Counsel Management Director

Overview

The position has responsibility across all aspects of outside counsel management to optimize claim outcomes, ensure the delivery of superior legal services in the representation of policyholders, with a primary focus on workers' compensation claims. The position will be responsible for managing the end-to-end process for counsel selection, engagement, onboarding and performance evaluation.

The position has responsibility for negotiating and managing all hourly and alternative fee arrangements with outside law firms. The position will also administer measures of quality assessment which incorporate legal spend analytics to support a spend-optimization strategy. The ideal candidate will report into an AmTrust office on a hybrid model. 

Responsibilities

Counsel Engagement and Management

• Responsible for ensuring agreements are in place with outside firms regarding adherence to AmTrust litigation, billing and related guidelines.
• Communicate changes to approved panel law firms to claim lines of business.
• Support internal business partners through training and communication on best practices for working with outside counsel.
• Serve as the AmTrust primary point of contact to coordinate and resolve all issues with outside counsel.
• Work with internal business partners to implement third-party risk management strategies consistent with AmTrust enterprise strategy.

Expense Management

• Negotiate and manage all outside counsel rate agreements.
• Evaluate opportunities to implement alternative fee agreements.
• Develop analytics to identify trends, cost drivers and improvement opportunities across all categories of legal spend.

Outside Counsel Performance Management

• Define and measure performance expectations for outside counsel performance across all relevant aspects of performance (understanding of AmTrust objectives and expectations, technical expertise, responsiveness/communication, efficiency, predictability of cost/budgeting, results/execution).
• Implement procedures to capture claim feedback about counsel performance at file closing.
• Create scorecard of outside counsel performance for use by claim department.
• Establish systematic file review process and conduct regular reviews for top panel firms

Qualifications

• Juris Doctor from Accredited Law School
• State Bar licensed attorney
• 7+ years in practice of law; 5 years’ experience in leadership roles supervising attorneys and other legal staff.
• Prior experience handling insurance defense litigation for insurance carriers, with expertise in workers' compensation claims and litigation preferred. 
• Skilled communicator across multiple levels of leadership, with customers and internal business partners.
• Significant experience working across multiple applications/technologies.
• Experience analyzing data and providing business insights to non-technical audiences.
• Proven ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• In-depth understanding of claim and claim legal operations.
• Demonstrates advanced understanding of litigation strategy and execution for workers' compensation and other lines of insurance, with ability to adapt litigation understanding to multiple jurisdictions
• Embraces changes; invites feedback related to performance and deals constructively with criticism
• Proven ability to collaborate with internal stakeholders, business partners and external customers and vendors.
• Commitment to ethics, integrity and transparency.

This job description is designed to provide a general overview of the requirements of the job and does not entail a comprehensive listing of all activities, duties, or responsibilities that will be required in this position. AmTrust has the right to revise this job description at any time.

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What We Offer

AmTrust Financial Services offers a competitive compensation package and excellent career advancement opportunities. Our benefits include: Medical & Dental Plans, Life Insurance, including eligible spouses & children, Health Care Flexible Spending, Dependent Care, 401k Savings Plans, Paid Time Off.

AmTrust strives to create a diverse and inclusive culture where thoughts and ideas of all employees are appreciated and respected. This concept encompasses but is not limited to human differences with regard to race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, culture, religion or disabilities.

AmTrust values excellence and recognizes that by embracing the diverse backgrounds, skills, and perspectives of its workforce, it will sustain a competitive advantage and remain an employer of choice. Diversity is a business imperative, enabling us to attract, retain and develop the best talent available. We see diversity as more than just policies and practices. It is an integral part of who we are as a company, how we operate and how we see our future.