Director of Conflicts

Husch Blackwell LLP is a full-service litigation and business law firm with multiple locations across the United States, serving clients with domestic and international operations.

At Husch Blackwell we believe that diverse, equitable and inclusive teams lead to better outcomes. Husch Blackwell is committed to retaining, recruiting, developing, and promoting talented lawyers and business professionals with diverse backgrounds and experiences. We foster an engaged, diverse, and inclusive team culture of accountability and purpose that makes our Firm and our communities better.

Our firm is committed to attracting and retaining professionals who value each other and the service we provide by embracing Teamwork, Collaboration, Client Service, and Innovation. If you are a motivated professional looking for a long-term fit where you can grow in a role, and will be valued and empowered, then we invite you to apply to our Director of Conflicts position.

This position may be filled remotely, or in any of our locations.

The Director of Conflicts is responsible for partnering closely with Risk Management leadership and the Office of the General Counsel to establish processes and procedures to ensure conflicts are resolved in a timely manner, create systems that mitigate risk, and enable consistent execution through functional managers. As part of this function, the Director is responsible for:

• Helping to provide firm-wide operational direction for conflict checking
• Staying abreast of new technologies, trends and changes in ethical requirements in the varying jurisdictions in which the firm operates
• Training (in a supervisory role) conflicts managers, conflicts counsel and analysts, and providing training as needed to other relevant teams such as business intake specialists, as required to maintain effective turnaround times and exceptional work product
• Coordinating with the Business Intake Team and with other departments as required

Essential functions include:

• Identify and implement best practices in the assigned functional areas
• Identify efficient methods of processing requests in the functional areas to continually improve service, accuracy, value, turnaround time and cost effectiveness
• Monitor technology developments in the functional areas and recommending appropriate technology adoption to leadership
• Work with leadership to develop and enforce firm-wide policies and procedures that address conflicts, intake, and risk management concerns
• Establish and overseeing processes to capture updated information on firm engagements
• Conduct training for firm lawyers and staff on departmental policies and procedures

• Serves as primary source of escalation for all departmental quality assurance issues
• Responsible for the employment conflict check processes, reviewing and approving specialized new client matter forms (e.g., toxic tort, bankruptcy, etc.) firm-wide.
• Oversees the guidelines pertaining to the implementation of Ethical Walls Department Operations
• Prepares and maintains department budget, with particular attention to compensation, operations and project budgets
• Manage department projects and requests to ensure they are on budget, on time, and are meeting the objectives as laid out by the firm’s strategic initiatives
• Provide oversight to the department intranet site (e.g. departmental policies and procedures, forms, department contact information, etc.)
• Ensure accuracy and readiness of supported systems for internal and external audits
• Ensure service standards are met and establishing mechanisms to monitor productivity and service for conflicts function
• Provide statistical information to senior leadership as needed
• Responsible for the design, implementation, and…