Kirkland & Ellis LLP Looking for Litigation & Practice Technology Project Manager (Any US Office Location) at Chicago, IL Full Time

Kirkland & Ellis LLP is a preeminent, full-service law firm with offices around the world and a staff as diverse as the practice areas we support. Our clients range from Fortune 100 companies to medium and small corporations, financial institutions, and private equity firms. Known for our commitment to excellence, Kirkland strives to provide superior service to our clients as well as our fellow employees. From Information Technology to Human Resources, Paralegal Services to Business Development, Kirkland offers non-attorney professionals challenging careers in a variety of functional areas. Whether starting or growing your career, Kirkland can offer a performance-driven culture filled with bright and innovative teams of co-workers.

Essential Job Functions

The Litigation & Practice Technology (“LPT”) Project Manager reports to the Associate Director and will work directly with case teams when requested by case teams and clients to: identify eDiscovery focused technical requirements and resources; assist with managing and selecting service providers; define and execute associated support tasks; provide project management for technical workstreams; and when requested provide eDiscovery and analytics consulting services.

Ideal candidates will have 6 years (preferred) experience in legal technology support at an AMLAW 100 law firm or service provider.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

As requested by case teams and clients, the Project Manager will perform the following functions.

Technical Responsibilities

• Provide hands-on support in Relativity, Brainspace and other litigation technology toolsets for a variety of requests, including: case creation; field and coding layout creation; strategic application of TAR and other analytics; advanced search design, implementation and validation; creation and support of document review and production workflows; privilege log design and management; complaint data and exhibit management.
• Advise on and coordinate development of key specifications ( e.g., data processing and exception handling) with case teams and internal LPT Operations team. Assess and address any issues found in reporting related to data processing, exception handling or completeness of data collection.
• Coordinate (or perform if necessary) in-house data management activities such as data processing, loading into database applications, imaging and building production subsets.
• Perform final quality control and assurance on deliverables to case teams, clients and third parties.
• Consult with case team members on the use of customized litigation support apps and tools.
• Assist with analyzing and testing new versions of software.
• Trouble shoot escalated issues.
• Support the execution of special projects.
• Apply firm standards in both technology and practices as identified by Firm leadership and guided by an Associate Director.

Project Management & Consulting Responsibilities

• Support assessment and selection of eDiscovery and Managed Review providers.
• Assist with the management of external service providers and any required problem-solving or troubleshooting. Help identify opportunities for improved use of technology or process to gain efficiencies and meet best practices.
• Coordinate communications and document decisions related to technical work-streams including running project meetings, determining requirements, schedules, deliverables and quality standards.
• Coordinate and QC completion of work requests between case teams and Operations teams.
• Identify and implement process, reporting and documentation enhancements to improve service quality. Enhancements could include tracking systems, reporting templates, review workflows and development of use cases for the utilization of advanced analytics and AI.
• Consult on and document data identification, preservation and collection procedures.
• Consult on and implement the use of TAR, advance analytics and review/quality control workflow design.
• Assists case teams in the analysis and presentation of data trends and patterns using TAR and other advanced analytics.
• Contribute to departmental publications, presentations and documentation creation.
• Deliver training to case teams and department as required.
• Provide briefings to the Associate Director and Director of Litigation & Practice Technology as requested.

Qualifications & Requirements

A successful Project Manager will have a strong combination of the following technical, project management and consulting experience, capabilities and knowledge.

Technical – Required

• A minimum of 3 years of hands on experience with leading eDiscovery review platforms (Relativity, DISCO, Recommind) with an emphasis on database setup, complex search construction and results validation, design of optimized review workflows including document batching.
• A minimum of 1 year of hands on experience with the use of TAR and other analytics (BrainSpace, NexLP) with an emphasis on the use of CAL/CMML and other techniques for deduplication, email threading, review prioritization, sampling, production quality control, privilege identification and other predictive models.
• A minimum of 1 year of experience supporting early case assessment steps to defensibly cull document volumes and identify potential gaps in data collections or incoming productions.
• General knowledge of industry standard data processing specifications, exception handling and other data assessment techniques.
• Advanced knowledge of Excel and other data management tools.

Technical – Preferred

• Relativity Certified Administrator (RCA); BrainSpace Analyst Certification
• Thorough understanding of the metrics and terminology used to support and explain TAR; basic knowledge of analytics related statistics measures.

Project Management & Consulting – Required

• Thorough knowledge of the litigation lifecycle and eDiscovery processes.
• A minimum of 3 years of experience managing multiple projects and priorities in a timely fashion, simultaneously with a high degree of accuracy, professionalism and client-service orientation.

Project Management & Consulting – Preferred

• Experience assessing and summarizing service providers RFP responses, including pricing models.
• Experience consulting case teams and clients on best practices related to data identification, preservation and collection.
• Experience training case teams on analytics use and best practices.
• PMP Certification

Other Qualifications & Requirements.

• Ability to express thoughts, ideas and information in a clear and compelling manner by highlighting critical points, adjusting messaging to suit the audience, addressing questions and points from others with appropriate responses.
• Ability to identify problems by detecting patterns or connections, researching and analyze problems, determining alternative solutions and creating action steps to solve the problem.
• Ability to think and act quickly, effectively, and appropriately in a variety of situations, solving problems while balancing time, quality, cost and risk.
• Ability to work independently and as part of a cross-office team, building relationships, delegating working and escalating risk appropriately.
• ‘Can Do’ attitude. Ability to proactively manage case team expectations, recognize needs and adapt plans accordingly.
• Willingness and ability to identify gaps, propose solutions and take ownership of projects.
• Bachelor’s Degree preferred, though a combination of associate’s degree and commensurate experience will be considered.
• Flexibility to accommodate overtime is required at times.

How to Apply

Thank you for your interest in Kirkland & Ellis LLP. To complete an application and submit your resume, please click “Apply Now.”

Equal Employment Opportunity

All employment decisions, including the recruiting, hiring, placement, training availability, promotion, compensation, evaluation, disciplinary actions, and termination of employment (if necessary) are made without regard to the employee’s race, color, creed, religion, sex, pregnancy or childbirth, personal appearance, family responsibilities, sexual orientation or preference, gender identity, political affiliation, source of income, place of residence, national or ethnic origin, ancestry, age, marital status, military veteran status, unfavorable discharge from military service, physical or mental disability, or on any other basis prohibited by applicable law.

Closing Statement

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