Client Manager
Los Angeles, CA - USA
Job Summary
Greenberg Traurig (GT) a global law firm with locations around the world in 15 countries has an exciting employment opportunity for you. We offer competitive compensation and an excellent benefits package along with the opportunity to work within an innovative and collaborative environment.
Join our Marketing Team as a Client Manager located in our Los Angeles or Atlanta office.
We are seeking a highly skilled professional who thrives in a fast-paced deadline-driven environment. The ideal candidate possesses strong problem-solving and challenges with confidence and resilience. Excellent communication skills are essential for collaborating effectively across teams and delivering exceptional client service. With a client-focused mindset and an initiative-taking approach you will play a critical role in driving success anticipating needs and providing strategic solutions. If you are someone who demonstrates initiative adaptability and innovation we invite you to join our team.
This role will be based in either our Atlanta or Los Angeles office. Regular in-office presence is required for day-to-day operations as well as for team meetings training opportunities and relationship building. This role reports to the Director of Marketing.
Position Summary
The Client Manager is a client-service and operations role supporting Kayne Anderson Real Estate. Working closely with the relationship shareholder and Co-Chair of Global Real Estate the Client Manager will support GTs strategic and expanding client relationship with Kayne Aderson Real Estate acting as the central point of operational coordination across legal teams practice groups finance pricing billing matter intake innovation marketing technology and firm leadership. The Client Manager helps ensure that the client receives consistently staffed financially disciplined transparent and commercially aligned legal service.
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 clients 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 clients 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 clients 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 clients 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 clients 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 firms 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
- Bachelors degree or equivalent professional experience.
- Approximately 57 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.
GT is an EEO employer with an inclusive workplace committed to merit-based consideration and review without regard to an individuals race sex or other protected characteristics and to the principles of non-discrimination on any protected basis.
Required Experience:
Manager
About Company
Greenberg Traurig, LLP has more than 2750 attorneys in 48 locations in the United States, Europe and the Middle East, Latin America, and Asia. The firm is a 2022 BTI “Highly Recommended Law Firm” for superior client service and is consistently among the top firms on the Am Law Global ... View more