The role is designed for a sophisticated operator who can combine strong client-service instincts with data fluency, sound judgment, and the ability to influence partners and internal stakeholders. The Client Manager will not replace matter-level legal judgment or relationship-partner accountability; rather, they will create the operating cadence, management of information, consistency, escalation pathways, adherence to client policies and preferences, and follow-through needed to manage the relationship at scale.
Key Responsibilities
Integrated Client Operations, Governance, and Strategic Initiatives
Establish and maintain client-specific governance frameworks, including matter setup standards, billing protocols, task-code structures, timekeeper authorization processes, client data requirements, and operational controls.
Coordinate client-specific outside counsel programs, including onboarding, training, guideline communication, attorney compliance monitoring, knowledge management resources, and operational support for client’s legal-service portfolio.
Design and continuously improve client reporting systems, dashboards, data structures, workflows, and reconciliation processes to provide actionable portfolio-level visibility across budgets, forecasts, fee arrangements, matter performance, and legal spend.
Lead strategic client initiatives involving legal operations, process improvement, technology adoption, artificial intelligence, reporting modernization, data analytics, and service-delivery innovation.
Develop and maintain client knowledge-management resources, including playbooks, onboarding and training materials, reporting templates, operational documentation, and centralized repositories of client requirements and relationship intelligence.
Serve as the operational quarterback across firm departments, coordinating stakeholders and driving accountability for client-service initiatives, process improvements, compliance requirements, and strategic priorities.
Staffing and Resource Management
Partner with relationship shareholder to support staffing across the client portfolio.
Maintain visibility into current and anticipated client demand, including transaction pipelines, recurring workstreams, seasonal volume, deal closings, related milestones, and anticipated staffing pressure points.
Develop and maintain a real-time or regularly refreshed staffing dashboard.
Facilitate onboarding of new timekeepers and ensure that lawyers assigned to the account understand the client’s business, service expectations, billing rules, technology requirements, and preferred ways of working.
Billing, Pricing, and Financial Management
Partner with Finance, Pricing, Billing, e-Billing, Innovation, and matter teams to improve the accuracy, timeliness, predictability, and client acceptability of bills.
Review billing trends and exceptions to identify recurring issues.
Work with partners and matter teams to establish matter budgets, phase plans, assumptions, staffing models, and fee estimates at matter inception or at agreed milestones.
Client Relationship Operations
Organize and support regular internal account-team meetings and, where appropriate, joint meetings with the client’s legal, procurement, finance, real estate, and legal-operations stakeholders.
Establish clear escalation protocols for service concerns, staffing bottlenecks, budget deviations, billing problems, deadline risk, or client dissatisfaction.
Coordinate internal follow-up after client feedback sessions, panel reviews, annual reviews, RFPs, convergence events, or legal-operations meetings.
Matter Management and Process Improvement
Work with matter teams and legal project managers to introduce scalable, client-specific matter-management practices.
Promote consistent use of engagement letters, matter plans, budgets, staffing plans, closing checklists, status reporting, precedent libraries, templates, technology tools, and post-matter reviews.
Help create matter-intake and triage protocols that direct work to the appropriate legal team, office, staffing level, or delivery model.
Real Estate Sector Coordination
Develop a working understanding of the client’s real estate business model, portfolio, asset classes, capital structure, investment strategy, transaction lifecycle, and operating environment.
Coordinate across relevant firm capabilities
Help anticipate legal-resource needs associated with the client’s investment and transaction pipeline, including cross-border, multi-jurisdictional, and multidisciplinary matters.
Pro Bono, Community, and Training Initiatives
Coordinate pro bono, charitable, volunteer, and community-engagement initiatives associated with the client relationship, working with the firm’s Pro Bono, Community Engagement, and relevant client teams.
Identify opportunities for lawyers to develop client knowledge and gain exposure through training, account-team activities, pro bono work, community programs, and client-facing initiatives.
Qualifications
Skills & Competencies
Candidates must possess the following skills and/or attributes
Demonstrated ability to manage complex, high-value client relationships involving multiple senior stakeholders, practice areas, offices, and matters.
Experience working with billing, e-billing, financial reporting, legal project management, business-intelligence, or resource-management tools.
Excellent written, presentation, facilitation, and executive-communication skills.
Strong judgment, discretion, and ability to handle sensitive client, personnel, financial, and relationship information.
Demonstrated ability to influence senior lawyers and business professionals without direct reporting authority.
Exceptional organization, attention to detail, and ability to prioritize competing deadlines in a fast-moving environment.
Education & Prior Experience
Bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional experience.
Approximately 5–7+ years of relevant experience in legal operations, law-firm client management, legal project management, pricing, finance, business of law, consulting, real estate operations, or a comparable professional-services environment.
Experience supporting a major real estate, private equity, real estate investment manager, REIT, lender, developer, institutional investor, or similarly complex financial-services client.
Experience within an AmLaw, global, or other sophisticated law firm; in-house legal operations experience is also highly relevant.
Familiarity with real estate transaction workflows, including acquisitions, dispositions, financings, joint ventures, leasing, development, and portfolio management.
Experience with client panel management, convergence programs, preferred-provider relationships, RFPs, outside-counsel guidelines, or legal spend management.
Legal project management certification, Lean/Six Sigma training, MBA, JD, or comparable financial/project-management credentials.
Technology
Strong computer skills including advanced proficiency using Microsoft Office (Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint)
One Note and Visio experience a plus
High degree of comfort using and learning new computer software
Experience using firm-approved AI tools (e.g., Copilot, ChatGPT, or similar platforms) to support professional and managerial work, applying judgment to validate outputs and maintain accountability for final deliverables.
Models and promotes responsible AI use, including the adoption of emerging AI technologies, emphasizing privacy, confidentiality, and appropriate human oversight.
Physical Requirements
While performing the duties of this job, the employee is occasionally required to move from their workstation or desk throughout the work area to work independently or with a team to meet with colleagues or supervisor and retrieve work assignments.
This position may also be sedentary and require the employee to sit for extended periods of time.
Requires manual dexterity to use a phone, enter data into a computer, handle objects, and use office equipment.


The expected pay range for this position is:
Los Angeles: $146,800 to $157,322 per year

Actual pay will be adjusted based on experience, location, and other job-related factors permitted by law. Full time employees may be eligible for a discretionary bonus, health insurance with an optional HSA, short term disability, long term disability, dental insurance, vision care, life insurance, Healthcare and Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts, 401K, vacation, sick time, and an employee assistance program. Additional voluntary programs include: voluntary accident insurance, voluntary life, voluntary disability, voluntary critical illness and cancer insurance and pet insurance. Commuter and Transit programs may also be available in certain markets.

We will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records and will conduct a criminal background check if a conditional offer is extended in a manner consistent with applicable federal, state, and local laws. This is applicable to the California Fair Chance Act, Los Angeles and San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, and the Philadelphia Fair Chance Hiring Law for Employers.
 GT is an EEO employer with an inclusive workplace committed to merit-based consideration and review without regard to an individual’s race, sex, or other protected characteristics and to the principles of non-discrimination on any protected basis.
