Director, Legal Operations

Director Of Legal Operations

At AAA, our Team Members strive to deliver amazing service and help our Members outsmart life's roadblocks. We believe everything you do outside of work adds to who you are at work.

NOTE: This role is hybrid and requires 3 days a week in our Walnut Creek, CA office.

Reporting directly to the Chief Legal Officer, the Director of Legal Operations will serve as a primary change agent for the Legal Division transformation, responsible for defining the future-state operating model and leading the shift from a risk-reactive to a value-added strategic partner. This role is designed to enhance the legal function by driving operational efficiency, improving cross-functional processes, and enabling data-driven decision-making. The Director will own the legal technology roadmap and build scalable infrastructure for a mid-sized organization undergoing transformation.

Essential Functions

Strategy & Process Optimization

• Lead legal operations strategy and continuous process improvements across the department.
• Standardize workflows, templates, and intake processes, and own playbook remediation and maintenance to maximize efficiency and attorneys' strategic capacity.
• Develop and institutionalize a risk-based triage and routing framework.
• Implement urgency criteria to ensure the right work reaches the right resource level, optimizing attorney bandwidth for high-complexity, high-value matters.

Strategic Implementation

• Operationalize the Contracting Center of Excellence (CCOE), including formalizing RACI matrices, clarifying handoff points between Legal Procurement, and business stakeholders, and establishing joint governance standards to reduce contract cycle times.

Technology Management & Governance

• Own the legal technology roadmap, including evaluating, prioritizing, and implementing new tools aligned to business needs.
• Manage the existing tech stack, including Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) platforms (e.g., Ironclad) and matter management/e-billing systems (e.g., LawVu), and e-discovery platforms (e.g., Logikcull).
• Maintain responsibility for technology governance, access controls, data hygiene, vendor risk, adoption, and system configurationespecially for CLM, matter management, e-billing, e-discovery, and AI tools.
• Oversee complex document review/production.

AI & Automation

• Drive automation and efficiency initiatives, including the rollout, integration, and adoption of emerging AI tools for the legal team.

Vendor & Financial Management

• Oversee outside counsel panel selection process, engagement, billing guidelines, invoice submittal, and performance evaluation.
• Manage budgeting, accruals, invoice review, rate management, billing guideline compliance, and outside counsel performance metrics.

Data & Analytics

• Design and implement a comprehensive legal metrics dashboard (scorecard) that tracks key performance indicatorssuch as contract throughput, cycle time, and outside counsel spend varianceand use these insights to drive continuous improvement and executive reporting.

Compliance & Audit Readiness

• Support legal operations in a regulated insurance environment, with attention to privacy, information security, records retention, audit readiness, and compliance.

Knowledge / Skills / Abilities

• Demonstrated success in building or significantly maturing a legal operations function, particularly within a mid-size organization undergoing transformation. Proven experience implementing CLM platforms, matter management/e-billing systems, e-discovery platforms, AI tools, and outside counsel management programs.
• Highly data-driven with strong expertise in reporting, analytics, and workflow optimization.
• Effective cross-functional collaborator and stakeholder manager, highly experienced in driving change management and user adoption across teams with varying levels of technology comfort.

Education & Experience / Competencies / Certifications / Licenses

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a related field
• Minimum of 8 years of experience in legal operations, partnering directly with in-house legal teams, outside counsel, and technology vendors

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced degree, JD, MBA, Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC), project management, or legal tech certification

WORKING ENVIRONMENT

Office environment

Compensation Range: Min: $190,750.00 - Mid: $238,437.00