Conflicts Department Manager

Job Description:

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Typical responsibilities include, but are not limited to, the following:

Global Workflow Oversight. Escalation and Quality Control

• Manage overall conflicts workflow, including prioritization, assignment, and tracking of requests to ensure timely completion
• Serve as an escalation point for complex or sensitive matters and coordinate with the Office of the General Counsel as needed
• Ensure on-call coverage is provided by assigning analysts to a rotating schedule and adjusting coverage for peak-volume periods and urgent requests across time zones
• Review and provide feedback on conflicts searches performed by staff outside the New York-based conflicts analyst team; provide corrective direction and targeted training as needed
• Ensure consistent practices across offices and teams

Process Ownership and Continuous Improvement

• Take initiative in developing, documenting, and maintaining conflicts department procedures, trainings, templates, and escalation protocols to ensure consistent practice across offices
• Identify trends impacting turnaround time, accuracy, and efficiency; implement process improvements and controls as appropriate

Team Leadership and Development

• Manage, train, and coach conflicts analysts, including onboarding, ongoing skills development, and performance feedback
• Set clear expectations for quality, responsiveness, confidentiality, and professionalism
• Identify training needs and deliver appropriate and targeted refreshers to promote consistent best practices
• Foster a culture of strong work ethic, reliability, and ownership of outcomes

Conflicts Searching and Research (Working Manager)

• Conduct conflict of interest searches for all Davis Polk offices
• Perform necessary research to ensure complete conflicts searches, including analysis of naming variations and corporate affiliations
• Monitor new clients and matters to ensure required levels of conflicts review have been completed and appropriately documented
• Perform conflict of interest searches on all new employees
• Record and follow up with lawyers to return conflict signature pages
• Support data integrity efforts, including maintaining and updating corporate information and affiliations in the conflicts system and related tools
• Monitor new clients to ensure that both basic and expanded conflict searches have been completed

Vendor Relationship Management

• Manage relationships with the Firm’s conflicts technology providers and corporate family tree database vendors; serve as the primary operational point of contact
• Coordinate issue escalation and resolution; track issues and communicate status and impact to stakeholders
• Monitor vendor performance and drive corrective actions as needed
• Support evaluation, renewal, and cost-management activities (as applicable), including review of invoices, usage, workflow improvement opportunities

Job Requirements:

Qualifications/Position Requirements

• Expert knowledge of a conflicts management/new business intake system used by large international law firms (e.g., iManage Conflicts Management (ICM), Intapp, or equivalent); ICM preferred
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including ability to comfortably and appropriately communicate with attorneys and staff
• Excellent interpersonal skills and strong client-service orientation
• Strong people-management skills, with the ability to coach and develop staff in a high-volume, deadline-driven environment
• Ability to work independently and effectively in a fast-paced environment, manage competing priorities, and exercise sound judgment
• Demonstrated initiative and ownership in improving workflows, documenting procedures, and ensuring adherence to Firm protocols
• Thorough working knowledge of major online databases and business resources and proactive in maintaining and developing research skills
• Ability to work additional hours when needed to support business needs and support time-sensitive requests

Education and/or Experience

• B.A. required, JD or MLS degree a plus
• Minimum 5 years of related experience, including conflicts experience at an AmLaw 100 firm and experience managing a team