Conflicts Attorney

Arnold & Porter is an international law firm with offices throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. The firm advises clients on complex regulatory, litigation, and transactional matters across a broad range of industries, including many of the world’s leading companies and organizations.

We are seeking a Conflicts Attorney to help the firm identify, analyze, and resolve conflicts of interest and related professional-responsibility matters. This role may be located in the Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Silicon Valley, or Washington, DC office working a hybrid schedule.

This position has two primary areas of focus. First, the Conflicts Attorney supports the firm’s new business, lateral hiring, and onboarding processes by identifying and addressing conflicts that may arise from new clients, matters, attorneys, and staff. This includes reviewing conflicts search results and analysis; conducting legal, factual, and third-party research; collaborating with colleagues throughout the firm; and presenting findings and recommendations in a clear, practical manner.

Second, the Conflicts Attorney assists attorneys and firm leadership with other professional-responsibility obligations in the jurisdictions in which the firm practices. Matters may include bar membership, lateral movement, revolving-door issues, fiduciary positions, new client and matter intake, engagement and disengagement processes, insurer and RFP responses, ethics screens, and related policy matters. Assignments may range from discrete inquiries to complex, long-term projects.

Key Responsibilities

• Work under the supervision of the Director, members of the Ethics and Practice Committee, and the General Counsel to identify, analyze, and resolve conflicts and ethical issues.
• Identify potential conflicts and ethical issues arising from new clients, matters, attorneys, and staff, including temporary, contract, and full-time employees.
• Review conflicts search results and first-level analysis prepared by other team members.
• Provide guidance to attorneys conducting conflicts reviews, as appropriate.
• Gather, organize, and communicate due-diligence information regarding potential hires, prospective clients, and client matters for the Ethics Committee, Lateral Committee, Billing and Intake Committee, and firm management.
• Assist with in-house consultation on professional-responsibility matters, including the review and drafting of engagement letters and conflict waivers.
• Draft and circulate ethics screens and prepare Rule 1.11 disclosures involving potential conflicts related to former government employees.
• Provide professional-responsibility training to attorneys and staff, as requested.
• Monitor developments in applicable law and professional-responsibility standards.
• Conduct research, drafting, and other project support for the Director, Ethics Committee, other firm committees, and the General Counsel on policy and professional-responsibility matters.
• Oversee volunteer law clerks, staff attorneys, or conflicts specialists performing conflicts-of-interest analysis, as needed.

Qualifications:

• J.D. required.
• Admission to the bar in at least one jurisdiction where the firm maintains a U.S. office preferred. Candidates who are not admitted at the time of hire must obtain admission shortly after beginning employment as a condition of employment.
• At least one year of conflicts-of-interest or other relevant experience at a large law firm preferred.
• Prior experience practicing law preferred.
• Experience in legal research and in organizing, tracking, and reporting the results of complex projects.
• Experience with databases and a demonstrated aptitude for database-driven work; experience with conflicts databases preferred.
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