LAW OFFICE OF RHETT D. BURNEY, P.C.
433 S.E. Main Street, Simpsonville, South Carolina 29681
FIRM ADMINISTRATOR
Simpsonville, South Carolina · Full-time, on-site · $80,000 – $95,000
Please read entire job description, incomplete applications will not be considered.
The Law Office of Rhett D. Burney, P.C. is a five-attorney, twenty-person Upstate firm practicing family law, plaintiff-side personal injury, and estate planning and probate. We are deliberately becoming a boutique practice — fewer matters, priced properly, served exceptionally well — and executing that requires something we do not have: a senior professional whose full-time job is the business of the firm.
This is a newly created role reporting directly to the owner. It is a build role, not a caretaker role. We have a handbook and an organizational chart; what we do not have is the layer underneath them — the written procedures, the reporting, the onboarding, and the enforcement that turn documents into how a firm actually operates. If you are looking for a firm where all of that already exists and the job is to keep it running, this is not it. If you have been the person quietly building that infrastructure at someone else’s firm and you want the mandate, the title, and the access to ownership to do it properly, keep reading.
Implementer, Not Doer
This matters more than any duty listed below. A doer is handed work and does it well. An implementer decides what needs to exist, designs it, installs it, and then does the unglamorous part — the follow-up in week six when the novelty has worn off and three people have quietly reverted. Building the thing is about a quarter of the job; making it stick is the rest. No one here will hand you a playbook, and there is no predecessor to shadow. You will decide what to build and in what order, defend that judgment, and execute it without being managed. The test we apply is not whether the thing exists — anyone can produce a document — but whether it is still running in month six without you standing over it.
How You Will Be Expected to Lead
We are looking for backbone and warmth in the same person. Those are not opposites, though the combination is uncommon. Backbone means the standard does not move depending on who is asking or how senior they are. Warmth means the people held to that standard know you are for them. Correct privately, credit publicly, never make an example of anyone, and be firm every time and harsh none of the time. If people go quiet when you walk in, the role has failed no matter how good the compliance numbers look. We weigh this as heavily as any technical qualification, and in reference checks we ask the people who reported to you, not only the people you reported to.
What You Will Own
These are systems you are accountable for, not tasks you will personally perform. How each gets built, in what order, and what it looks like when finished are yours to determine.
- Operations and governance — validating and extending the existing org chart, building the written procedures beneath the handbook, owning the approval matrix, and running a weekly leadership dashboard and monthly operating review built from real data.
- Financial operations — timekeeping compliance, the monthly billing cycle, accounts receivable support, retainer replenishment support, fee-schedule enforcement, and reporting on realization and practice-area profitability.
- Trust account controls — serving as the independent monthly reviewer of trust reconciliations prepared by another member of the firm, maintaining the sign-off trail and compliance calendar supporting the firm’s obligations under Rule 1.15 of the South Carolina Rules of Professional Conduct and Rule 417, SCACR. (Attorneys retain professional responsibility at all times.)
- Human resources — auditing, updating, and re-issuing the employee handbook; written job descriptions; a real 30/60/90 onboarding program; benefits and leave administration; and a documented performance-management and complaint-intake framework.
- Systems and technology — making MyCase the firm’s system of record, owning calendar governance and matter-aging review, and leading the firm’s adoption of AI tools, including training staff who will need help getting there.
- Continuity — keeping the firm running without disruption when the owner is out, including absences of a month or more.
What We Are Looking For
- Five or more years of progressive operations or administration leadership, with at least three in a law firm or comparable professional-services environment of ten to fifty people.
- Demonstrated experience building policies, procedures, and reporting from a blank page — and overhauling ones that exist on paper but are not actually followed.
- Evidence that something you built outlasted your attention. We will ask you to name a system you installed, tell us how it was running six months later, and explain what you did when it started slipping.
- The capacity to operate without direction — setting your own priorities, justifying them, and being held to them.
- Hands-on law firm financial operations, including billing cycles, realization, collections, and retainer and trust workflows. Enough trust accounting knowledge to independently review a three-way reconciliation and spot what is wrong with it; South Carolina IOLTA and Rule 417 familiarity strongly preferred.
- HR generalist capability: handbooks, onboarding, performance management, workplace investigations, and a working grasp of South Carolina and federal employment-law fundamentals.
- Practice-management software proficiency (MyCase preferred), strong Excel, and real comfort with data — you can build a dashboard, not just read one.
- Practical fluency with modern AI tools beyond casual chatbot use, and the ability to teach others.
- A track record of enforcing a new standard consistently and without drama — and the judgment and spine to tell the owner of the firm when he is wrong, privately and constructively.
- Backbone and warmth in the same person. We are not hiring an enforcer, and a candidate whose examples of leadership all involve confrontation will not advance.
- Preferred: bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience; family law or litigation background.
Scope of the Role
The Firm Administrator directly supervises reception, front office, and administrative support staff, and holds every timekeeper in the firm accountable to the firm’s administrative standards. Paralegals report to their assigned attorney for case work; this role owns the firm-wide standards that apply to them and works through the supervising attorney on performance. The role does not supervise attorneys on matters of legal judgment or professional responsibility, does not practice law, and does not evaluate the merits of client matters. It works as a peer alongside the firm’s intake, retainer, and collections lead, not above that role.
What We Offer
- $70,000 – $90,000 annually, commensurate with experience.
- 401(k) with employer matching.
- Paid time off and paid holidays. [Specify days before posting.]
- A monthly health stipend, paid as additional compensation and yours to use as you see fit. In the interest of your time: the firm does not offer group health, dental, or vision insurance at this time. Part of your job will be to explore this option in the future.
- Direct access to and backing from ownership, with real delegated authority rather than a title without one.
- A seat at the leadership table of a profitable firm at a genuine inflection point, and support for continuing education and certification.
How to Apply
Send a resume and cover letter to [email protected] with “Firm Administrator” in the subject line. Rather than a summary of your resume, please answer this in your cover letter:
Describe a policy, process, or system you built where none existed before. Tell us how you got people to actually follow it — including what you did about the first person who did not, and whether that person still speaks well of you.
Applications reviewed on a rolling basis until filled. Candidates advancing past the initial interview will be asked to sign a confidentiality agreement before firm-specific operational matters are discussed.
The Law Office of Rhett D. Burney, P.C. is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal or South Carolina law. Reasonable accommodation is available during the application process on request. Employment with the firm is at will.
Pay: $70,000.00 - $90,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- 401(k)
- Paid time off
- Professional development assistance
Work Location: In person
