Senior Practice Operations Specialist
About the role
This is an exciting opportunity to work for one of the top law firms in the U.S.! Davis Wright Tremaine LLP is looking for a Senior Practice Operations Specialist to join our team in our Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, or Los Angeles offices. We offer a hybrid work engagement with two days of remote work, and three days in-office.
Responsibilities
Lead dedicated operational and matter-management efforts for a high-volume litigation and Food + Beverage workstream, with potential responsibility for adjacent industry team needs.
Bring structure, consistency, and forward momentum to the intake-to-billing lifecycle, including engagement letter workflows, matter opening, matter tracking, time entry management, billing coordination, reporting, and process improvement.
Work closely with Practice Management, Business Intake, Revenue Operations, Client Experience, legal assistants, and attorney leadership, serving as the operational lead for this workstream—owning matter tracking documentation, driving follow-up, identifying gaps, escalating issues, and designing repeatable processes that improve transparency, accountability, and client service.
Own and continuously improve the matter tracker, ensuring it provides reliable visibility into client names, matter names, billing rates, matter status, engagement letter status, attorney assignments, intake dates, DWT client/matter numbers, credit splits, supplier allocations, and other data needed to manage work efficiently.
Lead engagement letter workflows by drafting, updating, organizing, tracking, and driving completion of approved forms, including standard engagement letters, joint representation letters, indemnitor agreements, and client- or supplier-specific variations.
Drive matter-opening readiness by identifying missing information, resolving intake gaps, and coordinating with attorneys, legal assistants, Business Intake, Conflicts, Revenue Operations and other stakeholders to keep matters moving.
Serve as the operational point of accountability for pending time, including tracking aging items, coordinating time transfers, promoting consistent time-entry practices, and escalating issues that create billing or reporting risk.
Lead billing coordination for the workstream by managing pre-bill review workflows, tracking billing deadlines, surfacing bottlenecks, coordinating stakeholder follow-up, and escalating issues that may delay invoice finalization or collection.
Develop and circulate regular status reports, dashboards, reminders, and leadership updates related to matter opening, engagement letter status, billing readiness, WIP, AR, supplier information, and other operational priorities.
Design, document, and implement standardized workflows, naming conventions, shared inbox practices, document organization structures, and repeatable, scalable processes that improve team-wide transparency.
Proactively identify opportunities to streamline, automate, or centralize recurring steps in the intake, engagement letter, matter management, billing, and reporting processes, and lead practical implementation of agreed improvements.
Influence and coordinate attorneys, legal assistants, Practice Management, Client Experience, Revenue Operations, Business Intake, Conflicts, and other firm departments to resolve operational issues quickly and maintain momentum on client work.
Exercise independent judgment, discretion, prioritization, and strong follow-through in a fast-moving environment with high client-service expectations and multiple senior stakeholders.
Demonstrate professionalism, poise, and appropriate assertiveness in stakeholder communications, coupled with strong attention to detail and a commitment to delivering accurate, carefully reviewed work product.
Requirements
5+ years of progressive experience in a law firm, legal department, professional services organization, or comparable client-service environment; law firm operations, practice management, legal assistant, billing, business intake, or client operations experience strongly preferred.
Experience with law firm intake, billing, document management, or reporting systems required.
Bachelor's Degree in business, legal studies, operations, or a related discipline, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
Familiarity with project management principles and/or process improvement methodologies.
Demonstrated ability to lead complex operational workflows, create structure from ambiguity, and drive accountability across attorneys, legal assistants, and administrative departments without direct supervisory authority.
Strong working knowledge of matter intake, engagement letter workflows, conflicts/business intake processes, billing coordination, WIP management, AR follow-up, and the importance of accurate client and matter data.
Pioneered experience building, maintaining, and improving trackers, reports, dashboards, templates, workflows, and repeatable operating processes.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to synthesize issues clearly, recommend practical solutions, escalate appropriately, and communicate with confidence to attorneys, staff, and internal stakeholders.
High attention to detail and strong comfort working with spreadsheets, trackers, matter data, billing information, templates, and status reports.
Ability to build trust with busy attorneys by anticipating needs, setting priorities, bringing structure to complex workflows, and maintaining steady follow-through on time-sensitive operational issues.
Proficiency with Microsoft Outlook, Excel, Word, Teams, PowerBI, and SharePoint required.
A proactive, process-oriented mindset with demonstrated interest in continuous improvement, workflow design, practical technology adoption, and scalable service delivery.