Specialist, Professional Development

About the role

The Specialist, Professional Development supports firmwide attorney integration and professional development initiatives, with a primary focus on non-partner attorney onboarding, orientation, integration, mentor programs, and related training efforts.

Responsibilities

• Manage and maintain tracking for all newly hired attorneys and patent professionals in Asana, including mapping first-year integration timelines, key milestones, and follow-up touchpoints.
• Develop customized integration plans for lateral attorneys and patent professionals, tailoring each plan to include appropriate integration video modules, substantive training resources, office and practice group connections, and other relevant onboarding support.
• Partner with stakeholders involved in the hiring and onboarding process, including practice group leaders, office leadership, recruiting, professional development, and other administrative departments, to gather feedback and incorporate relevant input into integration plans.
• Independently conduct 1:1 meetings with laterals to review integration plans, identify individual needs, and connect new attorneys with appropriate firm resources.
• Monitor attorney integration progress during the first year and conduct three- and six-month integration check-in calls with lateral hires; identify trends, concerns, or resource gaps and escalate or follow up as appropriate by distributing integration summaries and updates to relevant leadership/integration teams.
• Oversee the firm’s Foley Bound program, including sharing resources with eligible attorneys, managing the proposal process with department leadership, tracking participation, and gathering feedback to ensure ongoing success.
• Customize substantive training learning paths for attorneys and patent professionals based on level, practice group, and individual integration needs using Foley Academy LMS.
• Career development and professional development initiatives as assigned.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree required.
• Minimum of three (3) years of professional development, recruiting, talent development, human resources, legal talent, business development, or related experience required.
• Law firm, professional services, or other client-service-oriented corporate environment experience strongly preferred.
• Experience supporting attorney onboarding, integration, orientation, mentoring, training, or professional development programs preferred.
• Previous experience with Asana, ViGlobal, Chrome River, SharePoint, NetDocuments, learning management systems, applicant tracking or talent management systems, or equivalent platforms preferred.