Practice Lawyer

Job Description

At K&L Gates, we are looking for smart, imaginative and hard-working people with diverse backgrounds, experiences and ideas to join us. Perhaps our search for talented visionaries and your search for important and impactful work lead to the same place.

We are seeking an experienced Practice Support Lawyer (PSL) to support our Litigation and Dispute Resolution (Litigation) practice area. The PSL will be responsible for creating, maintaining, and updating the knowledge and practice innovation assets and services, as required by the Litigation Practice Area Leader partners (PALs), Director of Practice Operations (DPO), and Director of Practice Innovation (DPI). Reporting to the DPI, the PSL will provide support to the Litigation practice area and designated firmwide projects across a range of knowledge management (KM), innovation, generative AI, precedents, client growth, professional development and practice support initiatives.

PSL’s focus will vary depending on the needs of the Litigation practice area. Core duties include :

• Develop, review, and manage precedent and intellectual property for Litigation, which includes assisting practice area lawyers and PSLs to organize and facilitate knowledge, precedents, and innovation forums and projects;
• Applying and contributing to the development of a firmwide KM process to drive consistency, currency, and excellence in precedents and knowledge assets and systems within (and across) the practice area(s);
• Support the Litigation practice area in implementation of generative AI and data strategy and deployment and adoption of AI tools and solutions;
• Build close working relationships with partners, lawyers, and allied professionals in the Litigation practice area; maintain a good understanding of the legal services provided by the Litigation practice groups and their clients / industries; be proactive in finding opportunities to increase efficiency through process improvement or the application of legal technology (including generative AI); and ensure KM, innovation, and precedents services meet Litigation practice area needs;
• Ensure compliance with firm policies, protocols, and standards relevant to KM and data governance, and that applicable policies and protocols are communicated in a clear and timely way;
• Drafting and editing precedents, guidance notes, checklists, client growth pitches and RFPs, training materials and presentations, legal updates, and any other communications;
• Use visual communication of legal advice and provide consultation to the Litigation practice area on visual standards, where appropriate;
• Answer client growth and KM-related enquiries from partners, lawyers, and allied professionals, including client growth team members responding to client pitches and RFPs;
• Communicate with Litigation PAL and other leaders on precedent, KM, and related legal technology developments;
• Keep up to date with legal developments in relevant to Litigation practice area and help advance practice area innovation and professional development to reflect those advancements;
• Assist with the review and editing of pitch related materials for client proposals;
• Assist with developing and delivering training on legal and practical KM and innovation topics; and
• Keep abreast of legal technology available at the firm to drive productivity and help identify opportunities to apply solutions.

• Provide assistance to the Directors and other PSLs on compliance tasks as required by the Office of General Counsel, which may include researching, advising, and training on national and global policies and professional practice standards;
• As required, provide support for document automation and collaboration projects including design, analysis, mapping, testing, and training;
• Assist with facilitation of legal design sprints and hackathons and applying design thinking to legal problems;
• Proactively identify, communicate, develop, and implement new ways to improve KM and innovation services to K&L Gates, and promote opportunities for collaboration and innovation in delivering client services;
• Participate in and contribute to relevant global…