt litigation understanding to multiple jurisdictions.
• Embraces changes, invites feedback related to performance, and deals constructively with criticism.
• Proven ability to collaborate with internal stakeholders, business partners, and external customers and vendors.
• Commitment to ethics, integrity, and transparency.

Benefits

• Medical & Dental Plans
• Life Insurance (including eligible spouses & children)
• Health Care Flexible Spending
• Dependent Care
• 401k Savings Plans
• Paid Time Off