Knowledge Lawyer - M&A/PE

Overview

Mayer Brown is an international law firm positioned to represent the world’s major corporations, funds, and financial institutions in their most important and complex transactions and disputes. We are recognized by our clients as strategic partners with deep commercial instincts and a commitment to creatively anticipating their needs and delivering excellence in everything we do.

We are a collegial, collaborative firm where highly motivated individuals with an unwavering commitment to excellence receive the opportunity, support, and development they need to grow, thrive, and realize their greatest potential all while supporting the Firm’s client service principles of excellence, strategic partnership, commercial instinct, integrated strengths, innovation, and collaboration across our international firm.

If you thrive in a collaborative environment that values exceptional client service, initiative, professionalism, responsiveness, and adaptability, we invite you to consider joining our Knowledge Management department in our New York or Chicago office as a Knowledge Lawyer or Counsel (US M&A/PE).

The Knowledge Management Lawyer creates, curates and updates substantive legal resources, standard forms, precedent, training, and current awareness for their practice group, and drives the adoption of AI tools and innovative technology within the practice. The role captures and structures institutional expertise, reduces risk and duplicated effort, and equips attorneys to deliver consistent, efficient, and high-calibre client service. Working closely with practice group attorneys, the Knowledge Management Lawyer embeds market experience into the knowledge assets produced and keeps them current and commercially relevant.

Responsibilities

Essential Functions:  

Knowledge Strategy

• Partner with practice leadership and Knowledge Counsel to assess knowledge needs and develop and implement a strategy and plan to address them and align with the practice group’s business priorities
• Clearly and consistently communicate the knowledge strategy to the practice group
• Regularly review the knowledge strategy and its execution to inform priorities and strategic decisions

Legal Knowledge Resources

• Monitor and keep the practice group up to date and ahead of the curve on relevant developments in law and business
• Lead the capture, creation, drafting, updating and maintenance of market-leading knowledge resources, including standard forms, precedent documents, best practices, how-to-memos, legal research documents and other relevant resources for the practice group
• Assess, develop and collect attorney feedback on practice workflows and identify and implement appropriate knowledge management and practice solutions to improve efficiency and effectiveness of client service delivery
• Ensure knowledge resources are readily accessible on the intranet practice pages and the Global Knowledge Bank and remain current and aligned with practice needs
• Conduct matter debriefs with attorneys to support know how collections
• Verify data accuracy within KM systems and ensure effective data collection processes
• Work with other stakeholders to implement new workflows and technology solutions that improve data capture
• Advise and act as a trusted sounding board for partners and attorneys on technical legal queries and, where appropriate, give advice directly to clients
• Advise on and mitigate risk for the practice group by keeping abreast of legal and regulatory developments that impact the practice, working closing with risk partners and the firms Legal Risk Management team
• Meet regularly with attorneys in the practice group to obtain insights relevant to improving knowledge management resources, strategy and technology resources
• Work with the practice group and Business Development & Marketing to establish processes to capture matter descriptions and categorizations in the firm’s matter systems
• Assist with setting up a process for producing closing binders and collecting valuable precedent documents

US M&A Practice Forms Library Development

• Work with US M&A partners and associates, as well as relevant specialist attorneys, to draft and maintain a full collection of US M&A purchase agreement forms and ancillary agreements and documents
• Ensure that the forms include up-to-date know how from Mayer Brown deal teams, developments in law in key jurisdictions, and Mayer Brown precedent agreements
• Work with technical teams to create automated versions of the form documents
• Assist in training the US M&A group on the form documents
• Maintain collections of US M&A precedent documents from recent deals
• Assist Mayer Brown lawyers in finding precedent documents

Legal Technology & Innovation

• Develop and maintain expertise on emerging technologies and knowledge management systems relevant to the practice group, including AI-driven applications
• Partner with Knowledge Counsel, Knowledge Management, Legal Technology & Innovation and other technology and business services teams to identify, evaluate, pilot, build and deploy solutions that meet attorney needs and drive more efficient client service delivery
• Drive implementation and adoption of legal technology, including generative AI and document automation
• Help evaluate generative AI capabilities, including developing, testing, and refining prompts for specific legal tasks aligned with practice needs and firm best practices
• Act as a subject matter expert on the effective use of legal technology and AI within the practice group
• Work with the Legal Project Management team on legal process improvement and project management initiatives for the practice group
• Gather attorney feedback on KM systems, technology, and AI to guide adoption, and document best practices and lessons learned
• Work with attorneys to translate practice-specific workflows into scalable, technology-enabled solutions and advise on improved processes and new tools
• Knowledge Data Transformation & Information Architecture
• Collaborate with internal data, innovation and transformation teams to leverage AI in enhancing the firm’s knowledge assets – streamlining classification, producing draft profiles for review, and enriching content with metadata that makes it findable and useful
• Work with the practice group to define practice-specific metadata, including legal topics, document types and the data points that matter to how they practice
• Contribute to the firm’s governance of AI assets – including prompts, workflows and agents – ensuring they are portable and vendor-agnostic, able to be shared across systems rather than locked into a single platform

