The Legal Operations Specialist is a strategic and operational partner to the General Counsel and the Legal Department, responsible for building, optimizing, and continuously improving the systems, processes, technologies, financial management practices, and performance metrics that support the legal function. This role ensures the Legal Department operates with efficiency, transparency, accountability, and strong financial discipline while enabling the team to deliver high-quality legal services across the organization. The ideal candidate blends legal knowledge, operational excellence, financial acumen, project management expertise, and comfort with emerging technologies—including AI—to modernize and scale legal services in a regulated banking environment. The successful candidate is exceptionally detail oriented, highly organized, proactive, and capable of operating independently with minimal supervision. This individual serves as a trusted partner to the General Counsel, supports Board of Directors initiatives, and consistently demonstrates sound judgment, ownership, collaboration, and a commitment to continuous improvement.
Essential Functions:
- Administer and optimize legal technology platforms, including matter management, e-billing, document management, contract lifecycle management, records management, legal hold, entity management, and knowledge management systems.
- Own the Legal Department technology strategy, roadmap, and legal technology portfolio.
- Evaluate, implement, maintain, and optimize new legal technology solutions, including artificial intelligence, automation, analytics, and workflow tools.
- Lead legal technology implementations, upgrades, configurations, integrations, testing, deployment, training, and user adoption efforts.
- Develop dashboards, reporting, analytics, and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure legal spend, workload, productivity, turnaround times, outside counsel performance, and department effectiveness.
- Drive continuous improvement initiatives designed to enhance the efficiency, effectiveness, and scalability of the Legal Department.
- Design, document, implement, and improve legal workflows, intake processes, service delivery models, playbooks, and operating procedures.
- Manage department budgeting, forecasting, accruals, spend tracking, variance analysis, and financial reporting.
- Oversee outside counsel engagement, billing review, invoice compliance, rate management, budget compliance, spend forecasting, and performance metrics.
- Identify opportunities to reduce legal spend while maintaining quality, responsiveness, and compliance.
- Negotiate and manage legal vendor contracts, technology agreements, renewals, licensing arrangements, and service-level commitments.
- Monitor technology utilization, user adoption, data quality, return on investment, and system performance metrics.
- Partner with Information Technology, Information Security, Compliance, Risk Management, Third-Party Risk Management, Finance, and other business units on strategic initiatives.
- Ensure legal technologies and processes comply with applicable regulatory, privacy, records retention, cybersecurity, and governance requirements.
- Manage special projects and strategic initiatives assigned by the General Counsel, executive leadership, or the Board of Directors.
- Prepare reports, presentations, dashboard materials, executive communications, and Board of Directors and committee materials.
- Track Board action items, reporting requirements, and follow-up initiatives.
- Serve as a central coordination point for the Legal Department, ensuring alignment, communication, accountability, and execution of priorities.
- Assist attorneys with research, matter tracking, document organization, reporting, and operational support as appropriate.
- Perform compliance, risk management, and other duties as assigned.
Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree (4 year) in business, finance, legal studies, or related field.
- 5+ years of experience in operations, project management, law firm administration, corporate legal department support, or related operational role.
- Strong understanding of legal processes, terminology, and workflows.
- Demonstrated financial acumen, including budgeting, forecasting, and vendor management.
- Experience managing legal technology platforms and implementing new systems.
- Excellent communication skills—able to translate complex information for diverse audiences.
- Highly organized, detail oriented, and able to manage multiple priorities in a fast paced environment.
- Strong analytical and problem solving abilities.
Compensation: $37.40 - $56.10 per hour
The compensation range represents the low and high end of the base compensation range for this position located in Spokane, Washington. Actual compensation will vary and may be above or below the range based on various factors including but not limited to location, experience, and performance.
What Our Culture Can Offer You:
Our benefit philosophy is to provide you with a comprehensive package to secure your overall wellness and help you become and remain a fulfilled and productive employee. Our benefits include Health, Financial, Retirement and Work/Life Benefits. We are proud to share an overview of our benefits HERE (https://www.watrust.com/assets/files/qFqeTTn6) as part of your total compensation.
Washington Trust Bank celebrates diversity in the workplace and actively recruits talent to help reflect the unique communities where we live and work. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer and prohibit discrimination or harassment based on race, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, age, pregnancy, disability, genetic information and any other protected characteristics outline by state, federal and local laws. We believe strength comes from the diverse backgrounds and experiences of our team, and we are dedicated to fostering a supportive and inclusive work environment.
Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities
This employer is required to notify all applicants of their rights pursuant to federal employment laws. For further information, please review the Know Your Rights (https://www.eeoc.gov/poster) notice from the Department of Labor.
