Senior BIC Manager (Strategic Conflicts) - Strategic Conflicts

Senior BIC Manager (Strategic Conflicts)

Cooley is seeking a Senior BIC Manager (Strategic Conflicts) to join the Business Intake and Conflicts team.

About Cooley: Cooley is a global law firm with an expansive practice and more than 3,000 employees and partners worldwide. We value and celebrate diverse perspectives and strive to create a workplace where every individual can thrive. At the core of Cooley’s success is the exceptional talent and unwavering spirit of our people. We embrace individuality while fostering a ‘one-firm’ culture where collaboration and creativity thrive. Our people are the foundation of our success and the driving force behind everything we do.

Hybrid Schedule Philosophy: As part of the Cooley culture, we recognize and appreciate the value of being together, in person, to build comradery with others in the office and to be a contributing member of the Cooley office. However, we also appreciate the benefits and flexibility that come from remote working. As such, the default assumption for employees and partners is a hybrid schedule: some in-office presence and some work from home days absent certain essential in-office roles that require five (5) days/week in-office.

Position summary: The Senior BIC Manager (Strategic Conflicts) will lead the firm’s operational approach to complex, sensitive and high-profile potential engagements presenting strategic-conflicts, business, reputational, regulatory or other heightened-risk considerations. Working closely with BIC Leadership, the Strategic Conflicts Committee, the General Counsel’s Office, department and firm leadership, partners and cross-functional stakeholders, the Manager directs and coordinates each potential engagement from initial identification and diligence through executive review, decision, conflicts resolution, onboarding and implementation. The Manager brings strong project-management vision, elite organizational discipline, sound judgment and the ability to translate detailed conflicts and risk information into concise, decision-ready executive communications.

For opportunities that do not proceed, the Senior BIC Manager ensures a complete record of the analysis, rationale, approvals, unresolved issues and recommended conditions for onboarding is preserved to support consistent treatment of future attempts.  The role also oversees BIC’s coordination of high-priority risk items including but not limited to the following:   sanctions, export controls, Russia connections, politically exposed persons, cryptocurrency, cannabis and other red flags identified through the engagement process.  The Senior BIC Manager (Strategic Conflicts) will be a dedicated resource for items of an elevated risk profile, while possessing the holistic knowledge and conflicts fluency to serve as a point of contact to firm management, lawyers, and business professionals on strategic conflicts issues and a range of other conflicts topics.

Position responsibilities:

• Lead the end-to-end strategic-conflicts process for prospective clients and matters, from identification of an alert or concern through diligence, executive review, decision, conflicts resolution, engagement documentation, onboarding and implementation
• Provide oversight and orchestration of departmental handling of strategic conflicts, ensuring that escalated matters are handled consistently, efficiently, and in alignment with firm policies and professional responsibility obligations
• Establish a disciplined project-management framework for each potential engagement, including clear scope, owners, decision rights, milestones, dependencies, communications, escalation points and target dates
• Complete and coordinate substantive diligence before escalation, including conflicts analysis, attorney outreach, matter-status validation, client and affiliate research, adverse-party review, negative-news and litigation research, prior decision history, business sensitivities, strategic-conflict  implications, waiver availability and downstream impact
• Prepare concise, decision-ready executive summaries that clearly identify the business opportunity, relevant facts, financials, existing-client and strategic risks, available options, waiver or guardrail considerations, outstanding dependencies, recommended path and decision required
• Communicate confidently and effectively with executive leadership, partners, department leaders, the Strategic Conflicts Committee and the General Counsel’s Office, including facilitating sensitive discussions, surfacing differing perspectives and driving matters toward timely decisions
• Serve as the primary escalation point and liaison among BIC Leadership, the General Counsel’s Office, and other stakeholders for strategic-conflict and heightened-risk engagement questions
• Drive each viable engagement to full resolution, including obtaining required approvals, resolving conflicts, securing or coordinating waivers, defining guardrails, confirming engagement terms, implementing alerts or ethical screens and ensuring all conditions are communicated and completed before opening
• When an engagement does not come to fruition, create and maintain a complete, searchable record of the analysis, stakeholders consulted, decisions, rationale, unresolved issues and conditions that should govern any future attempt to engage the client or open-related work
• Maintain a reliable repository of Strategic Conflicts Committee decisions, precedent, alerts, guardrails and supporting documentation to promote consistent future decision-making and institutional knowledge
• Engage in direct and close discussion of escalated conflicts topics with the General Counsel’s office and other senior stakeholders, supporting practical and well-documented resolution of sensitive issues
• Serve as a primary point of contact for elevated conflicts items within the Business Intake and Conflicts team, helping triage, analyze, and route issues requiring senior review
• Identify opportunities to improve conflicts workflows, escalation protocols, templates, and communication practices to support scalable and consistent delivery
• Draft, review, and coordinate conflicts waivers and related communications, ensuring that proposed resolutions are clear, accurate, and appropriately tailored to the underlying risk profile
• Manage BIC’s involvement in engagements presenting sanctions, export-control, Russia-connection, politically exposed person, cryptocurrency, cannabis or other regulatory, reputational, financial-crime or unusual-risk red flags identified through the intake and conflicts process
• Coordinate with the appropriate legal, compliance, security, information-governance and technology stakeholders to establish approvals, access restrictions, ethical screens, technology controls, monitoring, audit trails and sustainable operational support for heightened-risk engagements
• Monitor active workstreams, identify bottlenecks and preventable urgency, distinguish operational dependencies from strategic decisions and provide clear status updates to leadership and requesting attorneys
• Develop and maintain decision frameworks, escalation protocols, standard communications, templates, playbooks, training and quality controls for recurring strategic-conflict and risk-management scenarios
• Analyze trends, outcomes, cycle times, recurring barriers and risk categories; provide reporting and recommendations to improve governance, service delivery, data quality, consistency and executive visibility
• Lead and develop assigned team members and cross-functional project teams, establish clear performance expectations, allocate work, provide coaching and ensure timely, accurate and responsive service
• Maintain awareness of legal ethics, professional responsibility, sanctions, export controls and other developments affecting client and matter acceptance
• All other duties as assigned or required
•  

