Conflicts Manager

Overview

Cleary Gottlieb is a pioneer in globalizing the legal profession. We have fourteen offices in major financial centers around the world, but we operate as a single, integrated global partnership and not a U.S. firm with a network of overseas locations. The firm employs approximately 1,100 lawyers from more than fifty countries.

Since 1946, our lawyers and staff have worked across practices, industries, jurisdictions, and continents to provide clients with simple, actionable approaches to their most complex legal and business challenges, whether domestic or international. We support every client relationship with intellectual agility, commercial acumen, and a human touch.

The Risk team provides global support by advising senior management, partners, legal teams, and office staff on legal matters affecting the Firm. The Conflicts Manager will be responsible for supporting the Firm's global Risk function by leading the day-to-day operations of the Conflicts Department, managing workflow distribution, and advising on issues arising from client onboarding, business intake, and potential conflicts of interest. In this role, the successful candidate will hire, train, mentor, and manage a team of non-attorney conflicts analysts. The Conflicts Manager will also drive process improvement by modernizing internal intake workflows and processes, assist with evaluating external software and products relating to the overall function of the department, and develop training materials for Firm stakeholders on intake processes.

Responsibilities

• Work closely with Conflict Attorneys, Assistant General Counsel (Conflicts) and other senior attorneys in the Risk team to set high level goals and processes for the conflicts team.
• Manage team of conflict analysts based primarily in New York and London, including the prioritization, assignment, and tracking of requests to ensure timely and accurate completion.
• Oversee the end-to-end conflicts workflow as part of the overall business intake process.
• Oversee the conflict analysts processes related to the new hire conflict clearance process.
• Lead, train, and coach a team of conflicts analysts, including onboarding, ongoing skills development, and performance feedback.
• Develop, document, and maintain departmental procedures, training materials, templates, and escalation protocols to ensure consistent practices across all offices.
• Deliver training and ongoing support to executive assistants and lawyers responsible for inputting new matter data.
• Ensure adequate coverage over different time zones to support uninterrupted operations.
• Act as an escalation point for complex or sensitive matters and coordinate between the conflict analysts and Conflict Attorneys.
• Willingness and ability to assist analyst team on day to day tasks, when necessary.
• Work closely with Risk Manager and AML/CDD Manager to ensure a unified approach to intake across all aspects of Risk functions. 
• Support data integrity efforts, including maintaining and updating corporate information and affiliations in the conflicts system and related tools.
• Identify trends impacting turnaround time, accuracy, and efficiency; implement process improvements and controls as appropriate.
• Work closely with the IT team and Vendors to troubleshoot and test software when issues arise and/or during upgrades
• Support the review and selection of business research and software tools, and assist in managing the department's technology resources.

Qualifications

• B.A. required.
• A minimum of 5 years of relevant experience, with a background in conflicts and a track record of team leadership.
• A minimum of two years of experience in a management role
• Expert knowledge of conflicts management and new business intake platforms, preferably Intapp.
• Excellent communication, interpersonal and customer service skills, both verbal and written.
• Proven ability to lead, mentor, and develop team members in a high-volume setting with tight deadlines.
• Thrives working independently in a high-tempo environment, skillfully prioritizing workload and making sound decisions with minimal oversight.
• Flexibility to work beyond standard hours when business needs or urgent deadlines require it.

The estimated base salary range for this position is $130,000 to $160,000 at the time of posting. The actual salary offered will depend on a variety of job-related factors, including skills, education, training, credentials, experience, scope and complexity of role responsibilities, geographic location, and performance. This role is exempt meaning it is not overtime pay eligible.

Cleary provides a comprehensive benefits package, including health care benefits. More information can be found here: Benefits

We are an equal opportunity employer and prohibit discrimination based on any category protected by law. Cleary provides reasonable accommodations to enable otherwise qualified employees to perform the essential functions of their position, provided the accommodation does not pose an undue hardship to the Firm.

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