Director, Legal Operations

About InterDigital

About InterDigital InterDigital develops mobile and video technologies that are at the core of devices, networks, and services worldwide. We solve many of the industry's most critical and complex technical challenges, inventing solutions for more efficient broadband networks, better video delivery, and richer multimedia experiences years ahead of market deployment. InterDigital has licenses and strategic relationships with many of the world's leading technology companies. Founded in 1972, InterDigital is listed on NASDAQ and is included in the S&P MidCap 400® index.

Position Summary

The Head of Legal Operations will be based at InterDigital’s headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware (part of the greater Philadelphia metropolitan region) and will include travel to other InterDigital sites in the U.S. and Europe. The successful candidate will drive InterDigital’s efforts to enhance legal operational efficiency and business processes for the global legal department, activate and lead a global outside counsel management program, lead the identification, selection, and implementation of tools and technology, partner with the patents team to manage the costs of our extensive patent portfolio, serve in a chief of staff capacity to the Chief Legal Officer (CLO) (for example, supporting leadership team meetings, town halls and support for board of director and associated governance meetings), and lead a core team of legal operations professionals. The successful candidate will combine their significant operational, administrative, financial, M&A integration and/or project management expertise with an understanding of patent-related and other legal processes to accomplish these goals. This position will report directly to the CLO and work closely with other C-suite executives, members of the legal department as well as business partners in Finance, IT, HR, Licensing and other colleagues across the organization.

Responsibilities

Legal Operations

• Advise the Chief Legal Officer on operational and strategic aspects of running the Legal Department (Legal)
• Work with other members of Legal to develop process improvements leading to cost reductions and other efficiencies
• Lead and manage a global team of legal operations professionals primarily focused on supporting legal tools, technology and counsel management initiatives.
• Use data-centric metrics and analytics to develop recommendations to CLO designed to maximize resources and performance
• Provide guidance and advice across the organization as a member of multi-disciplinary project teams

Counsel Management

• Activate and implement a global outside counsel management program to harmonize the engagement, performance, improve efficiencies and reduce costs associated with the use of external legal resources
• Optimize and enhance the use of legal spend management and matter management technology, including harmonization of internal business process management and tools to enhance efficiency, decision making and reduce costs
• Work with internal counsel, external law firms and benchmarking data to manage outside counsel performance and spend

Financial Management

• Serve as Legal’s primary liaison with the company’s Finance Department
• Partner closely with Finance business partners and FP&A team to manage budgeting, forecasting and budget variance analysis for Legal
• Work closely with the General Patent Counsel and Head of Portfolio Strategy to meet budget targets for the prosecution and maintenance of InterDigital’s patent portfolio
• Support and guide strategic short-term and long-term projects focused on efficient use of internal and external legal resources
• Gather, maintain and provide relevant departmental data and reports for the company’s valuation model

Information Technology

• Serve as Legal’s primary liaison with the company’s Information Technology Department (IT)
• Partner with IT to assess, choose, deploy and maintain the appropriate information systems, programs and tools to support knowledge management and run legal operations
• Partner with IT to develop and implement dashboards and reporting to support enhanced information sharing and decision making

Chief of Staff

• Support the CLO in a chief of staff capacity, including for example, developing and leading department town halls and legal leadership team planning and off-site meetings
• Provide support for the development and creation of materials to support board of director meetings as well as associated governance meetings
• Serve as a member of the legal leadership team to provide general leadership and support across the global department to promote strong internal departmental communications, strong team performance and team member well-being

HR and Integration

• Serve as Legal’s point person with the company’s Human Resources Department (HR) with respect to departmental hiring, onboarding and development opportunities
• integration of legal functions in the context of M&A and associated team member integration
• Design and execute integration plans for legal functions

Required Experience

• At least 5 years of relevant legal operations experience within a large corporate legal department or other professional legal environment and at least 7 years of other relevant work experience
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent is required
• JD, MBA, or Master’s degree in an accounting, financial, operations, administration, or project management discipline is preferred
• Experience in a patent intensive business is preferred
• A solid combination of operational, financial, and business acumen and a demonstrated ability to utilize data, metrics and analytics to design, implement and manage process improvements, personnel optimization and administrative and operational efficiency.
• Demonstrated ability to act as a change agent
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively across all levels of global, multi-functional teams
• Strong collaboration skills and the ability to build relationships within department and across all members of the company
• Experience leading a team, with cross-functional team leadership and experience leading a team members in other locations, within and outside of the US, preferred
• Experience integrating legal functions within the context of M&A.
• Self-starter willing to both handle and manage assigned projects and tasks, as appropriate
• Strong attention to detail and facility with numbers and financial tools
• Excellent oral and written communication skills
• Strong work ethic and excellent organizational skills
• Personable and a team player

InterDigital is committed to a policy of Equal Employment Opportunity and will not engage in or tolerate unlawful discrimination against an applicant or employee on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, immigrant status, military status, veteran status, sex, sexual orientation, gender (including gender identity and/or expression), pregnancy, age, physical or mental disability, genetic information, atypical heredity cellular or blood trait, marital status, family status, domestic partner or civil union status or any other legally recognized protected basis under federal, state or local laws, regulations or ordinances. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including, but not limited to, hiring, compensation, benefits, training, assignments, evaluations, coaching, promotion, discipline, discharge and layoff.