Innovation & Emerging Technology Specialist

Overview

Cleary Gottlieb is a pioneer in globalizing the legal profession. We have 14 offices in major financial centers around the world, but we operate as a single, integrated global partnership and not as a U.S. firm with a network of overseas locations. The firm employs approximately 1,100 lawyers from more than 50 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 Innovation & Emerging Technology Specialist supports the Firm's legal innovation initiatives by helping to identify, evaluate, prioritize, and deploy available and emerging technology solutions, including generative AI, that enhance the attorney practice experience and deliver value to clients. The Specialist bridges the gap between emerging technologies and real-world legal workflows, applying legal practice knowledge and seasoned judgment to help ensure the Firm's innovation portfolio addresses genuine attorney needs and advances the Firm's position at the forefront of legal service delivery.

Responsibilities

Monitoring for Intelligence:

• Engages empathetically with attorneys across all practice groups and seniority levels to understand current workflows, surface pain points, and uncover opportunities for technology-driven transformation.
• Evaluates the feasibility, strategic impact, ROI, and fit within the Firm's existing technology portfolio of potential innovations, including AI-powered tools and workflow optimization platforms; distinguishes underlying practice needs from proposed solutions and vendor marketing claims, and recommends alternative paths where appropriate.
• Synthesizes and communicates findings to stakeholders, prioritizes and sequences initiatives and vendor capabilities strategically based on attorney need, feasibility, adoption readiness, risk, and Firm value, and defines actionable solutions.

Proof of Concept Management:

• Supports the design and execution of pilots and product evaluations, including helping to define objectives, scope, timelines, budgets, success metrics, intended use cases, and risk mitigation strategies with sufficient specificity to support efficient review and implementation.
• Manages stakeholder engagement and provides hands-on support to pilot groups, incorporating continuous feedback to iterate and improve.
• Develops and maintains comprehensive project plans, ensuring resources are allocated effectively to meet milestones.
• Assists in building business cases to justify technology investments and provides strategic recommendations and governance input to leadership on portfolio tradeoffs, sequencing, resource allocation, and value propositions.
• Partners with internal stakeholders—including Information Security, IT, Practice Development, Knowledge Management, Knowledge Solutions, AI Acceleration, Legal Technology, DLT, Enterprise Applications, Learning & Development, Business Development & Marketing, Risk, Finance, Knowledge Systems, Attorney Development, ClearyX, and other teams, as appropriate—to ensure alignment with policies, security requirements, strategic priorities, and operational feasibility.
• Proactively identifies, triages, and resolves risks and issues within the scope of the role, escalating material issues as appropriate to maintain project momentum.
• Anticipates information security and risk considerations, distinguishes manageable implementation conditions from issues requiring escalation or redesign, and brings well-framed, practice-informed proposals forward for review.

Product Implementation & Adoption:

• Supports the implementation, deployment, and adoption of legal technology solutions, collaborating with other internal teams to ensure seamless integration into existing workflows.
• Anticipates and addresses adoption challenges, designing intuitive user experiences and clear documentation.
• Contributes to go-to-market strategies for internal product launches, helping to cultivate champions and establish feedback loops to capture both quantitative and qualitative insights.
• Partners with practice groups and professional development teams to drive adoption through targeted communication, training programs, and ongoing support.
• Monitors usage analytics and user sentiment to continuously optimize tools and maximize engagement.

Relationship Management:

• Builds and maintains strategic relationships with legal technology vendors, startups, and innovation partners to stay ahead of market developments and proactively identify, evaluate, and prioritize meaningful platform capabilities for the Firm.
• Cultivates trusted partnerships with attorneys and professional staff across the Firm to ensure technology initiatives are aligned with user needs.

Culture of Innovation:

• Promotes a culture of innovation and continuous learning by amplifying attorney voices, sharing insights, and encouraging experimentation.
• Stays current on emerging technologies—including large language models, machine learning, and legal-specific AI applications—and translates trends into actionable recommendations for the Firm.
• Proactively identifies unmet needs and proposes creative, forward-thinking solutions that benefit attorneys at all levels.
• Builds a broad internal network to ensure timely, diverse, and representative feedback on innovation initiatives.

Strategic Planning:

• Develops and continuously refines a structured innovation roadmap and portfolio, prioritizing opportunities based on attorney need, feasibility, adoption readiness, risk, and strategic Firm value and translating priorities into sequenced execution plans.
• Supports special projects as assigned, adapting to shifting priorities based on the Firm's evolving needs.
• Demonstrates effective interpersonal, written, and verbal communication skills to build productive working relationships across all levels.
• Manages Firm resources responsibly and in alignment with operational policies and procedures.
• Performs other related duties as assigned.

Qualifications

ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, ABILITIES AND OTHER JOB-RELATED COMPETENCIES:

• Proficiency with core business applications (e.g., Microsoft 365 suite) and the ability to quickly master new software, platforms, and operating systems.
• Strong understanding of the legal technology landscape, including familiarity with generative and extractive AI, AI/ML tools, document automation, legal knowledge and research tools, and legal analytics platforms.
• Demonstrated experience with legal practice process improvement and technology-driven transformation, with the practice knowledge and judgment to identify the underlying problem being solved, ask the right questions, challenge or redirect requests when appropriate, and distinguish meaningful capabilities from incremental or duplicative technology.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, both written and verbal, with the ability to translate complex technical concepts for non-technical audiences.
• Exceptional attention to detail paired with strong analytical, troubleshooting, organizational, and planning capabilities.
• Proven ability to manage multiple concurrent projects and shifting priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Sound judgment and discretion when handling complex and/or sensitive or confidential matters, including the ability to anticipate legal-workflow implications and make well-reasoned decisions with appropriate independence.
• Self-directed and highly collaborative, comfortable working independently and as part of cross-functional teams.
• Ability to navigate Information Security and Risk review processes with practice-informed judgment, spotting red flags early, contextualizing proposed uses, anticipating review questions, and distinguishing conditions that can be managed through implementation from issues that should stop or reshape an initiative.
• Flexibility to adjust hours as needed to meet business demands.
• Familiarity with strategic enterprise sales, change management methodologies, and stakeholder engagement best practices.
• Experience with AI-powered legal tools or law firm innovation programs strongly preferred.

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE:

• Bachelor's degree required, JD strongly preferred.
• Minimum of five years of related experience at a law firm, legal technology company, or in-house legal department, including substantive experience with legal practice workflows and legal technology or innovation, with a background as an attorney, paralegal, or legal technologist.

The estimated base salary range for this position is $190,000 to $205,000 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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