Innovation & Transformation Manager

The world’s leading organizations and global players choose Proskauer to represent them when they need it the most. With 900+ lawyers in key financial centers around the world, we are known for our pragmatic and business-savvy approach. 

Proskauer is the place to turn when a matter is complex, innovative and game-changing. We work seamlessly across practices, industries and jurisdictions with asset managers, private equity and venture capital firms, Fortune 500 and FTSE companies, major sports leagues, entertainment industry legends and other industry-redefining companies.

We are seeking an Innovation & Transformation Manager (Private Investment Funds) to join our team in New York or Boston. Innovation & Transformation is Proskauer's function for innovation, transformation, legal technology enablement, and continuous improvement, responsible for delivering governed, adopted, and measurable change across practices, matters, and regions. You will serve as the central point of contact between the function and the practice, working directly with lawyers to shape the roadmap, prioritize demand, and deliver practice-facing change end-to-end. You will lead, shape, deliver, and embed; you will partner with practice group leaders, lawyers, and colleagues across the firm; and you will play a leading role in a function that is reshaping how Proskauer operates.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the central point of contact between Innovation & Transformation and the practice, attending practice meetings and forums on a regular basis, acting as a trusted partner to lawyers at all levels, including practice group leaders, to surface unmet needs and shape opportunities, and keeping stakeholders apprised of Innovation & Transformation initiatives that affect them.
• Develop and maintain a practice-aligned innovation and transformation roadmap, translating practice priorities into a prioritized portfolio of legal technology, process improvement, and operational excellence that improves matter lifecycle management, knowledge reuse, client collaboration, and matter execution.
• Lead the identification, framing, and shaping of practice demand through interviews, workshops, and process mapping, translating lawyer needs into clear requirements, use cases, and solution specifications for the function to deliver against.
• Lead legal service transformation with the practice, redesigning workflows, matter delivery models, and ways of working to improve how lawyers deliver for clients.
• Lead the practice-facing execution of pilots and rollouts, including practice sponsorship, user recruitment, stakeholder communication, testing, adoption, and reinforcement of new tools, processes, and ways of working, with measurable outcomes tied to practice goals and initiatives visible to the function's leadership.
• Lead the practice's adoption of AI, including use-case identification, pilot governance, responsible-use enablement, and sustained adoption with lawyers in the assigned scope.
• Support practice-led client engagement on innovation and transformation topics, including client-facing materials, showcases, and client requests originating from the practice, and provide practice subject matter input into responses to Outside Counsel Guidelines, RFPs, and Technology Strategy Committee requests, coordinated through the function's standing triage.
• Own practice-level adoption, benefits, and measurement, reviewing performance with the function and acting with practice stakeholders to address any underperformance and sustain value from delivered work.
• Collaborate with colleagues from across Innovation & Transformation and the wider firm, including Practice Management, Knowledge Management, BD/Marketing, Procurement, Security, and IT, where practice work depends on their authority, expertise, or systems.
• Ensure practice-specific use of tools complies with firmwide security, privacy, and compliance standards, and escalate any concerns to Innovation & Transformation and the appropriate firm functions.
• Provide line management to direct reports where required, including day-to-day supervision, coaching, performance oversight, and development, and contribute to the wider development of Specialists across the function.
• Working flexibly across the function to support firm priorities as they emerge, providing cover and clean handovers for teammates, and responding promptly to inbound requests, escalating where a decision is required at a more senior level.

Qualifications

• Legal qualification (JD or equivalent), prior practice experience, or equivalent experience working at the intersection of legal practice, technology, innovation, and transformation.
• Experience with Private Investment Funds, Private Equity, Global Finance, or comparable transactional practice preferred, with a deep understanding of transaction processes and common challenges faced by lawyers and clients.
• Demonstrated experience in legal innovation, legal operations, legal technology, or process improvement, including evaluating and implementing tools such as generative AI, document automation, data rooms, due diligence platforms, and knowledge systems.
• Experience leading adoption, change management, and sustained behavioral change for technology-enabled or process-led transformation.
• Exceptional communication, presentation, and stakeholder influence at partner, executive, and firm-leadership level, with strong project management skills, a growth mindset, and a passion for learning, experimentation, and continuous improvement.
• Self-starter who is organized, detail-oriented, and comfortable managing competing priorities in a fast-paced, matrixed function, with sound judgment, ownership mindset, and absolute discretion when dealing with confidential matters.

This position will require physical presence in Proskauer’s offices on a regular basis (at least 3x per week, or more, if it becomes the policy of the Firm or as business needs require). The anticipated compensation for this position is $150,000 - $180,000. The actual salary offered will be based on a number of factors, including but not limited to the qualifications of the applicant, years of relevant experience, level of education attained, certifications or other professional licenses held, and if applicable, the location in which the applicant lives and/or from which they will be performing the job.

Proskauer is committed to providing a work environment that includes equal opportunity without regard to race, color, gender, age, creed, sex, religion, national origin, disability (physical or mental), marital status, citizenship, ancestry, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, or any other legally protected status.