Client Experience Manager

This is an exciting opportunity to work for one of the top law firms in the U.S.! Davis Wright Tremaine LLP is looking for a Client Experience Manager to join our team in our Seattle office.

As a key member of the firm’s Practice Economics department, this position will work directly with the relationship partners for one or more of the firm’s largest clients to manage the firm’s client teams and help the firm provide differentiated service and capitalize on opportunities to strengthen and expand the relationships. The Client Experience Manager shall also generally act as the liaison between staff departments and client leadership.

At Davis Wright Tremaine, you will find challenging assignments, opportunities for professional growth and community involvement, and a culture of inclusion. DWT fosters inclusiveness and authenticity. Regardless of position, everyone here has a voice and the support is unparalleled.

On a typical day you will be responsible for:

Service Delivery: The Client Experience Team works to augment the traditional legal services provided to clients through proactive communication, actionable reporting, and strategic client satisfaction initiatives. The Client Experience Manager drives these initiatives together with client leadership. The Client Experience Manager is expected to:

• Work with lawyers and staff serving one or more clients to meet service expectations and address specific problems or opportunities to enable the firm to provide excellent, differentiated service
• Drive service innovation for the client in partnership with legal teams and staff departments to deliver service more efficiently, effectively, and profitably, including evaluating and developing new service and business process opportunities using technology, process improvement, legal project management, and alternative staffing
• Serve as primary liaison between client leadership and staff departments to execute on client operating needs while reducing the amount of administrative time spent by relationship partners
• Partner with other Client Experience Managers, Practice Managers, and others around the firm to share best practices, cross-marketing opportunities, and business development opportunities
• Develop deep substantive knowledge of multiple legal practice groups both at the firm and client, and collaborate with the practice management teams for those groups
• Identify, vet, and integrate resources for additional support to meet client needs, including attorneys, contract lawyers, and support staff
• Manage and supervise Client Experience Specialists, Client Program Specialists, and Client Program Coordinators

Client Portfolio Growth: Maintaining and growing the client’s portfolio is a key component of the Client Experience Team’s mission. To do so successfully requires an understanding of financial metrics and the ability to analyze those metrics to create positive portfolio growth. The Client Experience Manager is expected to:

• Work closely and collaboratively with senior lawyers and staff responsible for managing and growing key client relationship(s)
• Stay up to date with client business strategies and market landscape to support operations, marketing, and business development initiatives
• Provide input to strategic business development planning, consultation and execution for the client
• Evaluate financial and other performance indicators and work with the team(s) to respond as needed
• Support lawyers in identifying and responding to opportunities for new work, particularly those that are complex and time-sensitive

Client Communication: Understanding how and when to communicate with our clients can help build trust and strengthen the relationship. The Client Experience Manager will develop formal and informal lines of communication to ensure the firm has a deep connection with our clients. The Client Experience Manager is expected to:

• Build deep direct relationships with the client legal operations team
• Solicit client feedback, share feedback with client team, act on feedback received, and track progress towards client satisfaction
• Work with lawyers and staff to ensure service level agreements, ad hoc project milestones, reporting requirements, and other client expectations are met
• Ensure compliance with outside counsel guidelines related to time keeping, rate-setting, billing, conflicts, etc.

Financial Management: The Client Experience Team’s focus on providing quality, cost-effective legal services will have an effect on the firm’s financial performance. The Client Experience Manager must understand the effect that non-traditional service delivery has on the firm’s bottom line. The Client Experience Manager, in coordination with the Pricing and Data Analytics teams, will:

• Manage internal processes related to alternative fee arrangement negotiation, including gathering and analyzing matter and project data
• Work with client leadership and firm financial operations team to maximize efficiency and profitability on alternative fee arrangements
• Review and analyze financial data relating to the client and its work streams in partnership with Practice Managers. Work with client leadership to customize the data presented to the client team and to provide context, explanation, and action items to meet strategic goals for client service levels and financial targets

Client Team Leadership: The Client Experience Team helps both individual attorneys and the firm as a whole ensure a uniformly positive experience for clients. The Client Experience Manager should have an eye for advancing strategic opportunities, building support and adoption of those opportunities internally, and continually assessing client needs (both stated and unstated). The Client Experience Manager will:

• Assist relationship partners and client leadership with other strategic opportunities and ad hoc projects that strengthen the client relationship
• Assist relationship partners and client leadership to drive content and agendas for client team meetings, including monthly, quarterly, and annual meetings as appropriate