Innovation Strategy Manager

Position summary

As a leading technology law firm, Cooley is determined to become a leader in the digital practice of law. The Innovation Strategy Manager is responsible for managing Cooley's new practice Innovation pipeline, overseeing product discovery, user research, and incubation processes, evaluating and prioritizing innovation initiatives, and incorporating AI and emerging technologies to create a competitive advantage for Cooley's world‑leading legal practices.

Cooley Innovation embraces a culture of customer‑service excellence, and all department members are expected to embody this attitude.

• Manage the practice innovation pipeline to discover, incubate, pilot, and evaluate new product opportunities that yield the greatest benefits to the firm and its attorneys.
• Leverage best practices in user research and design to deeply understand attorney and client pain points, and identify high‑value opportunities to improve legal workflows.
• Refine, systematize, and scale the practice innovation pipeline process to promote greater efficiency, uniformity, and transparency in how product decisions are made.
• Identify and evaluate practice innovation opportunities leveraging cutting‑edge emerging technologies and AI advancements.
• Foster strong working relationships with change management, innovation counsel, product, engineering, and other teams to evaluate products and use cases, run pilots, launch products, and drive engagement.
• Collaborate in cross‑functional intake and prioritization across technology and operations departments.
• Collaborate with the Associate Director of Practice Innovation and innovation leadership to develop and manage a data‑driven evaluation process to quantify the business value of practice‑facing products.
• Manage direct report(s) with a focus on fostering a high‑performance, collaborative, innovative, and results‑driven team culture.
• Collaborate in the development of and adoption of unified work‑management practices across practice innovation to promote transparency, clarity, scalability, and efficiency.
• Serve as direct supervisor and mentor to direct reports.
• Provide day‑to‑day supervision of direct reports, ensure compliance with assigned work hours, and monitor compliance with all firm and department policies; manage staffing coverage, review and process time logs/time‑off requests.
• Support business professional development and continued educational opportunities.
• In collaboration with the immediate supervisor and CN HR, participate in hiring, performance appraisals, counseling, termination, and other employee lifecycle events.
• All other duties as assigned or required.

• After orientation at Cooley LLP, exhibit proficiency in the Microsoft Office suite, iManage, and other firm applications.
• Ability to work extended and/or weekend hours, as required.
• Ability to travel, as required.
• 5+ years of directly applicable experience (e.g., user research, design thinking or human‑centered design facilitation, product discovery process, prototyping, legal technology use and adoption, quantitative evaluation). Eligible for consideration of Senior designation with 7+ years applicable experience in the field with 2+ years of exempt/management experience in relevant roles.
• Experience in managing cross‑functional projects involving users, product and design, knowledge management, technology, and practicing lawyers or clients.

• Bachelor's degree, Juris Doctor (or non‑US equivalent).
• Experience with core large‑law technologies such as iManage or Net Docs, Elite 3E, Intapp products, Litera products, Thomson Reuters and Lexis products.
• Advanced knowledge of the workflows and core needs of practicing lawyers.
• Strong understanding of legal technology, emerging technology, and AI.
• Strong effective presentation experience and skills to varied audiences.
• Experience with technology usage data and metrics and ability to leverage data for insights and storytelling using data visualization applications such as Power BI and Tableau.
• Project management experience.
• Supervisory experience.

• Strong focus on identifying core user and business needs and…