Skills and experience:

Required:

• After orientation at Cooley LLP, proficiency in the BIC System suite, Microsoft Office suite, iManage and other firm applications
• Ability to work extended and/or weekend hours, as required
• 7+ years of direct applicable experience (e.g., progressively responsible legal, conflicts, intake, compliance, risk-management or practicing-attorney experience, including substantial experience with complex conflicts resolution and client or matter acceptance)
• 2+ years of exempt/management experience in relevant roles. Work more independently, demonstrate escalating ownership and mastery of assigned area, exhibit strength in the areas below, become a resource and mentor to others and more as they progress in different roles within the department)
• Experience leading complex, cross-functional projects or workstreams involving senior stakeholders, competing priorities, sensitive information and time-critical decisions.
• Ability to prepare and present concise risk assessments, options and recommendations to executive leadership, partners or senior legal stakeholders
• Knowledge of the American Bar Association’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct and applicable state rules of professional conduct
• Strong understanding of corporate law practice, client and matter onboarding, conflicts resolution, waivers, engagement terms, ethical screens and law-firm risk-management processes
• Experience conducting legal, corporate and investigative research and documenting defensible, auditable decisions
• Prior experience supervising, coaching or leading professionals and managing service delivery across multiple concurrent matters
• Experience communicating with firm management, lawyers, and business professionals on high-level conflict and business issues

Preferred:

• Bachelor’s, Master’s degree, paralegal certification, or JD
• Experience supporting a strategic-conflicts committee, general counsel function or comparable executive risk-review body
• Working knowledge of sanctions, export controls, anti-money laundering considerations and other heightened-risk client-acceptance frameworks
• Project-management certification or demonstrated experience applying formal project, program or change-management practices
• Experience designing governance, reporting, knowledge-management or workflow solutions in a law-firm or professional-services environment

Competencies:

• Advanced conflicts judgment: Demonstrates high-level conflicts experience, analytical rigor, and the ability to assess complex legal, ethical, commercial, and operational considerations
• Exceptional project-management vision and the ability to convert complex, ambiguous matters into clear workplans, ownership, decisions and outcomes
• Elite organizational skills, meticulous attention to detail and disciplined follow-through across numerous concurrent, high-priority engagements
• Executive presence and outstanding verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to lead nuanced conversations with senior firm leadership
• Strong analytical, critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, with sound judgment in legally, ethically, commercially and reputationally sensitive situations
• Ability to synthesize large volumes of facts, competing viewpoints and incomplete information into concise, practical and decision-ready recommendations
• Ability to influence without relying solely on authority, build trust across functions, facilitate alignment and respectfully challenge assumptions when necessary
• Ability to distinguish operational issues from matters requiring strategic or legal escalation and to engage the right decision-makers at the right time
• Proactive ownership, responsiveness and composure in a fast-paced environment with shifting priorities, compressed timelines and confidential information
• Commitment to high-quality client service, consistent documentation, institutional knowledge and continuous process improvement
• Strong people-leadership, coaching, delegation and accountability skills
• Collaboration and diplomacy: Builds trust across teams and helps navigate competing priorities, sensitive conversations, and time-sensitive business needs
• Entrepreneurial by nature
• Excellent attention to detail
• Exceptional interpersonal and communication skills with ability to facilitate and solve problems
• Ability to organize, prioritize and coordinate multiple activities often under tight timelines
• Ability to drive projects to completion and achieve goals
• Strong judgment
• Team-player with collaborative spirit
• Unwavering ability to handle and maintain confidentiality regarding firm information, projects, client data
• High level of professionalism at all times
• Ability to lead through influence and develop talent
• Proactive, analytical mindset
• Effective presentation skills

Cooley offers a competitive compensation and excellent benefits package and is committed to fair and equitable employment practices. EOE.

The expected annual pay range for this position with a full-time schedule is $120,000 - $175,000. Please note that final offer amount will be dependent on geographic location, applicable experience and skillset of the candidate.

We offer a full range of elective benefits including medical, health savings account (with applicable medical plan), dental, vision, health and/or dependent care flexible spending accounts, pre-tax commuter benefits, life insurance, AD&D, long-term care coverage, backup care for children and/or adults and other parental support benefits. In addition to elective benefit options, benefited employees receive firm-paid life insurance, AD&D, LTD, short term medical benefits as well as 21 days of Paid Time Off (“PTO”) and 10 paid holidays each year. We provide generous parental leave and fertility benefits. New employees will attend a detailed benefit orientation to learn more about our many benefits and resources.