Position Overview
The Chief Operating Officer (“COO”) serves as the operational leader and primary implementer of Sivia Law. Working directly with the CEO and Founder, the COO is responsible for turning the firm’s vision, goals, and strategic priorities into measurable results.
This position is modeled after the operational leadership approach: disciplined execution, operational excellence, careful use of data, strong accountability, and continuous improvement. The CEO determines where the firm is going; the COO builds the systems, teams, and processes necessary to get it there.
The COO must be capable of managing the day-to-day operations of a growing, multi-office law firm while simultaneously developing the infrastructure needed to support significant expansion. This person brings order to complexity, removes barriers to performance, and ensures that commitments become completed work.
Core Purpose
To transform the CEO’s vision into coordinated action by ensuring that:
- Strategic priorities are translated into clear plans.
- Leadership decisions are implemented consistently.
- Employees understand their responsibilities and performance expectations.
- Departments work together toward firmwide goals.
- Operational problems are identified and resolved promptly.
- Systems and processes can support the firm’s continued growth.
- The CEO can focus on vision, relationships, growth opportunities, and high-level legal and business strategy.
Primary Responsibilities1. Implement the Firm’s Vision
- Translate the CEO’s vision and long-term objectives into practical operating plans.
- Convert strategic goals into specific projects, deadlines, budgets, and performance expectations.
- Ensure that leadership decisions are communicated and implemented throughout the firm.
- Maintain focus on the firm’s highest priorities and prevent less important matters from disrupting execution.
- Identify gaps between the firm’s stated goals and its actual performance.
- Create accountability when projects, initiatives, or quarterly priorities fall behind.
2. Lead Daily Operations
- Oversee the day-to-day business operations of all Sivia Law offices and departments.
- Coordinate operations across legal services, intake, scheduling, billing, marketing, human resources, technology, and administration.
- Establish consistent operating standards across offices and practice areas.
- Resolve operational bottlenecks before they interfere with client service or growth.
- Ensure that the firm has the people, technology, facilities, and resources necessary to operate effectively.
- Maintain organizational stability during periods of rapid growth or change.
3. Drive Accountability and Execution
- Establish clear ownership for every major responsibility, project, and performance target.
- Conduct regular leadership meetings focused on priorities, metrics, obstacles, and commitments.
- Maintain a written system for tracking projects, deadlines, and quarterly priorities.
- Follow up on assigned responsibilities until they are completed.
- Address recurring performance problems directly and promptly.
- Ensure that managers hold employees accountable consistently across the firm.
- Create a culture in which commitments are documented, measured, and completed.
4. Build Scalable Systems and Processes
- Document and improve the firm’s essential operational processes.
- Develop standard operating procedures for recurring work.
- Reduce unnecessary complexity, duplication, delays, and reliance on individual employees.
- Ensure that systems are scalable across additional employees, offices, and practice areas.
- Evaluate workflows from the client’s first contact through the completion of the legal matter.
- Improve the use of Clio, financial software, phone systems, automation platforms, and other firm technology.
- Ensure that employees are properly trained and consistently follow established procedures.
5. Manage Leadership and Personnel
- Lead, coach, and hold the management team accountable.
- Clarify reporting relationships, decision-making authority, and departmental responsibilities.
- Work with managers to establish measurable expectations for every position.
- Assist with recruiting, onboarding, training, performance reviews, compensation planning, and corrective action.
- Identify staffing needs based on workload, revenue, and projected growth.
- Develop managers who can independently lead their departments.
- Address personnel issues professionally, promptly, and consistently.
- Promote a culture of ownership, professionalism, teamwork, and client service.
6. Manage Performance Through Data
- Develop and maintain a firmwide operational scorecard.
- Monitor leading and lagging performance indicators, including:
- Revenue and collections
- Cash flow and profitability
- Billable and collectible hours
- Employee productivity
- Accounts receivable
- New leads and consultations
- Consultation show rates
- Client conversion rates
- Case value and revenue by practice area
- Client satisfaction
- Case progress and completion times
- Marketing performance
- Staffing capacity
- Require departments to maintain accurate and timely data.
- Use performance information to identify problems early and guide decisions.
- Provide the CEO with concise, accurate, and actionable operating reports.
7. Oversee Financial and Operational Discipline
- Work with the CEO, accounting team, and department leaders to prepare and manage annual budgets.
- Monitor expenses, staffing costs, profitability, and cash flow.
- Evaluate major expenditures and recommend whether they support the firm’s strategic goals.
- Ensure financial reports are accurate, timely, and useful.
- Identify opportunities to improve efficiency without reducing service quality.
- Help establish revenue and productivity expectations for offices, departments, and employees.
- Ensure that growth is financially sustainable.
8. Improve the Client Experience
- Ensure that clients receive timely, professional, and consistent service.
- Monitor the client journey from intake through matter completion.
- Address recurring issues involving scheduling, communication, billing, document preparation, and case delays.
- Establish service standards for response times, client updates, and internal handoffs.
- Use client feedback and operational data to improve the delivery of legal services.
- Ensure that growth does not compromise the quality of the client experience.
