Warner Bros. Entertainment

Director, Legal Operations


Pay$109900.00 - $204100.00 / year
LocationNew York/New York
Employment typeFull-Time

This job is now closed

  • Job Description

      Req#: R000074402

      Every great story has a new beginning, and yours starts here.

      Welcome to Warner Bros. Discovery… the stuff dreams are made of.

      Who We Are…

      When we say, “the stuff dreams are made of,” we’re not just referring to the world of wizards, dragons and superheroes, or even to the wonders of Planet Earth. Behind WBD’s vast portfolio of iconic content and beloved brands, are the storytellers bringing our characters to life, the creators bringing them to your living rooms and the dreamers creating what’s next…

      From brilliant creatives, to technology trailblazers, across the globe, WBD offers career defining opportunities, thoughtfully curated benefits, and the tools to explore and grow into your best selves. Here you are supported, here you are celebrated, here you can thrive.

      Your New Role

      Our Legal Operations department is dedicated to supporting the Warner Bros. Discovery legal team, and we are seeking a dynamic leader with a passion for legal billing and budget management. This team leader plays an essential role in operationalizing and delivering on critical company initiatives that impact our legal department and beyond.

      The Director, Legal Ops is a leadership opportunity centered around ebilling enablement, Preferred Counsel Program adoption, harmonizing of our vendors across our legal department, and providing productive reporting to meet our financial goals. This lead will redevelop and streamline our legal billing processes for one WBD. This lead and their team will be responsible for collaboratively managing our outside counsel and vendor relationships while optimizing cost and efficiency.

      This leadership role will also support the organization's business and tactical planning items. The responsibilities include prioritizing the organization's critical work tasks that align with WBD Legal's goals and objectives and key strategic legal initiatives and driving and managing key priorities. This role is a member of multiple task forces and process management teams to ensure overall organizational success with the ability to recommend actions to direct the analysis and solutions of problems. This role communicates to leaders, clients, vendors, and employees. In addition, this role supervises various aspects of the development and implementation of assigned projects and provides a single point of contact for those projects.

      Your Role Accountabilities

      • Oversight of Legal Billing: Primary focus on billing strategy, team management, process improvement, financial analysis, systems and tools, and collaboration. Develop and execute the WBD legal strategy that will include identifying opportunities to streamline and enhance billing processes, leverage technology and automation to improve efficiency and accuracy. Work closely with the team to troubleshoot obstacles and serve as an escalation point and subject matter expert. Collaborate with other departments such as finance, legal leadership, and administrative teams to align billing practices with overall business objectives. Responsible for analyzing billing data and trends to provide insights. Oversee the implementation and maintenance of a consolidated ebilling platform. Generate regular reports on billing performance, outstanding invoices, and present findings to senior leadership.

      • Preferred Counsel Program: Program management of all existing firms and manage expansion of qualifying new firms. Manage discounts, billing relationships, Outside Counsel Guidelines.

      • Budget Management Reporting: Develop routine reporting standards and cadences to provide productive outside counsel and vendor spend to GC and SMT to better manage and forecast spend to budget

      • Project Management: Determine and roll out new process improvements as a function of legal operations. Intercept new initiatives from legal SMT and General Counsel.

      Qualifications & Experience

      • 7+ years of relevant experience in managing a Legal Operations department or function at a law firm or in-house corporation

      • Working experience with CounselLink, SAP, eCounsel, iManage

      • Experience leading process improvement initiatives

      • Experience with Legal billing strongly preferred

      • Bachelor's degree required

      • Strong leadership skills and general management orientation, including management of personnel located in different territories and time zones

      • Demonstrated critical thinking strong problem-solving skills – navigates effectively through difficult issues, builds required consensus to drive business needs and results.

      • High results orientation and able to effectively juggle and prioritize many competing demands – high tolerance to effectively manage change.

      • Team oriented – approachable and viewed as coach and mentor to others.

      • An entrepreneurial spirit and passion for working in a dynamic environment

      • Strong work ethic and proven ability to multi-task and set priorities

      • Exceptional communication, analytical and writing skills

      • Ability and desire to work both autonomously but also collaboratively

      How We Get Things Done…

      This last bit is probably the most important! Here at WBD, our guiding principles are the core values by which we operate and are central to how we get things done. You can find them at www.wbd.com/guiding-principles/ along with some insights from the team on what they mean and how they show up in their day to day. We hope they resonate with you and look forward to discussing them during your interview.

      The Legal Bits…

      In compliance with local law, we are disclosing the compensation, or a range thereof, for roles in locations where legally required. Actual salaries will vary based on several factors, including but not limited to external market data, internal equity, location, skill set, experience, and/or performance. Base pay is just one component of Warner Bros. Discovery’s total compensation package for employees. Pay Range: $109,900.00 - $204,100.00 salary per year. Other rewards may include annual bonuses, short- and long-term incentives, and program-specific awards. In addition, Warner Bros. Discovery provides a variety of benefits to employees, including health insurance coverage, an employee wellness program, life and disability insurance, a retirement savings plan, paid holidays and sick time and vacation.

      Warner Bros. Discovery embraces the opportunity to build a workforce that reflects the diversity of our society and the world around us. Being an equal opportunity employer means that we take seriously our responsibility to consider qualified candidates on the basis of merit, without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, mental or physical disability, and genetic information, marital status, citizenship status, military status, protected veteran status or any other category protected by law.

      If you’re a qualified candidate with a disability and you need a reasonable accommodation in order to apply for this position, please contact us at recruitadmin@wbd.com.
  • About the company

      WARNER BROS. is a global leader in all forms of entertainment and their related businesses across all current and emerging media and platforms. A WarnerMedia Company, the fully integrated, broad-based Studio is home to one of the most successful collections of brands in the world and stands at the forefront of every aspect of the entertainment industry from feature film, television and home entertainment production and worldwide distribution to DVD and Blu-ray, digital distribution, animation, comic books, video games, product and brand licensing, and broadcasting.