Head Of Litigation & Dispute Resolution

Technology | Telecommunications

Carpenter Wellington PLLC is seeking an entrepreneurial, experienced litigator to serve as Head of Litigation & Dispute Resolution. You will lead our burgeoning Pacific Northwest business litigation practice and build a full-service dispute resolution practice spanning litigation, arbitration, mediation, and early dispute strategy. You will assume an active docket of existing cases, build and manage the practice, and grow it with new and existing clients.

We will give strong preference to candidates who bring a portable book of business. The role begins as a contract engagement, but we are hiring with the long term in mind: for the right person, we see a clear path to partnership as the practice grows.

ABOUT THE FIRM: Carpenter Wellington is a growing boutique corporate and commercial law firm with offices in Seattle, Portland, and Austin, and imminent plans for further geographic expansion. We advise fiber operators, ISPs, infrastructure investors, private equity-backed platforms, emerging companies, and technology companies on a broad range of legal matters, including M&A, financing, corporate governance, employment, commercial transactions, telecommunications, data privacy, and intellectual property.

ABOUT THE ROLE: This is a practice-building role. You will work directly with the managing attorney and a firm advisor, and will have the autonomy to build the litigation and dispute resolution practice the way you think it should be built. You will begin by assuming responsibility for pending and active commercial litigation matters across the broader Pacific Northwest. From there, you will own the firm’s litigation and dispute resolution practice: its strategy, its client base, its people, and its economics.

If you bring clients with you, you will have a platform to serve them alongside a transactional practice and an established base of infrastructure and technology clients that generate disputes. Success in the first year means our current matters are in strong hands, your portable clients are fully integrated, CW’s existing clients see the firm as their first call when a dispute arises or is on the horizon, the firm offers arbitration, mediation, and early-resolution services alongside litigation, and the practice has a plan and a pipeline for sustained growth.

WHAT YOU’LL DO:

• Practice leadership and management:
• Set the strategy for CW’s litigation and dispute resolution practice, beginning in the Pacific Northwest, including target practice areas, industries, courts, and arbitral forums;
• Manage the practice’s operations, including case intake, conflicts coordination, budgeting, matter staffing, and reporting to the managing attorney;
• Develop pricing approaches, including hourly, blended, and alternative fee arrangements suited to commercial and infrastructure clients;
• Build and manage a network of local counsel, contract attorneys, experts, mediators, arbitrators, and litigation and ADR vendors;
• Help recruit and supervise associates and paralegals as the practice grows.
• Transition portable clients and matters to CW, and grow those relationships;
• Originate new litigation and dispute resolution work through referral networks, industry relationships, and professional visibility;
• Partner with CW’s transactional attorneys to cross-serve clients, identify disputes early, and advise on litigation risk in deals and contracts.
• Take over existing matters, including case assessment, strategy, court appearances, discovery, motion practice, mediation, and trial;
• Develop and execute pre-hearing motion practice and procedural strategy, selecting and sequencing dispositive, discovery, and provisional-relief motions (and, where warranted, extraordinary writs or interlocutory…