Litigation Management Associate

About the role

The Litigation Management Associate is primarily responsible for auditing legal and litigation support vendor invoices, educating panel defense counsel on the Company's litigation management programs, training staff, generating legal audit data and reports, and developing and implementing litigation management initiatives.

Responsibilities

• Audit invoices from panel firms, coverage counsel, and litigation support vendors, ensuring standards for production, timeliness, and quality are met.
• Communicate and build relationships with panel firms through written, verbal, electronic, and off-site feedback.
• Negotiate alternate fee arrangements with litigation support vendors, including creating and reviewing contracts.
• Participate in the selection and review of panel counsel and coverage counsel, including setting rates and negotiating alternate billing arrangements.
• Participate in developing and implementing procedures for in-house operations.
• Educate panel firms on the in-house litigation management program, including Legal Billing Review guidelines and Case Management Guidelines.
• Analyze firm performance, compliance, and service.
• Maintain legal audit data and generate quarterly and ad-hoc legal audit reports, including directing efforts of other team members.
• Analyze allocated and unallocated loss adjustment expenses for expense control, including input into control mechanisms such as alternate fees, discounts, and other expense management tools.
• Test software for potential use in audit, budget, and case functions, ensuring readiness for handling these tasks.
• Train litigation management associates and other team members on in-house legal audit procedures, as well as claim staff on in-house procedures.
• Coordinate with claim staff on approvals, budgeting, and case management questions.
• Assist in developing and implementing Claim Department and Litigation Management Unit programs and initiatives.
• Implement the Defense Counsel Development Program, including evaluating prospective law firms and attorneys, maintaining utilization data, and coordinating attorney education seminars.
• Handle special projects requiring legal expertise or judgment as requested by management.

Requirements

• Law school graduate with a minimum of 1-3 years of legal practice experience, preferably in civil litigation.
• Familiarity with law firm billing practices.
• Minimum of 3 years’ experience auditing legal invoices.
• Law school diploma; license to practice law in one or more states where the Company operates is preferred.
• Ability to read, interpret, and write routine reports, correspondence, and procedure manuals.
• Strong communication skills to effectively interact with outside counsel and internal teams.
• Ability to perform mathematical calculations, including simple accounting and statistical analyses.
• Strong analytical skills and reasoning ability to grasp and analyze legal issues in the claims context.
• Proficiency in core systems (e.g., NetCore), Microsoft Office (including Excel), and legal audit software (e.g., Datalytics).

Pay

The base salary range for this role is $90,780 - $122,800. Individual compensation packages are based on factors such as geographic location, skill set, experience, qualifications, and education.