Business Development

• Research, monitor and inform the practice of key legal and market developments and trends including their impact on attorney practice and clients
• Identify opportunities for the practice to use its internal know-how, expertise and insights to pursue business opportunities and raise profile to align with the practice’s strategy and priorities
• Draft, research and assist partners and attorneys with the legal content for client alerts, articles, thought leadership pieces and other client-facing products as needed by the practice, in all cases demonstrating the practice’s leading technical capability and market awareness
• Play a key role in client relationships by developing, and where appropriate, delivering client training, seminars and talking points

Attorney Training/ Technical Expertise

• Work with partners and attorneys in collaboration with Learning & Development to identify and plan core practice-related training, including ideas for utilization of technology and different approaches to deliver an engaging training program for the practice including team training, seminars, workshops and offsite training
• Capture valuable training materials and make them easily accessible to the practice group
• Develop and deliver legal training for attorneys to assist them with locating practice-related internal and external practice knowledge
• Design and deliver training on KM resources and best practices, and in collaboration with technology training teams, legal technology and best practices
• Promote use of the practice group’s KM resources and drive adoption and behavioral change across the practice
• Mentor associates by advising and demonstrating best practices in the use of knowledge management resources, assist attorneys in finding relevant knowledge management materials on request and help attorneys develop increasing independent and competence in finding and using knowledge management and practice solutions
• Establish relationships with attorneys to promote awareness of, and solicit participation in KM initiatives

Firmwide Collaboration

• Proactively develop relationships across the firm with attorneys, knowledge management, innovation, technology, and other business services teams to ensure seamless support for the practice group
• Gather feedback and continuously refine knowledge management and practice solutions
• Contribute to firmwide knowledge management initiatives and cross-practice collaboration
• Participate in Knowledge Management meetings to facilitate the sharing of best practices and knowledge

Other

• Attend external training and conferences to keep up-to-date with relevant developments in the law, business environment and knowledge management
• Foster own internal and external networks
• Provide other knowledge support to the practice group as may be assigned by the head of the practice group, the Knowledge Partner, or the Director of Knowledge Management

Qualifications, Experience and Personal Attributes

Education/Training/Certifications:

• J.D. or equivalent law degree from an accredited institution
• This position requires a lawyer with actual practice experience in a field related to US M&A and Private Equity who is or will become admitted to practice in the jurisdiction in which the position is located

Professional Experience: 

• Minimum of 6 years’ experience practicing as a US M&A lawyer for an AmLaw 100 law firm
• Excellent knowledge of drafting and negotiating US M&A agreements and managing M&A transactions
• Good knowledge of law and market practice in other areas of US corporate law (such as private equity and/or capital markets) an advantage but not essential
• Excellent knowledge of Delaware business entity statutes and case law and ideally the business entity law of other relevant states, such as New York, Texas, and/or California
• Ability to research statutes and case law relating to Delaware contract law and ideally contract law of other relevant states, such as New York, Texas, and/or California

Technical Skills: 

• Proficiency in Microsoft Office products, required
• Experience using AI platforms in US corporate practice

Performance Traits: 

• High professional standards with a passion for quality product
• Excellent drafting and research skills
• Well-developed organizational and communication skills
• Understanding of learning processes and different methods of training
• Effective interpersonal skills and the ability to interact with people at all levels
• Pragmatic, self-motivated, flexible and good team worker
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, able to communicate effectively and in a professional manner with all levels of the Firm and outside vendors
• Ability to work in a diverse team environment and effectively support the demanding needs of the Firm
• Ability to work under pressure, meet deadlines with shifting priorities
• Must be a self-starter with a high level of initiative
• Strong customer service skills, able to anticipate needs and exercise independent judgment
• Strong attention to detail, organizational skills and the ability to handle multiple projects
• Maintains confidentiality and exercises discretion
• Exercises solid strategic thinking and problem-solving skills

The above is a general description of the essential duties associated with this position and does not represent an exhaustive or comprehensive list of all duties.

The Firm may modify and amend this job description at any time at its sole discretion. Nothing herein creates a contract of employment or otherwise modifies the at-will nature of employment.

We offer competitive compensation and comprehensive benefits, including medical/dental/vision/life/and AD&D insurance, 401(k) savings plan, back-up childcare and eldercare, generous paid time off (PTO), as well as opportunities for professional development and growth.

We are committed to providing equal opportunity and reasonable accommodations to applicants and employees with disabilities and disabled veterans. To request an accommodation related to the application process or interview, please email [email protected]. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or protected veteran status.

Mayer Brown works with select external search firms that have been vetted against our standards. Firms without a contract or agreement with Mayer Brown are not authorized to represent that they are working with the Firm, nor are they entitled to placement fees. Mayer Brown does not accept unsolicited CVs from external recruiters. Submission of an unsolicited CV to Mayer Brown or any of its Partners or employees will not establish any right of priority for the submitting agency.

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Posted Pay Range

The typical pay scale for this position is between USD $255,000.00/Yr. and USD $335,000.00/Yr., although the actual wage or salary could be lower or higher if the candidate's education, experience, skills and internal pay alignment are different from those specified.