Knowledge Architect Manager
Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp has spent more than a century earning a reputation as a "go-to" firm for sophisticated work, trusted by legacy institutional clients, including some of the entertainment industry's most iconic studios and talent, all without losing the collegiality of a mid-sized practice. With offices in Los Angeles, New York City, and Washington, D.C., our attorneys practice business law with depth across Complex Litigation, Intellectual Property & Technology, Trusts & Estates, Labor & Employment, Entertainment, Tax, Real Estate, and Corporate Business Transactions. We are looking for a motivated Knowledge Architect Manager to support these practices.
Help us redefine what legal knowledge and research look like in an AI-enabled practice. MSK is looking for a Knowledge Architect Manager to lead the evolution of our research and knowledge management function, from a traditional library model into a modern discipline built for AI-powered legal work. This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who can manage vendor strategy, guide substantive research, govern institutional knowledge, and serve as the firm's go-to expert on how AI research tools should be used.
If you have watched legal research evolve from print collections to AI-powered tools over the course of your career, and have developed a considered point of view on how that transition should be managed, we would welcome the opportunity to speak with you.
The expected annualized base salary range for this position is $125,000 to $160,000. Actual pay will be adjusted based on experience and other job-related factors permitted by law.
What you'll do
Research & knowledge strategy
- Sit on the firm's administrative management team, shaping strategy for research and knowledge services firm-wide.
- Lead substantive legal, business, and market research for attorneys and practice groups.
- Own the firm's knowledge architecture — precedent banks, practice guides, work-product repositories, and the intranet's practice group resource pages — including the taxonomy, metadata, and provenance standards that keep them usable by people and AI systems alike.
- Partner with practice group leaders to find where institutional knowledge is at risk of being lost, and build systems to capture it.
- Oversee legislative and regulatory tracking relevant to the firm's practices.
Vendor & licensing management
- Manage the firm's full portfolio of research and AI platform licenses (Westlaw, Lexis, specialty databases, GenAI research tools, and more), including renewals, usage analysis, and cost justification.
- Evaluate new AI and research tools as they hit the market, working with our CAIO to make recommendations grounded in real attorney workflow.
- Negotiate contract terms as vendors move away from flat-fee licensing toward seat-based, usage-based, and enterprise models.
- Advise on and enforce copyright compliance and license-restriction awareness across the firm's research subscriptions.
AI governance & training
- Serve as the firm's practical authority on AI research tool use — where it helps, where it introduces risk, and how outputs should be verified before they reach a client deliverable.
- Build and maintain lightweight QA practices — citation checks, hallucination spot-checks — for AI-assisted research.
- Guide attorneys and staff across all levels of AI fluency, from building basic comfort to sharpening judgment for power users.
Team & operational leadership
- Manage a team of research and knowledge professionals, setting priorities and development paths as the team's skill mix evolves.
- Report on utilization, ROI, and adoption metrics for research and AI tools to firm leadership.
What you bring
- 5+ years in legal research, law firm knowledge management, or law librarianship, with a track record of increasing responsibility.
- Demonstrated experience managing vendor relationships and license agreements for legal research or SaaS platforms.
- Working fluency with AI-powered legal research tools, and a clear, well-formed point of view on their appropriate use and limitations.
- Strong research skills spanning legal, business, and market intelligence sources.
- Experience managing or mentoring a team.
Nice to have
- MLIS or JD — not required based on experience.
- Experience building or governing a firm knowledge repository (precedent bank, practice guide system, or similar).
- Familiarity with data stewardship concepts — metadata, taxonomy, provenance — as applied to legal content.
- Experience presenting technology or research strategy recommendations to firm leadership or practice group chairs.
Where this role sits
This role reports to the VP of IT/Service Delivery. You'll manage a team of research and knowledge professionals and work closely with the Firm's CAIO on tool strategy and evaluation.
The Firm offers a competitive salary, attractive benefits, and a pleasant and supportive environment.
EOE
www.msk.com
Pay: $125,000.00 - $160,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- 401(k)
- Dental insurance
- Disability insurance
- Employee assistance program
- Flexible spending account
- Health insurance
- Health savings account
- Life insurance
- Paid time off
- Referral program
- Retirement plan
- Vision insurance
People with a criminal record are encouraged to apply
Experience:
- Legal research: 5 years (Required)
- Library services: 5 years (Required)
- SaaS: 5 years (Preferred)
- AI: 5 years (Preferred)
- Management: 5 years (Required)
Work Location: Hybrid remote in Los Angeles, CA 90067
