Director, Legal Operations

Company: Baxter Healthcare
Location: Deerfield
Posted on: May 24, 2023

Job Description:

This is where you save and sustain lives At Baxter, we are deeply connected by our mission. No matter your role at Baxter, your work makes a positive impact on people around the world. You'll feel a sense of purpose throughout the organization, as we know our work improves outcomes for millions of patients.Baxter's products and therapies are found in almost every hospital worldwide, in clinics and in the home. For over 85 years, we have pioneered significant medical innovations that transform healthcare.Together, we create a place where we are happy, successful and inspire each other. This is where you can do your best work.Join us at the intersection of saving and sustaining lives- where your purpose accelerates our mission.Baxter plans to spin off our Kidney Care segment into an independent, publicly traded company. The new standalone entity with its own investment priorities and enhanced management focus will be better positioned to pursue growth opportunities and invest in innovation. This newly created role is intended to support strategic evolution of the organization.#ThisIsWhere you can make an impact !The Director, Legal Operations will support Kidney Care's Legal team globally. The final reporting structure for the Kidney Care Legal organization will be determined by the Kidney Care General Counsel, but it is anticipated the Legal Operations role will report to a Deputy General Counsel with a dotted line to the General Counsel, or potentially directly to the General Counsel. Prior to the completion of the spin-off, the role of Kidney Care Legal Operations Director will report to the Baxter Deputy General Counsel supervising the Separation Management activities for the Legal function.This position is charged with leading the global Legal operations and strategic projects, lead Legal Department's operations related to outside counsel management, legal technology, project management and process improvement, knowledge management, financial planning, and administrative operations. This role will partner closely with the entire legal team and other shared service partners such as Finance, IT and HR.Essential Duties & ResponsibilitiesBoth at Baxter and at Kidney Care, this individual will serve as a partner to members of the Legal Department and will collaborate effectively across the Company to assist the Company in meeting business objectives. They must present with credibility and confidence in an action-oriented environment. They must have strong collaboration and project management skills to support the design and implementation of the Kidney Care Legal Operations capabilities.Legal Technology:

• Enhance existing and identify new tools to enable streamlined team collaboration and workflow automation both within the legal team and among business partners.
• Lead legal technology system deployments, enhancements and related process guidelines.
• Improve data integrity and analytical reporting capacity.
• Partner with technology teams to troubleshoot equipment/systems issues.
• Develop and maintain technology roadmap, champion the usage of technology to ensure and enhance Legal Department efficiency.Financial Planning:
  • Prepare accurate legal budget projections and monitors spend.
  • Provide leadership and other budget owners with budget analysis and management recommendations.
  • Partner with attorneys and other professionals to gather full matter costs worldwide to aid active spend management and continue to supervise operational costs for improved budget forecasting accuracy.
  • Lead monthly reconciliation and reclassification requests, and quarterly budget estimate updates.
  • Supervise and guide legal billing, including rate approvals, invoice review and payment; resolve processing issues.Outside Counsel Management:
    • Facilitate the management process for sourcing, negotiating, selecting and leading law firms through defined process and reporting.
    • Participate in planning and implementation of strategic outside counsel initiatives and support active law firm management.
    • Lead monthly Law firm matter budget review process and lead annual revision and distribution of billing guidelines and terms of engagement.
    • Offer analysis and recommendations with respect to alternative fee arrangements; review draft agreements.
    • Lead reporting and analyses of legal services spend.
    • Lead content, logistics and analysis for RFPs and competitive bidding process.Knowledge Management:
      • Facilitate transparent and easily accessed legal practice and operations information to support global legal staff performing their responsibilities at the highest possible level of effectiveness and efficiency.
      • Direct CLE program and professional association membership.
      • Lead logistics for Legal Department, Town Hall Calls and similar meetings, including delegation of scheduling, technical support, communications and meeting materials
      • Supervise development and maintenance of a Legal Homepage and internal legal specific social media characterized by transparency and availability of legal practice and operations information.
      • Track trends in law industry and participate and collect relevant benchmarking to advise department initiatives.Human Resources:
        • Develop and improve processes to accurately track global staffing of law department, lead onboarding and offboarding processes.
        • Own the maintenance of global legal directories, including supervising hires and departures, open positions, email distribution lists, and system access.
        • Lead annual client satisfaction survey.Project Management:
          • Support Legal Department Leadership team with annual goal planning and quarterly tracking, as well as lead corporate initiatives that impact Legal.
          • Lead goal setting process including quarterly updates.
          • Lead projects, serve as the Legal Department Liaison between other departments and collaborate with staff leading central vendors to design processes that meet department needs.Administrative Operations:
            • Ensure overall smooth functioning of Baxter Headquarters Law Departments.
            • Respond to internal and external inquiries.
            • Coordinate with facilities to reconfigure and repair office space as needed to meet staff needs.
            • Work effectively across a multi-functional, global teams.What will you bring
              • Bachelor's degree required. CPA, MBA or JD preferred.
              • Law firm or in-house corporate legal department experience.
              • Minimum 10 years' operations experience, preferably in a legal or compliance environment, consulting or project management preferred.
              • Strong collaboration skills, with an ability to establish relationships both within a team and across external departments.
              • Strong negotiator with internal and external collaborators/vendors.
              • Ability to influence within different parts of the organization.
              • Ability to identify, define requirements and implement process improvement.
              • Proactive, entrepreneurial approach to recognizing needs, solving problems, anticipating issues and developing solutions; excellent business judgment and critical thinking.
              • Skills in sound judgment, problem solving, critical thinking and interpersonal communication.
              • Attention to detail with excellent time management and multitasking/prioritization abilities.
              • Strong proficiency in Microsoft Office including Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Word.
              • Proven ability to manage multiple concurrent projects and responsibilities.
              • Solid understanding of finance and accounting.
              • Experience in developing reports that not only advise but drive decision making and action.
              • Experience in workflow automation tools, matter management, E-billing, and document management strongly preferred.The successful candidate for this job may be required to verify that he or she has been vaccinated against COVID-19, subject to reasonable accommodations for individuals with medical conditions or religious beliefs that prevent vaccination, and in accordance with applicable law.Equal Employment OpportunityBaxter is an equal opportunity employer. Baxter evaluates qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, protected veteran status, disability/handicap status or any other legally protected characteristic. Reasonable AccommodationsBaxter is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities globally. If, because of a medical condition or disability, you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application or interview process, please click on the here and let us know the nature of your request along with your contact information.Recruitment Fraud NoticeBaxter has discovered incidents of employment scams, where fraudulent parties pose as Baxter employees, recruiters, or other agents, and engage with online job seekers in an attempt to steal personal and/or financial information. To learn how you can protect yourself, review our . 099637

Keywords: Baxter Healthcare, Arlington Heights , Director, Legal Operations, Legal , Deerfield, Illinois