9. Support Growth and Expansion
- Build the operational infrastructure necessary to support the firm’s long-term growth goals.
- Evaluate the operational feasibility of new offices, practice areas, partnerships, and acquisitions.
- Develop integration plans for new employees, offices, and acquired practices.
- Coordinate expansion projects across staffing, technology, finance, marketing, and facilities.
- Establish repeatable systems that allow successful programs to be implemented throughout the firm.
- Ensure that growth initiatives are properly planned, assigned, budgeted, and completed.
10. Manage Risk and Compliance
- Work with the CEO and attorneys to ensure compliance with professional, ethical, employment, and financial requirements.
- Maintain appropriate controls over client funds, trust accounting, billing, access to information, and confidential records.
- Coordinate policies involving cybersecurity, records management, disaster recovery, and business continuity.
- Identify operational risks and develop practical plans to reduce them.
- Ensure that firm policies are documented, communicated, and enforced.
Relationship With the CEO
The COO acts as the CEO’s operational counterpart and trusted second-in-command.
The CEO is primarily responsible for:
- Setting the firm’s vision and direction
- Identifying growth opportunities
- Developing strategic relationships
- Protecting the firm’s culture and brand
- Making major strategic decisions
- Providing high-level legal and business leadership
The COO is primarily responsible for:
- Converting the vision into an operating plan
- Assigning responsibility and establishing deadlines
- Coordinating people and departments
- Measuring progress and performance
- Resolving operational obstacles
- Ensuring that decisions are implemented
- Reporting results to the CEO
The COO must be willing to respectfully challenge ideas, identify practical risks, and recommend better methods. Once a decision is made, the COO is responsible for ensuring that the organization executes it.
Decision-Making Authority
Within approved budgets, policies, and strategic direction, the COO will have authority to:
- Direct the firm’s administrative and operational functions.
- Assign operational responsibilities and deadlines.
- Require reporting and accountability from managers.
- Approve routine operational expenditures.
- Recommend hiring, compensation, promotion, discipline, and termination decisions.
- Implement approved policies, procedures, and technology.
- Resolve cross-departmental operational disputes.
- Reallocate resources to address firm priorities.
- Escalate significant legal, financial, personnel, or reputational risks to the CEO.
Key Performance Indicators
Success in this position will be measured by:
- Completion of quarterly and annual strategic priorities
- Revenue growth and profitability
- Improved cash flow and collections
- Productivity by employee and department
- Timely completion of client matters
- Client satisfaction and retention
- Employee accountability and retention
- Accuracy and timeliness of operational reporting
- Consistent use of documented procedures
- Reduction in recurring operational problems
- Successful integration of new offices, employees, and practice areas
- The CEO’s ability to spend less time managing routine operations
Required Leadership Characteristics
The successful COO will be:
- An exceptional implementer who consistently completes what has been started.
- Highly organized and able to manage multiple offices, departments, and priorities.
- Calm, disciplined, and decisive under pressure.
- Comfortable holding talented professionals accountable.
- Data-driven without losing sight of people and client service.
- Proactive in identifying problems before they become emergencies.
- Skilled at turning broad ideas into detailed execution plans.
- Direct, professional, and transparent in communication.
- Loyal to the firm’s mission while willing to offer honest disagreement.
- Focused on long-term systems instead of temporary fixes.
- Capable of balancing urgency with thoughtful decision-making.
- Committed to continuous improvement and operational excellence.
Qualifications
- Significant leadership experience in operations, professional services, legal services, or another complex service organization.
- Demonstrated success implementing strategic plans and managing organizational growth.
- Experience leading managers and holding teams accountable to measurable results.
- Strong financial, analytical, project-management, and problem-solving abilities.
- Experience developing budgets, dashboards, policies, procedures, and performance systems.
- Strong understanding of technology-enabled operations and process improvement.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
- Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree or equivalent executive experience preferred.
- Law firm management experience is strongly preferred but not required for an exceptional operational leader.
Expected Results During the First Year
During the first year, the COO will be expected to:
- Establish a reliable firmwide operational scorecard.
- Clarify the organizational structure and management responsibilities.
- Implement a consistent leadership meeting and accountability system.
- Document and improve the firm’s most important operational processes.
- Create measurable expectations for departments, managers, and employees.
- Improve coordination among intake, legal production, billing, marketing, and administration.
- Reduce operational dependence on the CEO.
- Improve the accuracy and timeliness of financial and performance reporting.
- Develop an operational plan capable of supporting the firm’s continued expansion.
- Build a culture in which priorities are clear, results are measured, and commitments are completed.
Position Standard
The COO is not merely an administrator, project coordinator, or advisor. The COO owns execution.
Success means that the CEO’s vision no longer depends on the CEO personally managing every detail. Plans become projects, projects have owners, owners have deadlines, and results are measured. The COO creates the operational discipline that allows Sivia Law to grow without losing accountability, profitability, culture, or quality of service.
Pay: $100,000.00 - $130,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- 401(k)
- 401(k) matching
- Dental insurance
- Health insurance
- Retirement plan
- Vision insurance
Work Location: In person
